A Louver Story.

With just a few days left to my summer vacation, and with hubby and Megan out of town, I decided to start a project that ended up taking me much longer than I expected. 

I was in the laundry room, looking at the water heater and wondering how I could cover it up. I remembered we had a pair of louvered bi-fold doors in the shed that we had taken off the closet in my office way back when we first bought the house.

Here is that closet with the doors on.

After taking the doors off, hubby built a shelf for the closet, making it a shipping center for my ebay business and I also used it as a photo studio. I put a shower curtain tension rod across the top with a pair of sheer panels, so I could close it up when I didn't use the area. It worked great for a long time.

When I stopped doing ebay, it became my crafting center and it's now the spot where you'll find me painting rocks. It's kind of messy, but it's all confined to this one closet and it works for me.

Well, enough of that. Back to the water heater. 

So I had this brilliant idea of using one of the bi-fold doors as a screen to put in front of the water heater. I could use the other one somewhere else. I'm a big fan of "using what you have" before buying anything new or used. I remembered we had saved those doors in case we wanted to put them back on, like if we should ever happen to put the house up for sale. So I went into the shed and got them out. They were filthy and loaded with little spiders, so I cleaned them off before bringing them inside.

I had a jar of Dixie Belle aqua colored chalk paint that I had purchased on clearance and it was the same color that I had painted a few other pieces of furniture, so I decided it would be a good choice. Plus, if I ever decided to put the doors back on in my office, they'd compliment the furniture that's already in there. So I began my painting, thinking I'd be done in one day.

Yeah, right.

Have you ever painted louver doors?

It's a special kind f hell.

Nooks and crannies galore. They required two coats on both sides.
Each set of doors took me a day. This is probably why they invented spray paint.

After I finished the first set, I had an idea that they might look good in the living room against a big blank wall I'd been waiting to cover with artwork that I'd either find at a yard sale or make myself.

Well, that one set didn't make much of an impact, but it made me think that perhaps the water heater might remain un-shielded as the thought of pairing the doors against that wall was running through my mind. Oh, but that meant painting them! AHHH!

So I painted the second set of doors which took me another day.
And here they are paired  up against that wall.

 

 Here is a wide shot of the entire room. You can see that I have a sideboard on the opposite side of the room painted in the same color. I think they balance out the space with color and weight. 

What do you think?

And so ends my louver story.

Today I will be shampooing carpets. Hubby and Megan are in Florida. Hubby made a "guest artist appearance" yesterday in St Augustine at Aunt Matilda's Steampunk Trunk, where his merchandise is now being sold. He's giving up doing conventions because this has been working out well and he plans to continue. The store just expanded and is doing great. Hubby and Megan will be back tomorrow, so while they're gone, I'll use the opportunity to clean the carpets. After that, I'll get back to painting some more rocks.