DECORATING SLIDING WARDROBE DOORS AND CUSTOMISING YOUR OWN WARDROBE

You can easily decorate wardrobe doors to create custom wardrobe doors exactly to your own wardrobe design. Note: We offer a bespoke custom made sliding wardrobe door service, however, this series of articles explains how to decorate wardrobe doors to cover them with the following:

Painting wardrobe doors – how to paint wardrobe doors
Wallpapering wardrobe doors – how to wallpaper wardrobe doors and how to remove wallpaper from wardrobe doors
Creating fabric wardrobe doors – how to cover wardrobe doors with fabric
Add Wall stickers or wall art decals to wardrobe doors

Although we believe our range of wood effect panels, coloured panels, glass panels and mirrored panels will provide a wide enough range of wardrobe door choice to meet most customers’ requirements, once in a while we are asked whether our sliding wardrobe doors can be painted, wallpapered, or can have fabric or adhesive stickers and wall art decals applied to customise or update their wardrobe doors. In this article we offer an insight into some of the possible 'design your own' options to cover sliding wardrobe doors.

Note: we can source wood effect panels and coloured panels from our suppliers Cronospan and Egger, so if you have a specific panel that you want to match with your room design please let us know the reference number and we will do our best to source it for you.

How to paint wardrobe doors

Matte white wood panel doors, with some simple initial preparation, is the most cost-effective and best surface for painting wardrobe doors. You can order these from Wardrobe Doors Direct.

Painting your wardrobe doors allows you to use your imagination and design skills to match your room design. With a little preparation it is easy to decorate your wardrobe doors to your own design.

We recommend that you follow the paint manufacturer’s guidelines when preparing and painting your sliding wardrobe doors but below we offer a general guide to achieve the best results for painting melamine wardrobe doors.

1) Use melamine paint which is specially formulated for use in covering Melamine Faced Chipboard (MFC). MFC paints are available in two main formulations. The first consists of a base coat or primer and then to paint your melamine wardrobes an MFC top coat or finishing coat. The second option is to use an MFC primer which allows for a water-based or solvent-based undercoat to be applied. Afterwards you can paint on the top coat of your choice. MFC primers and MFC top coats are available at all good DIY stores and are relatively inexpensive and easy to apply.

2) Before applying the MFC base coat it is advisable to give the door panel a light sanding with a fine grade sandpaper to give the surface a slight key. Even though the melemine panel is described as ‘matte white’ there is a slight sheen to the surface and a light sanding will remove this.

3) Once you have sanded all sides and edges to be painted we recommend that you wipe the door down with sugar soap and a soft cloth to clean and degrease the panels.

4) Prior to painting the door panels you can either mask the door frames with masking tape or take the doors apart. The doors are relatively simple to dis-assemble and put back together, however, we recommend reading the following article prior to dis-assembling your doors: How our sliding wardrobe doors are put together - coming soon. Please note: Wardrobe Doors Direct will not be held responsible for any damage or subsequent malfunction of the doors should you decide to take the doors apart.

5) Depending on the finish you require and the type of paint you decide to use it is possible to either spray paint the wardrobe doors with the final coat or use a small foam roller, which will produce a smooth, brushstroke-free finish. If you want to achieve a perfectly flat gloss finish it may be worth talking to your local garage/car bodyshop to see if they can spray paint the doors for you and finish them with a lacquer top coat.

Wallpapering sliding wardrobe doors / removing wallpaper from wardrobe doors

There are some fantastic wallpaper designs available nowadays. You can wallpaper individual wardrobe door panels to create a design feature. For example our Modena Collection could be a great choice to create a stunning design by adding a wallpapered narrow band across the width of the wardrobe. Alternatively you can blend the wardrobe into the wall by wallpapering the wardrobe doors with wallpaper to match the walls.

We recommend that you wallpaper on matte white wood panel wardrobe doors. These can be ordered from Wardrobe Doors Direct. Prior to applying a wallpaper finish we would advise that the doors are wiped down with sugar soap and a soft cloth to clean and degrease them.

Normal wallpaper paste can be used and application method for wallpapering wardrobe doors is the same as for wallpapering a wall, just follow the wallpaper paste manufacturer’s instructions.

For the best results cut sections of wallpaper that are approximately 5mm larger on all sides than the wardrobe panel area to be covered. Once these have been pasted, applied and smoothed down, use a scalpel or sharp craft knife to carefully trim the edges of the paper to be flush with the framing, using the framing as a guide to cut along.

If in the future you wish to remove the wallpaper from wardrobe doors we strongly recommend that you don't use a steamer or abrasive tools as these will damage the doors. Instead, apply a small amount of warm water using a cloth or sponge, allow it to soak in and then carefully peel the wallpaper off. Sponge off any residue of wallpaper paste with warm water and a mild detergent such as washing-up liquid.

Fabric covered wardrobe doors

Cover your wardrobe doors with fabric to bring texture into your design. You can use a variety of fabric materials including silk, cotton, canvas, fabric wallpaper and leather.

To apply any fabric covering to the sliding wardrobe doors you will need to dismantle the doors to allow access to all sides of the door panels. Please refer to the following article: How our sliding wardrobe doors are put together - coming soon. Please note: Wardrobe Doors Direct will not be held responsible for any damage or subsequent malfunction of the doors should you decide to take the doors apart.

Once dis-assembled lay the individual door panels on top of the fabric and leaving approximately a 40-50mm border, cut the fabric material around the panel. At each corner make a diagonal cut to remove a small triangle of fabric so that there is not too much bulk to fold over. Once all the sections of material have been cut out apply strips of double sided sticky tape to the rear edges of the door panels and when this has been applied to all four edges, peel off the first backing strip.

Carefully affix one edge of the fabric to the sticky tape and then gently stretch it smoothly and evenly over the remaining three edges, removing the backing from the sticky tape as each edge is completed. Particular care will be needed if the chosen fabric has stripes, checks or a geometric pattern to ensure that is applied squarely and appears equal on all sides.

When all the panels have been completed in the same way the wardrobe door frame can then be reassembled. The frame itself will help to hold the material in place and will disguise any slight imperfections at the edges of the panels.

When considering fabrics to cover your wardrobe doors, choose a material that is not too thick, has a reasonably even surface and one that will lie flat against the surface of the door panel when finished.

Wardrobe stickers, wall stickers, wall art decals to apply to your sliding wardrobe doors

Adding stickers to walls and furniture is a popular trend at the moment, especially in children’s bedrooms or playrooms and there is no reason why these techniques cannot be applied to our sliding wardrobe doors. Stickers and wall art decals can be applied to any of our finished doors whether they are wood, glass or mirrored. Please follow the manufacturer’s guidelines to obtain the best results.

Just before you go...

We hope that you are now ready and raring to start decorating your wardrobe doors, but just before you start customising please click the buttons on the right to share these wardrobe decorating ideas with your friends. If you have any other tips, advice or even photographs of how you’ve been creative with your wardrobe doors we’d be delighted to hear from you. Email us at info@wardrobedoorsdirect.co.uk.