Mark and I went on a salvage treasure hunt and found the perfect old pocket door for my dream headboard.  The story begins at Fellenz Architectural Antiques (439 North Euclid), with a father and son salvage team.  They rescued this beautiful old door and brought it to their shop in St. Louis, MO.   There were so many great architectural finds and rescues.  Each piece had a story, and with our purchase our doors’ story continued.

Taking an old door and breathing new life into it; changing it into a beautiful heirloom piece of furniture.  This was such a fun project and well worth the wait.  The headboard turned out even better than I imagined and it all started with an old door someone no longer wanted.

Mark drew out my design plan, transferring it from inspiration to paper.  We then went to our local lumber company and I selected wood trim and crown molding, which would create the detail to transform this door into a king sized headboard.

We removed some old damaged trim from the door so we would have a blank slate.  Mark squared up the door, because the bottom of the door had more space between the panels than the top.  Then we sanded the door so it was perfectly smooth and slightly routered the edges of the door.

He created two wooden legs, carefully measured so I would have the perfect headboard height.  He attached another piece of wood, to the back of the legs and the door, to reinforce the legs and widen the thickness so the side profile had more depth.  Another sanding so everything was smooth and there were no edges between the different pieces of wood.

Then he attached the crown molding and put blocking on the back of the crown molding for support.  He put a shelf on top of the crown, overlapping the shelf over the crown, so it was aesthetically pleasing and created another layer of trim and depth.  The back of the shelf was flush with the back of the door.  All edges were routered and a final sanding so the door was smooth and prepped for staining and a final coat of polyurethane.

I wanted the headboard to have a dark stain with a thick lacquered look.  I also wanted to coordinate with two bedside tables we already had.  I think it turned out perfect!  Thank you to my wonderful husband for completing this project!  A special shout out goes to our neighbor super Dave.  Thanks for lending us some garage space so we could have plenty of room to work.

Margarita enjoying her new bedroom! Now it’s time for hanging pictures and decorating!