Dress up your sliding closet doors by covering them with fabric.
Add style to plain or dated sliding closet doors by covering them with a decorative fabric. The project won't work on louvered doors, but it's ideal for flat sliding doors with stained, painted or mirrored finishes. The change isn't permanent and it doesn't damage the doors. You can choose a new fabric when you redecorate, or return sliding doors in a rental to their original condition when you move. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Remove the doors from their tracks, according to the type. If you have guide brackets connected to the floor, unscrew them. Then, tilt the bottom of the door away from you before lifting it. For doors without bottom screws, lift each door straight up to pull it free from the bottom track. With the door raised, tilt the bottom toward you to release it from the top track.
2. Lay the doors on a flat surface, and then measure the length and width. Add 1 inch to the length and 1 inch to the width. Cut one piece of fabric per door to those measurements.
3. Pin 1/4-inch iron-on hem tape along the sides of each fabric panel on the wrong side of the fabric. Pin it with the edges aligned with the panels outer edges, and with the paper backing facing away from the fabric. Iron the hem tape to the fabric, according the manufacturer's instructions.
4. Remove the pins and the paper backing from the fused hem tape. Fold both sides of each panel to the wrong side of the fabric by 1/2 inch. Iron the fold to fuse the unattached side of the tape to the fabric, and to create crisp, finished hem.
5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 with the top and bottom of each fabric panel.
6. Pour liquid starch into a wallpaper tray. Fold each fabric panel into loose, width-wise accordion folds, and then dip the panels into the liquid starch one at a time.
7. Affix the starch-coated panels to the sliding doors while the fabric is still wet. Align all four edges of the panels with the doors. Smooth any wrinkles with a plastic, straight-edge wallpaper smoother, working out from the center in all directions. Let the starched fabric dry, which affixes it to the doors.
8. Lift the doors back into their top tracks, with the bottom tilted in the direction used to remove it. With the doors still raised, straighten them and lower them into the bottom tracks. Reattach the screws that connect the guide brackets to the floor, if you have them.
Tags: each fabric, each fabric panel, fabric panel, sliding doors, away from