How To Convert Bi-Fold Doors To French Doors In 10 Easy Steps
What’s up guys? It’s Dave here, today! We’ve been putting in lots of work on our guest room lately. We started with our DIY Herringbone Feature wall, moved on to our DIY Guest Room Headboard and now it’s time for the next and final (for a while, anyway) major project for this room — the closet. It was time for a complete makeover on these babies and today I’ll show you exactly how we did it!
The original closets, the left one in particular, had some major issues. While I think closet shelving is a great idea the previous job was basically incomplete and sloppily done. Some of these shelves weren’t even screwed in! If you’re going to jump into a DIY home improvement project, the rule number one is that make sure it doesn’t LOOK like you did it yourself. But if you know me, you know I’m all about the DIY life myself so I’ll be removing the previous shelving and mounts to install brand new closet organizers.
With this project we’ve made a conscientious effort to keep the guest bedroom design neutral from the get-go. We want it to feel cozy and inviting to our guests when they come to visit and I feel we’ve totally nailed that feeling. That being said, we felt that there should be a small surprise in the closets aesthetically. We wanted to add what I like to call a “part time color.” This is a color that’s always in the room but isn’t always seen and in this room, the part-time color will be on the back wall of the closet. Since the doors are closed most of the time it won’t have as large of an impact on the room’s aesthetic. I’ve found that this is a great way to be a little bold. We didn’t do anything too extreme however, and opted for a beautiful shade of blue and painted the sides the same color as the other walls in the room.
The bi-doors are fully functional but they don’t fit the vibe of the room. We wanted to switch those bi-fold doors out for craftsman style French doors and after shopping around, we discovered the lowest option was around $200 each.
Knowing we’d need four of those, I realized I didn’t want to pay roughly $900 for guest room closet doors so naturally, I decided to make them.
Before we get started here is a list of tools and supplies we will need:
Cut List
(4) 24” x 80” Doors
1” x 4’ Trim Boards
1” x 6’ Baseboards
Tools & Supplies
Miter (or Circular) Saw
Measuring tape
Drill
Drill bits
Nail gun
Router
Clamps: You can substitute the clamps with any flat, heavy objects like thick books or bricks
Crowbar
Caulking gun
Nails
Wood glue
Wood filler
Sand paper
Prep
I started off by completely stripping both closets. I removed the doors, shelving, baseboards and all of the trimming. Next, I patched and filled the exposed holes, taped and painted the walls. Instead of building the new shelves from scratch we bought closet organizers from Home Depot. It proved to be a much quicker process and the cost difference alone was worth the time the shelves required to install. It took me roughly 45 minutes to install the first and the second was even quicker since I’d become familiar with the process.
Instructions
- Measure and Cut Trim Pieces to Fit Door(s): Starting with the longest boards — measure, cut, and place them onto the base and then measure the space between them. The length should be the same for every middle piece on the door.
Helpful Tips
My doors were about a quarter inch too wide for my frame so I had to trim 1/8 inch off of each door. Please, please, PLEASE remember to measure your frame to be sure you are absolutely positive of its width. Also, trim your doors to size BEFORE you move to step two.
- Glue, Clamp, and Nail Outer Frame: Now that your trim pieces have been cut and measured, attach them to the base focusing only on the outer frame. After gluing the bottom of the trim, nail the pieces in and clamp them down until the glue is dry.
- Install Hinges: Mark 7 inches from the top and 11 inches from the bottom of the door. This is where your hinges will go. Split the difference for the middle hinge if you choose to add a third.
I bought a Hinge Maker Kit from Home Depot which would’ve been great except the door was too wide so I had to freestyle. It took a little longer since I had to be more careful but it was pretty easy, overall. Here is how I worked around my dilemma: Placing hinges at the markings, I traced around the hinges with a pencil. Next, I set my router to the depth of the hinge and carefully cut out the shape. This worked just fine for what I needed.
- Hang Doors: Place a 1x4 trim piece on the floor and place the door on top. Starting at the top and working your way down, line up your hinges level and screw them in. If there are no holes existing holes, you'll need to drill your own using a 1/8 drill bit.
- Place the Remaining Trim: Once the doors have been hung you can move on to the trim. Be sure the trim is level and the same height all the way across and proceed to glue and nail. Make sure to catch the glue drippings before they dry because it's a pain to remove glue once it dries.
- Wood-fill Holes: Once the door’s shape is completely constructed, remove them again in order to finish the last few steps. Using a small amount of wood filler, rub it over any holes created from the nail gun and anywhere two pieces of wood connect. I used Plastic Wood by Dap but if you have a preferred filler that should work as well.
- Sand Doors: Once the wood filler has dried lightly sand the wood filled holes using a hand sander with 100 grit paper. If you don't have a sander, you can use the grit paper and do it manually with a little elbow grease! After you've covered its entirety, switch to 150 grit sandpaper and repeat.
- Paint Doors: Using a sprayer or a roller, paint your closet doors. Since a hand brush will lead to a streaky finish, I'd suggest using a brush for the corners only. Our doors required three coats of Behr Marquee in Creamy Mushroom because they absorbed so much paint.
- Replace and paint trim around frame: Like the rest of the guest room, we'll be replacing the previous style of trim around the doors with a simpler craftsman style. Measure the the door frame height on each side of the doorway and Miter it 45 degrees. Next, measure across the top to get the width of the frame for your top piece. Miter cut 45 degrees on each side so that it will fit between your other two trim pieces. Center, level and fasten the top piece first. Once fastened, level and fasten the left and right trim pieces as well. Next, take your wood filler and fill these holes following the same method used for the door. Lastly, paint the cault and trim around the door.
- Re-hang and Install Hardware: Now that your trim is installed, it’s time to reinstall the doors and hardware. After hanging the doors, attach the closet door catches. To accomplish this, you'll need to step inside the closet, close the doors and mark the spot where the door to comes to when fully closed. Also make a mark on the door so you know where they line up to each other and screw both pieces into place. They should now remain closed when you close them. Once you have installed the door catches the final step is to install your door handles. Decide where you’d like to place your handles and make sure they are level and mark the locations. Drill a hole through the door and insert the door handle. After tightening both a washer and nut on the back, you're all done!
Our Brand New DIY French Closet Doors
Although this took a good bit of time it was well worth it in the end. If I had to do this over again, I still I wouldn't even think about hiring an outside company to do this and now you don’t have to either! We saved ourselves a few thousand dollars and still were able to get exactly what we wanted.