Upcycle a door into a kid’s storage bench. ‣ MyFixitUpLife

By Mark Design How-to Make it Mark's blog OurFixitUpLife Painting Upcycle

Let’s upcycle a door into a cozy entry-way bench for kids.

Let's repurpose an old door into a cool, custom kid's corner bench! — Lets upcycle a door into a cool custom kids corner bench

Upcycle a door into another use? Yes!

We rescued an 100-year-old 5-panel door from demise. With no opening to hang it in, it needed a new purpose in life.

So why not repurpose that bad boy into a bench? And bling it with some color it never had before? No reason, that’s why. So we set out to turn a door into a super cool kid’s bench. It’ll have cool, secret stashes for mom and dad and get kicked up with glad, Glidden colors.

Here’s the upcycle a door how-to from carpentry to color.

Glidden upcycle — The door the door before that could be so much more

Tools

You can do this upcycle project with just a few tools. I’m a professional carpenter, so I think nothing of having a million tools at my disposal. But this one doesn’t require all of them.

I suppose you could do the whole thing with a cordless drill and circular saw, but I got some extra mileage out of the table saw. A straight-edge and a few clamps got some camera time too!

How-to

Old paint must go. Far and away, orders of magnitude, and double-wow-factor the fastest and easiest way I have ever removed an old finish is using my Hyde hand scraper. Teamed up with the Hyde bent metal pry-bar and 2-inch putty knife, it was like Terminator: Genisys on the peeling paint. Better than chemicals, power tools and paying a lot of money for dip and strip.

Mark

A licensed contractor, tool expert, wood and outdoor enthusiast, and elite Spartan Race competitor, he writes about home improvement and tools for national magazines and websites, and teaches hands-on clinics for other remodeling professionals. Check out his book, The Carpenter's Notebook.

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