Four Panel Doors

One of the features of this house that we liked very much was the four panel French doors.  The outside of these doors were painted white while the inside was painted brown.  As usual, our Contractor advised us to dispose of these doors, trying to convince us that we can't bring back the wood color, that if were to use them again, two of the doors had to be 'dead' doors meaning that it could not be opened.

It was a good thing that Hubby and myself were adamant.  For the past six months, all our weekends were spent sanding down the doors to wood grain.  We had to take the glass panels out, wipe them clean, buy new beading to fix them back and varnish the doors.  We even had to fix the grill ourselves, after ordering the grill from the grill contractors.  The sad part about these four panel French doors is that we had to fix grill, it sort of spoilt the beauty of the four panel French doors.

Here are the progress of our four panel French doors.

BEFORE : The four panel French door before the renovation

AFTER : The four panel French door after the renovation

The four panel French door after renovation, sand down to wood grain

Hired help varnishing the four panel French doors

The doors taken out and getting ready to sand down

The wood was sanded down to wood grain

Tried using paint remover to remove the white paint at  the beading area.
Not successful, so rather than waste time, we bought new beadings and fixed them.

A close up of the sanding down

Renovation Progress - Patio Door

If you've read our blog post here, we wanted to recycle and reuse the French doors at the existing house for our patio area which is also at the same location.  As usual, our Contractor had discourage us to reuse the door and advise us to buy new door, giving reason that it cannot be sand down to the original wood or that it would be expensive to re-varnish it.  

Because the doors are still in good condition and we felt that it adds character to the house.  And because hubby dearest was a DIY and handyman, he took the challenge.  

The French doors dismantled

Trying to remove the white paint to get the wood color

The wood is scratched when using the metal brush

So hubby uses a sander

Much better and faster

The difference between before and after sanding down

Because the glass edges could not be sand down using the machine, we tried using a paint remover

We applied the paint remover to the wood and waited for a while until it bubbled

But it was hard to remove the paint and it didn't come out 100%

Have to think of another solution on how to remove the paint