Family Command Center Using an Old Door

Hi All!!! Finally I have get to share our Family Command Center that we made from an old door. I say Finally because this project was one of those if something could go wrong it went terribly wrong. And I say we because it was because of my husband's help that our Command Center is now complete, thanks babe!!!

Remember when I made the Photo Door? After we finished the project my carpenter husband was hired to remove and install a new door for a client. He purchased the old door from the homeowners and brought it home and it has been sitting in the garage until now. I couldn't decide exactly what to do with it, there are tons of ideas out there for repurposing old doors.
We are the least organized people I know and that really bothers me. So, in an effort to help organize this family I decided we needed a family command center and the door would be perfect for that.
Again if you follow on Instagram you saw a pic a long time ago of me scraping or sanding this door, actually I think I posted a few different times. I had high hopes of having this door done before the Dino Party and then when that didn't happen I tried to make it happen before Sadie's 1st birthday which was a crazy idea because in that 2 weeks we tore apart our kitchen for phase 1 of our kitchen update. Whew!
So here she is before

Did I mention all the scraping and sanding I did? Just for the sake of "keepin it real" here- I spent countless hours scraping and sanding this side you see up there but knew if I painted over it the whole thing would look like crap. And I hate harsh chemicals so the idea of using some sort of stripper was out. So I dared to peek at the other side and it wasn't too bad so I scraped and sanded that side for the finished project. I'm talking lots of hours wasted on the first/wrong side. That's only the beginning of the difficulties I made for myself on this project.

 

After I was happy with the scraping and sanding I moved the door outside, and cleaned up the glass the best I could to paint the window panes with chalkboard paint. After several coats of that I took the door inside and waited a day before removing the painter's tape. Then I taped off the black chalkboard areas to paint the door white. After the door was painted I removed the tape and here is where things went wrong again. The white paint I used for the door seeped under the tape and the tape peeled off some of the chalkboard paint. So the door had to be taped off again and the panes sprayed again with chalkboard paint. GRRR!!! I thought it would be best to do the darker color 1st but it ended up not being the right way to do it.

Even minor little hiccups seemed to make this project take way longer than it should have. After the door and the panes were painted I cleaned the door handle and plate in vinegar to make them shine. Then added wire baskets I had purchased from Pick Your Plum, printed simple labels for the baskets and it was done.

 

One basket is for mail and the other is for all the schedules that we have going, so they are close at hand to keep the top of the door up to date with all of the goings on here. 

I may add some knobs or hooks to the sides around the panes for keys or a leash (sob, sob). School starts next week so this was perfect timing to test it out.

 

Thanks for stopping by At Home with Sweet T!!!

-Tracy

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