Do-It-Yourself home renovations have become engrained in our culture, and people are starting to see how good it feels to add value to their homes with their own hands. One DIY expert shared his experience on an instructional website under the username jmitch77. He decided to renovate his garage, and in doing so he exchanged the wooden garage door for a lighter one made of aluminum. Like any good conservationist, he knew he should save the wooden door and use it for something else instead of letting it go to waste. The door was massive, so he took half of it and fashioned himself a new workbench for the garage. The wood was the perfect thickness and had excellent rigidity, so it functioned extremely well as a wide workspace. The second half of the full door remained untouched for weeks, and then a bolt of inspiration struck him. He would transform the old chunk of wood into a new dining room table.
The first thing he needed to do was strip away everything from the surface, including paint, grime, and every other piece of filth that had built up on the door over the years. If it was to be an eating surface, it needed to be as clean as possible. It took him quite some time to completely chip away the paint and sand away the worst areas of the wood, restoring the red pine to its natural splendor. He made sure to keep the table surface level, which required additional sanding in certain places.
He built legs for the table from new pieces of the same type of wood. He chose a farmhouse style leg design using thick pieces of columnar wood with a leveling beam between them. Before he attached the legs, he built a frame for the underside of the table top. He wanted to be sure the table would be able to support the extreme weight of a large family-style meal without buckling in the center. Once the support frame was complete, he attached the legs. To make the legs stand out, he torched them and varnished them in a rich finish. He used the same finish on the table surface, accenting the wood to its highest possible quality. Once the legs were attached and the table was upright, he applied a thick layer of epoxy to fill the panels of the door. A finishing layer of epoxy was used as well in order to create a fully level surface.
He allowed the epoxy to set for several days, and then the table was complete. The clear epoxy finish was strong enough to protect the wood surface from any damage, and it showcased the fine textures of the wood underneath in a way that no other finish could provide. The table will be in his family for years, not only because it was recycled from a piece of the original home, but because it was crafted with the durability to last a lifetime. These sorts of DIY ideas not only save resources and prevent waste, but they can create something you’ll treasure forever.
The next time you renovate some part of your home, consider what you might do with the leftover materials. Even if you don’t feel you can use them yourself, many things are recyclable. Building materials should always be delivered to a recycling center if they can’t be repurposed for your own uses. If you can do something like this man did with his garage door, you’ll get to feel the pride of building something with your own hands from material that otherwise would have been garbage.