The DIY thread

[Artemesia's Garden]

I know that there are lots of folks on this forum who are good with paints and finishes and practical things like customising! I have a few DIY issues which aren't that easy to look up, either because I'm trying to be SUPER tight with money repairing stuff that people would normally throw away, or I'm trying to do something a bit different just because I don't want to live in a boring house.

So we live in an ex-council house with a lot of very standard fixtures and fittings that most UK people would recognise. First up is our doors are flimsy and made of a dark mahogany veneer with a horrid varnish like the inside of a Daim bar. Dutiful DH has sanded these with mixed results. I don't fancy painting them white like most people would do. So i've tried a hard wax called Polyx Oil on the good ones with a sample pot of green mixed in to tone down the red colour. When this has worked, it's worked really well. Other doors don't have a good enough finish where the veneer was too thin. Where I've tried the Polyx oil but I'm not happy with the finish, I plan to paint a blackboard onto one in the downstairs, and a dark grey satin onto one for the upstairs. But then i thought about decoupage. I have a spare roll of wallpaper, but not enough to do a wall. Can I decoupage a couple of doors? Would this look odd or really cool? These aren't fancy panel doors in an old house, just plain old flat ones. I'm not going for shabby chic, just decoration. Has anyone else tried this and what glue and/or sealer did you use?

Edit: I should say these aren't room doors but cupboard doors, so they would get less traffic than room doors.

[BlackCurtains]

Thanks for the edit, I thought you were talking about room doors!

As far as I know, wallpaper needs wallpaper paste to adhere and a varnish over it. But plain paper (and maybe certain types wallpaper?) you could use ModPodge as both the paste and the varnish. It can be sanded to a shine too. As much as I lament about people using it on custom ponies, it is really good for paper crafts.

You'd need to figure out what type of wallpaper you have. Of course, I have never used wallpaper myself, but my mom did and that was back in the day. Maybe they've changed it since then. Or maybe you guys do it differently than the US. I don't know But for any other type of paper, like wrapping paper, cardstock, printer paper, etc. ModPodge would be my recommendation.

edit: Just out of curiosity, what is an ex-council house?

[Ponybookworm]

The UK councils had houses they owned & rented to people of lower incomes, but during the 1980s many were made buyable by the tenants, which had the misfortune of vastly reducing current council properties available for rent

[BlackCurtains]

The UK councils had houses they owned & rented to people of lower incomes, but during the 1980s many were made buyable by the tenants, which had the misfortune of vastly reducing current council properties available for rent

Oh, interesting.

[Artemesia's Garden]

Yep it's true, in most places you can only get council houses or social housing now if you have some kind of disability. I was a council tenant previously although I didn't buy my flat, DH and I bought this place together instead. I'm pretty sure they sold my flat after I moved out though  Local councils don't get the type of funding anymore where they can run social housing and are having to sell off their housing stock to make up shortfall. Affordable albeit generic housing used to be for anyone who needed it, but now there is a housing crisis. It's a mess.

Anyhoo, it means that although there is an overall shortage, there is a lot of housing stock in this country from the post-war era that all has the same stuff inside it. This is a very generic but well-made house and luckily well-insulated too. So the question is how to give it a bit of character I guess.

Thank you for the recommendation of Mod Podge, BC! I didn't know it was sandable that's really cool.

I just read all the comments on Amazon and they are quite cool to read...

Spoiler

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mod-Podge-Waterbase-Sealer-Finish/dp/B001IKES5O/ref=sr_1_2?crid=32XH1R9GTPA14&keywords=mod%2Bpodge&qid=1661542828&sprefix=mod%2Bpodge%2Caps%2C95&sr=8-2&th=1

So does anyone think this might look good? Or are you doubtful?