Stunning Hollow Door Upgrade for Less Than $20

Prior to us living in our home, several doors had been taken off various rooms of our home. My son’s bedroom was one of them, and while many of the doors were found, this one was not. Our solution was to buy and upgrade an inexpensive hollow door from Home Depot using some trim and paint.

Make Sure the Door Fits the Frame

Our first step was to cut the hollow door down to the height we needed and hang it on Wyatt’s door frame to make sure it was going to function properly. Good thing we did because the door frame is slightly crooked and I had to gradually sand down one edge of the door nearly 1/8″ to make it work! If your doors are already hung in your home and you just want to upgrade them, then you can obviously skip this process.

Supplies Needed

• Hollow door (mine is 78″ tall by 30″ wide)
• Moulding/Trim (4 – 22″ pieces, 2 – 36″ pieces, 2 – 29″ pieces)
• Liquid nails
• Masking tape
• Paint (I used Behr Silky White)
• Caulk (white)

Schlage Door Handle

Tools Required

• Caulk gun
• Miter saw (if cutting your own trim)
• Paint brush
• Small paint roller

Steps

1. With the door lying on a flat surface, measure and mark where the outside of the trim will go. Mine is 4″ in from the outer edges of the door. The lines will be helpful when the time comes to glue down the trim!

2. Cut all your trim pieces at 45 degree angles on both ends using a miter saw.

3. Lay the trim on the door to make sure you like how it looks and to make sure it all lines up correctly.

4. Cut the tip off the liquid nails tube and load it into the caulk gun. Apply the liquid nails to the back of the trim pieces in a wavy line, then glue the trim to the door.

5. Once all pieces are glued down, use masking tape to secure them tightly to the door to prevent the trim from moving while drying. *This was helpful in my case because the trim warped a little and did not want to stay down in one spot.*

6. This one is hard! Wait – for about 24 hours for the glue to completely dry.

7. Remove all the tape and begin caulking around all the pieces of trim. Cut the caulk tube at the smallest angle you can (I did 1/8″). Make sure to smooth it out with your finger as you go and have a paper towel handy because this can get messy! If any spots looks like they didn’t fill properly, go over them again.

**Don’t skip this step or do it halfheartedly because it gives the final look a very smooth finish and prevents any gaps between the trim and door.

8. Once the caulk has dried, you can begin painting. The caulk I used dried in 20 minutes, so I was able to begin painting almost immediately. I used two coats of Behr Silky White. I used a 2″ angled brush around all the trim and a 6″ paint roller for the rest.

9. Allow the paint to completely dry, then hang (or re-hang) the door.

I’m not sure if I’m more excited that Wyatt now has a door on his bedroom or with how well the door turned out.

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