We’re always looking for ways to update and upgrade our house with budget-friendly options. A subtle but important interior design element to any house is its interior doors. When we bought our house, we had cheap-o, hollow core, flat panel doors. While we knew we hated those, we also didn’t want to spend roughly $400 per door to replace them. That’s why we opted for a more affordable solution: the applied molding door hack. This is a very simple project that any DIYer can do. You’ll need:
- -1/4” ‘scribe molding’ (3/4”x ¼” strips)
- –Chop saw
- –18 gauge nail gun
- –Tape measure
- -Pencil
- –Wood fill
- -Sand paper
- -Paint-I used Sherwin William Agreeable Grey
- -New hardware- Ours were from Explore hardware-Soho doorknobs
Start off by pulling your doors off the hinges. For this we use a stiff putty knife and a hammer to pry and pop the hinge pins out. Next we want to use our tape measure and pencil to mark out where the trim will go. On our doors we came up 5” from the bottom edge, 5” down from the top edge, and 4” from either side. In the middle, we centered off of the door hardware and came up and down 2” to give us a 4” space in the middle. After marking out all of the lines, we use them to read the measurements for our ¼” molding. Using the chop saw, we miter (cut at a 45 degree angle) each piece so that they fall inside the pencil lines. Once everything is cut, we use our 18 gauge nail gun to nail each piece on. Once all of the pieces are on, we fill the nail holes with wood filler, sand off the dried excess, and prime and paint the doors.
From this point, we opted to switch out the door hardware to a more modern look. Once that’s on, rehang the door using the same hinges and you are all set. For a very affordable price and not too much work, you can update those interior doors and have your house looking great!
Here is a quick little video showing how to!
