I am elated to finally be able to share with you the process of finishing old doors, and the hardware we chose from Nostalgic Hardware!

To begin, I found these doors on fb marketplace. Both were under one hundred dollars, but sadly in pretty rough shape! I was nervous if we could use these doors and how they would turn out in the end. On the Facebook ad I did not ask for more photos, but lessoned learned I should have! The backside of the door not shown in the ad looked as if a dog chewed and scratch it something severe! Talk about a huge disappointment after finding the team to drive and meet him!

Here is a glimpse of the door before it was stripped (also to note this is the good side! Not the dog chewed part!)

The other door also had this large deep scratch. I thought for sure with a scratch this deep we would have to use wood filler and have to sand and paint!

To begin, the above photo was after using stripper. We lightly sanded the deep grooves and just an over all light sand around the entire door. I absolutely loved the raw look, but we also wanted to protect the door from years of wear and sun pouring through windows etc etc.

We decided to use tung oil for a finish. Doug did his research and wanted an oil that would soak into the wood as opposed to a polyurethane that sits on the wood. Wood will “drink” oil so to speak and expand the wood therefore strengthening the joints. I also loved the natural ambers oil gives wood. I often get asked “what stain did you use” and I love sharing that we did not use any stain at all! If using an oil finish it will enhance the natural wood with variations in ambers depending on the type of wood! These doors are oak for a reference!

After two coats of tung oil, the doors were ready to be hung! Douglas built the door jams and fitting the doors was quite the process. Now without further ado- the finished doors are below!

The icing on the cake to me is the hardware from Nostalgic Warehouse. Sadly, the original hardware could not be saved. I spoke with their customer service because neither Doug nor I was familiar with mortise hardware. They truly were a wonderful help with the process of what I needed for these old doors! We chose the egg and dart plate with a porcelain knob to match the rest of the home.

The hinges were the last detail to finally finish the doors! These are the acorn hinges in oiled rubbed bronze.

Overall I think the finished doors added so much old world charm and character to this new addition on our 1860’s home! I hope when we are all done with this project that this space looks as though it has always been here.

Thank you again for stopping by! Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions and I’ll be sure to answer them! Thank you!