When we were extending and renovating our house, the internal doors were the last thing on my mind. They’re just doors, right? I’ll just choose some from our local DIY store and be done with it.
Although I knew at some point, I wanted black framed doors in my home. They’re just so stylish!
I wanted a glass door in between the utility room and kitchen as it would help distribute light around, and getting a nice walnut interior door for that was my initial idea. We have a large east-facing window in the utility so the morning sunshine pours through and helps bring light into this corner of our kitchen.
However, as the glass door and window in the utility are east and north-facing, by lunchtime, a lot of the light has disappeared.
Adding a glass door helps to keep the utility bright throughout the day from the huge sun lantern we have in the kitchen next to the utility. This meant we could close the door and still have the light streaming through in the morning.
We went with a plain white glass door from B&Q, to begin with as it matched the door we already had walking into the kitchen. It was a nice door; I have nothing against it.
But I knew eventually that I was going to paint all the doors and skirting boards in the kitchen anthracite grey to match the bi-fold doors.
How to Update an Internal Door
That’s when I decided to create a DIY internal door with fluted glass. Eventually, we are looking to occasionally Airbnb the right-hand side of our home out and the utility will double up as a small kitchen.
I was looking at installing blinds on the door so that we had some privacy when we had guests over but I wanted something a little more permanent.
Thankfully, Glass Films got in touch asking if I wanted to collaborate, and I knew instantly what to do. By adding reeded glass to the internal door, I could still allow all the light to come into the utility room but give everyone some privacy on either side.
Step by Step Instructions
It’s quite simple really. A black internal door is normally a door made of steel or dark grey aluminum with slim frames and glass panels. To create this style of door, they need to be dark grey or black with a slim black frame going through them.
What you will need (film optional!)
How I Did It
I was originally going to use electrical tape to create the door frame but as the frame to the door is quite deep, I decided to go with strip wood instead. I needed to plan where the wooden frames were going, so I used SketchUp to work out the measurements.
I measured the space of the glass and then divided it by 4 to give me the layout of where I needed to put the 3 frames to create a faux steel door.
I cut the strip wood to size using my Mitre saw.
Finally, I cleaned the glass using soapy water spray and using the Gorilla glue, I stuck the strip wood to the doors. The glue says you have to put pressure on it for at least an hour so I used a large clamp to hold it in place.
Once the wood was secure, I used Polyfilla to fill in the tiny gaps between the wood and the door frame to make it look seamless.
The next job was to paint the door and frame to create a black internal door. In hindsight, it was probably best to paint the strip wood first! I used Valspar Premium Wood & Metal in Satin Paint and they mixed the color for me using the Anthracite Grey RAL no. 7016.
The door needed 3 coats to give it an even coverage and is the perfect color for that faux steel look!
Adding the Reeded Glass Film
Finally, I needed to add the reeded glass film to the door. Again, I used some soapy water spray to make sure the door was completely clean and measured out the four sections of the internal door so I could cut the film to size.
The glass film is self-adhesive so it takes a lot of patience and precision to apply. Spray some soapy water onto the glass and then put the film into place, slowly peeling off the back of the film so that it sticks to the glass.
Using a professional squeegee, slowly squeeze all the bubbles out from under the film and mop up any excess water.
Once you are happy that the film is vertical and in place, use a very sharp cutting knife and the end of your squeegee to cut any excess film away.
And that’s all there is to it! I am so happy with the results of my black internal door and the reeded film helps give us some privacy if we ever get around to renting out this side of our house.
I just need to paint all our internal doors anthracite grey!
