Dining Room Rehab: Updating the Glass Doors

As part of our dining room re-do, we wanted to update the glass doors on the furniture we bought on Craigslist. As a reminder - here's what they looked like when we started. Not the worst in the world, but definitely not the best either!

We looked at two options - either gluing wood pieces of molding to the existing glass, or creating an entirely new set of doors with new glass. We ultimately decided on the second option - putting wood frames around new pieces of glass. The first option probably would have been easier and less expensive, but we thought the results would have looked a little more DIY. So, we went with the harder, more expensive option and I'm really glad we did! I love how the new doors turned out.

We started with about a half dozen 1x2 inch x 6 feet oak boards. (TIP: at the hardware store, go through all the boards to get the straightest ones - there were some very warped boards there!) We cut the boards to size, making a 45 degree cut on each end. (And by "we", I really mean my dad, who was gracious enough to do all this work during his vacation while I watched and pretended to be helpful.)

We used my father-in-law's table saw to cut a groove down each board, wide enough to snugly accommodate the width of the new pieces of glass. There was quite a bit of math going on at this point, as we took into account the width of the boards, the size of the glass, and the depth of the groove to make sure it would fit into the space correctly.

We visited a local glass shop and had them cut four new pieces of glass for us. They were also the ones who were able to tell us that the existing glass was tempered and couldn't be re-purposed. I didn't know this, but apparently once glass has been tempered, it cannot be easily re-cut.

Once we had all the wood pieces cut and grooved, we applied a small line of silicone down the groove and slid the glass in place. We also put some wood glue in the corners and set everything with some corner clamps to make sure it was all square. After the glue had dried a bit, we hammered in some finishing nails in the corners and added L brackets for extra stability.

We picked up some new hinges and hung them in place and added some new knobs. All told, the project cost about $120 for the wood the glass and various supplies. But what a difference!

Now at this point, I still wasn't sure whether we were going to paint everything white or just stain the doors to match the wood finish. (I don't know what I was thinking!) So, if I had the foresight - or the decisiveness - we would have painted these boards before assembling the frames. It would have been easier in the long run. But we didn't. So they were painted after the fact.  How fascinating.

At that stage in the game, I was already in love. Four beautiful new doors completely updated for this century. But here's how they look now, with new paint, new knobs, new backing and lots of sparkling china.  I am in LOVE!