My client wanted to play up the wine tasting room decor she was using in her kitchen by having a mural painted on the door to her attached garage. I’ve painted murals on doors before, it’s a fun look. Originally, we wanted to replace this six panel door with a plain flat one, but the opening was an odd size, and code required it to be one hour fire rated. A new one was not only somewhat expensive, but special order and time consuming to acquire. So, we went with plan B- painting the mural on canvas, and then mounting it on a thin hardboard panel. I could then be attached to the six panel door.to cover the panels and create the glass insert look we wanted. Great opportunity to take photos as the work progressed so you can see the process of both painting and the finished installation.

I set up an area adjacent to my studio, covered the wall with plastic to protect it, allowed the excess to run down onto the carpet, and added a drop cloth for extra protection. A couple of clip lights allowed me enough light to work. I knew the corner the panel would be hung in did not have bright lighting, and I prefer to work with the existing light levels as much as possible to keep the colors correct.

I planned out the design, used a level and tape to set up the shelving and laid in the background color, similar to the cabinetry in the room.

 

Additional layers of colors, shading, and details were progressively added until I was happy with the central mural.

I then removed the tape around the ‘glass’ part of the wine tasting decor mural, taped it off and painted the ‘frame’ needed around the glass for the illusion to work.

When the painting was complete, I sealed the work with two coats of polyurethane so it can be wiped off if necessary, and allowed that to dry completely before removing the work from the wall.

I had a hardboard panel cut to the correct size, primed and pre-drilled it and spread a good premixed wall-covering adhesive on the surface. It took four hands to correctly position the canvas on the panel, smooth it down and get it adhered. The edges were wrapped and pasted around to the back, corners trimmed and also pasted down.

To keep the panel flat as it dried, a sheet of waxed paper and some weighty books did the job.

To install it, I marked the top two holes and hung the panel using those, and simply drilled through the remaining holes directly into the door and used screws to mount it, glazing over them when done.

This worked well as a great way to add interest to the kitchen- I love how it turned out and am already looking for a place to do this in my own home. I had a door mural in a previous home and love it still- it usually leans against a wall as art, I couldn’t bear to part with it.

I think everyone needs a special door in their house, don’t you?