Gaining some space

Most of us would love a little extra room in the house, am I right? I mean, we don’t personally need any more square footage in our house, but I do like making changes that make a room feel more spacious, you know?

I first blogged about my little obsession a few years ago (and I just realized I’ve been blogging for almost four years. That. is. crazy.)

Anyhoo, I have a bit of a problem. I keep taking down doors. Interior doors. Useless doors.

Doors that take up visual and actual space.

I did it in the laundry room:

We never ever ever closed that door. So I took it off. And it felt good. ;)

I’ve also taken down a door in the Bub’s bathroom, our master closet, two doors that open to the office and the one to our basement:

See? A problem.

I LOVE doing this. I feel like we gain space every time I do it. Usually the door just opens up against a wall like our laundry room, but sometimes it takes up tons of space, like the one to our basement.

It was always open, so I took down. It’s been years now and we don’t miss it one bit.

The only thing is, I’m left with some unfinished spots:

So what to do with those?

Obviously I’ve not been real worried about it, because every nekked doorway has sat like this for about three years. But slowly but surely, I’m making them look a bit better.

I actually came up with the solution when I made the Bub’s book nook:

I took that door down too, and wanted to cover up those not-so-pretty spots. My method worked perfectly, and I’m s.l.o.w.l.y. finishing up the other empty door frames around the house.

When I took the double doors off the office a while back, I was left with spots for the hinges and some eye sores up above:

I’ve seen some folks pull that middle piece of molding off the door jamb, fill the holes and paint it out, but that wouldn’t help much for this spot. And I wanted it to be easy to reverse if we ever move.

Instead, I cover them. With my trusty lattice wood strips that I use all over the place. (For a board and batten treatment and the pantry to name a couple projects.)

I just measure the length of each side, then nail them right over the hardware spots:

The lattice is almost the exact thickness of the door trim!

Then I put a piece along the top of the door jamb, again right over the holes.

I used a bunch of putty on the nail holes and along the sides, especially where the hinged areas were:

After it dried, I primed them once and then painted a couple times:

You can’t even tell doors once hung there!:

Only three more doorways to finish up. I should have gone to the basement door next, since more people see that spot, but I started the laundry instead:

It’s sat spackled and unpainted for two three months now. I’m not sure what’s better…unfinished wood with dried up spackle or big honkin’ holes. ;)

I like this option cause it’s cheap (each piece of lattice is $4 I think?) and if we ever move someday, I can pull them off with minimal effort.

Have you ever noticed the doors to each room are usually missing in model homes? It makes a big difference! Have you done this in your home? Try it out – just unscrew the door hinges and pull the door away. See how you like it!