What to do with Surplus Vintage Doors: Make a Bench/Pew & Coat Rack!!
Hey friends! I recently had some leftover vintage doors from all the ones I accumulated for my new booth setup at Antiques Shoppes at 1100 Barksdale Blvd. in Bossier City, LA. They were taking up too much room in my garage workspace and I had to figure out something to make with them to get them outta' there!
I've always wanted to build a strong church-style pew with doors so I figured now was a good time to get it done.
I started withcutting the first door in half to make the sides. I then used a large storage tub to hold up the middle (seat) panel while I could start securing it to the side door panels.
It wasn't easy doing this by myself but once you get the front screw in, then I used wood blocks to prop up the back of the piece to make the slant in the seat bench board. Then you secure the back screws and fill in the empty spaces with lots more screws. I used 3.5" screws for added strength - and lots of them!
Above you can see the slant of the seat panel. I used about 60% of the vertical door for the seat. I used about 80% of another door that matched the first one to create the backboard.
It actually didn't need any center support with the strength of the door and all the screws, but I figured why leave it to chance. I had a set of old table legs on hand and cut one down to size with a top bevel to match the slant of the seat and mounted it in the center. Now it's even stronger! None was needed in the back since the back panel has many screws going into the seat panel along the back.
I love that the original hardware was still intact on the side door panels. It just adds a lot of character.
Across the top, I used some of the vintage handrail I had left onhand from my childhood church that was demolished recently. The front includes large, vintage yardsticks, bottle openers, and a couple of vintage metal claw accents from old furniture legs.
The whole piece measures seven feet long and around 33" deep.
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Moving on to the other creation! I had the leftover portions of the doors I used for the seat panel and the backboard. When I saw them leaning together, I knew they would be great for a sturdy coat rack.
I attached them together and put some neat, vintage, local yadsticks across the front. I used some vintage locker number tags in sequence to go above each metal rack piece. I had some extra clipboard clips on hand and thought this would be a good opportunity to make this optional for a retail shop to hang clothes on the brass metal table legs to serve as a large, strong clothes rack sales fixture. That's why you see my "fake" signage I made to give the impression of what it could be if used in that way.
