Old Door Love Part Two

Today I started on my "old door" project.  You might remember my musings on what to do with the old doors Daniel and I found randomly all in one week. I had never exactly decided, so working on it today was completely unexpected. I started by watering the plants, which led to washing my car, which led to spraying the old doors, which led to paint chipping off. And then I really got serious.

 

I love the way paint looks when it is chipped off in layers - the randomness, the contrast between the different colors. This old door has been painted a lot!

I started with a heavy jet stream from the hose to loosen what was already bubbled from age and used a paint scraper to remove that first. It came off easier than the sticker on a peanut butter jar!

When I was finished with everything that came easily, I scraped along all the edges, to give it a uniformly weathered look. Now since this door is old, there's a chance the paint could have lead. So I kept it very wet while working, and when everything dries I will vacuum up the chips while wearing a painting mask, and then fill the vacuum cleaner reservoir with water to dump it. This is my home-grown way of minimizing the chance of inhaling dust, but if you're going to try this I'm sure there are safer ways!

 The goal with this particular door is to add little white shelves with cast iron brackets and use it as a plant stand.I may eventually use a high gloss clear coat on the whole door, to keep it from rotting outside,

and to hold onto that wet, high gloss look!