Rehanging the Bathroom Door To Swing the Opposite Way

When we first began planning the bathroom, we decided that in order to make the best use of the space in this room, we needed to rehang the bathroom door so that it opens in a 90degree swing against the wall, rather than the existing 180degrees against the furthest wall (now the new shower enclosure).

It’s been on the to-do list for such a long time; it’s one of those jobs that’s really small but actually takes a considerable amount of time to get it done right. Hence why we’d been putting it off so long.  We’d actually taken the door off their hinges completely a couple of months ago (yep, we’ve had no bathroom door all this time!) and since I had planned my friend to come and stay this weekend, I thought it was about darn time I got this job done! After all, who wants to visit a house without a bathroom door?!

So the first job was to fill the gaps in the frame where the old hinges had been. I purchased some strip wood from our local B&Q at the same thickness (4mm) and cut to size to fill the gap before gluing in position and going over with some filler. It was literally as simple as that! Since we’re painting the door and its frame, it didn’t matter too much about the colour of the filler either, which saved me some pennies too!

For the old lock/latch, I purchased a length of moulding that matched square part of the existing architrave and used a separate piece of curved moulding for the inner curve. With a bit (OK, lots) of caulk I smoothed it out to kind-of match the rest of the architrave. It’s definitely not perfect, but it looks a damn sight better than the other doors in our house that have had these locks removed in the past!

Next up, was to fill the gaps in the door as the hinges and lock will be on the opposite side of the door too. I used the exact same method as above; some strip wood for the hinges and filler for the old lock. I sanded and re-filled a couple of times to get an even finish before painting.

I painted both the architrave and door in Laura Ashley’s Eggshell White. It’s the same paint I used for the window architrave and had leftover. And voila, the hinges are no longer visible at all and the old lock/latch is slightly visible (if you look hard enough) but much less obvious! I think it looks pretty darn good.

I left Grant to chisel out the new locations for the hinges and lock since he did all the doors in our last house too. I might even call him a pro at the job 😉 We’re re-using the old hinges and lock, which I managed to clean up beautifully last month. You can read how I did it here.

And voila! The door now swings towards the left wall, which makes much more sense and stops it banging against the shower, which was so not ideal! It also now means as we open up the door from the outside, we get a FULL view of the room which makes a huge difference to the room feeling much bigger upon first impressions. The latch on the lock also works since I removed all the paint from it, which means we can actually lock the door too, mega bonus. I do however need to swap the screws on both the lock/latch for something less obvious and ugly than the ones in current use.

The only other thing I’m not sure about is whether I should have pained the door/architrave the same colour as the panelling. I didn’t have enough of that paint left to do so anyways, but what do you think? Would the grey look better, or is white good? Totally undecided!

It looks so much better now and didn’t actually take as long as I thought. I love the new restored lock, why was it ever fashionable to paint these?! And the freshened up door and architrave looks awesome too! I know some people might spend hours upon hours removing the old paint to get a better, crisper finish, but unfortunately right now, this just doesn’t have any priority in my life. I would much rather paint a slightly thick-coated architrave and move onto the next room, than spend hours getting a perfected crisp paint job, so don’t judge me on my quick-to-finish lumpy bumpy paint job! Maybe in a few years when the rest of the house is more complete!

We still have a few things left to do in this room – building an enclosed cupboard behind the shower is one of the biggest, but I also need to source a mirror, light fitting, light pull and a blind/shutter. That cardboard in the bath is currently our screen whilst showering. Not exactly the most decorative solution! Much to do, but so glad that this room is now in use. I am seriously enjoying it!!

I’d love to know your thoughts on the paint colour?! Have you ever had to complete a similar job to make better use of the room?

None

Stripwood £1

Mouldings £4

Paint (free from previous jobs)

Filler £4