French door restoration
Is restoring salvage pieces worth the effort? It depends.
What will the final finish be? | |||
| ↙ | ↘ | ||
Clear or transparent varnish or stain over wood | Painted | ||
 | | ||
Ok. Are there a lot of millwork grooves and ridges? | Go for it! | ||
| ↙ | ↘ | ||
Yes | No | ||
| | ||
Don’t bother. | Go for it! | ||
This thing had about 4 layers of peeling paint when I got it, damaged casing, and someone had fixed a broken pane by installing new privacy glass with the textured side facing the wrong way.
The repaired panel was so badly done I had to mill new casing. Why not just buy some molding? Ha, I had the same idea but it’s kind of impossible to find the size and shape needed for your particular door.
It’s possible to clean up those dark flaws in the wood left by the old hardware, but in some cases I kind of like just leaving that stuff and smoothing it out. Things don’t always have to look perfect as long as they look deliberate.
