Interior design: five things you can do with a discarded door

Should you come across an old discarded door that you find attractive, do not dismiss it because you do not need a door. Try to see it as other things. Here are five things you can do with a discarded door.

1. Add legs onto your door and turn it into a dining room table. You can purchase metal plates that attach to the tabletop from the hardware store, along table height legs that you screw the legs into. You may also need to purchase wood stain to make the legs match the door. If your door is carved, or has panels in it, have a piece of glass cut to fit the top of the table for a smooth surface.

2. Use the door as the top of your computer workstation. If you need a large workstation, place low file cabinets against the wall and use a door with a smooth surface as the top. Make sure the hole for the doorknob goes in the back so you can put the cords through it. Place the monitor, printer, and other heavy objects toward the back of your 'desk', over the file cabinets to keep your top from tipping over.

3. Turn your door into a headboard. Mount a rustic or heavily carved door onto the wall or build a simple frame around it and add two legs on which to stand the headboard. You can use a full six to seven foot door horizontally for a king-sized headboard, or cut off sections to make a headboard for your queen or full sized bed. For a twin-sized bed, you can make an elegant tall headboard by mounting it vertically at the head of the bed with the bottom of it resting on the floor.

4. Turn a set of doors into a standing floor screen. Attach two or three standard sized doors together with piano hinges. On a simple door, you can hand paint a scene or abstract design. You can embellish a carved door by adding gold leaf or paint to make the carving stand out more, or you can just clean and install it.

5. Use the door as a wall hanging. Large rooms call for large pieces of art. Take a plain door and use it as you would a blank canvas. Paint whatever you please on it from simple geometric lines and shapes to garden scenes. For an ornate door, you can distress or embellish it and mount it on the wall. A fun idea is to install the door so that it looks like the entry to a room, doorknob and all. When your friends and family pull on it, they will find out that there is no room behind the door.

However you decide to use your door, be sure to clean it and remove any old or chipped paint it as it could contain lead. Lead paint is hazardous and can cause brain damage if ingested by children and even inhaled by adults. For doors that have a hole where the doorknob was, you can cut a circle of plain wood to fit into the hole and stain the plug to match the door.