Upholstery of metal doors with your own hands: detailed instructions, necessary materials and tips

The front door loses its appearance over time. You can update it yourself. Step-by-step instructions for selecting materials and directly replacing the old metal entrance door trim will help you do this job quickly and efficiently.

Replacing an old metal door in an apartment is too expensive. Often it loses not its protective properties, but only its appearance, so this can be corrected by updating the upholstery. You can actually do all the manipulations yourself.

Door trim work can be divided into the following stages:

1. Selection of material for upholstery.
2. Preparing for work.
3. Preparing the necessary tools.
4. Door trim.
5. Completion of work, quality control.

What is needed for upholstery

Upholstering metal doors is not a difficult process if you have the equipment and tools. You need to make sure in advance that you have enough materials to carry out the work so that you don’t have to go out and buy more. The set of tools largely depends on the chosen fastening technology and materials.

If you choose natural or artificial leather, then you will additionally need to purchase plywood to fit the door, screws, glue, staples, decorative accessories (nails with heads), foam rubber, and insulation. To attach plywood, you will need a drill with a metal drill, and a construction stapler for attaching upholstery material. To upholster a metal front door with soft material, you may also need a jigsaw to cut holes in the plywood for hinges, a peephole, a lock and a handle. If you choose solid cladding, you will need the same set of tools.

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It should also be taken into account that you need screwdrivers to remove the fittings, wire cutters if the upholstery is leatherette (for attaching wire decor), possibly a foam gun, an abrasive to clean the surface, and a solvent to degrease it.

Spraying for metal doors

This is not paint, but a special coating. It consists of fine metal powder with the addition of a polymer filler, applied to the canvas by spraying. Quite a new option for finishing metal entrance doors. This treatment protects the iron structure from corrosion and improves its decorative effect.

The main advantages of this finish:

• spraying is resistant to any atmospheric factors;
• this is a good solution for finishing the entrance (external) door in a country house;
• it can be washed, but without using abrasives;
• the coating is exceptionally durable; it will last for decades;
• The finish can be made matte, glossy, in a variety of colors.

If you have a paint gun, it’s quite possible to do this kind of finishing on an iron door with your own hands. The main thing is to prepare the canvas well for painting: metal powder can only be applied to a perfectly clean surface. The first cleaning step is to use a special brush or sander. Can be cleaned with solvents. Passivation is also a mandatory stage of preparation. To do this, the surface is treated with chromium nitrate to completely protect against corrosion.

Leatherette covering

Many associate leatherette with the decoration of entrance doors from the distant “pre-perestroika” times. It seemed fashionable, beautiful, practical - I wiped it with a rag and that was it. Only over time it became clear that the material was becoming rougher, fading and cracking, the foam padding was sticking together and becoming unusable, losing its appearance. But, nevertheless, the material remains one of the cheapest and easiest to work with, although it is no longer produced in “Soviet” quality. Now the fabric is more modern and durable.

What distinguishes leatherette from leather substitute, vinyl leatherette? Of course, this is a fabric base, which in modern leatherettes is elastic, knitted, but in leatherette it does not stretch. Replacing old upholstery on a metal or wooden entrance door always begins with dismantling. You should immediately buy fabric. We determine the consumption by the size of the door plus thirty centimeters in width and height. This reserve is used for folding the fabric at the fastening point.

If you do not make a hem, then after a couple of years the fabric will begin to unravel where it was punched with a stapler.

If you plan to make a roller or decor, or sheath external frames, then take the fabric with a reserve. When forming a roller on a common canvas, a margin of 10 cm is needed on each side. If it will be attached separately, then we will buy 20 cm. For the sidewalls, we measure the dimensions and also add 10 cm on each side.

Leatherette is attached with a stapler to staples to plywood secured with self-tapping screws. For old-style metal doors, the cladding is done from the outside without foam rubber or insulation. The fabric is simply glued all over the canvas. If you plan to make a three-dimensional design, then buy foam rubber, decorative nails with round heads, and wire.

At the beginning of the work, they prepare the door, drill holes for the plywood, then glue the insulation and foam rubber. Next, the leatherette is tightened around the perimeter with staples. It is necessary to glue and fasten from the top edge in the center, going down synchronously on both sides. If the upholstery is carried out on both sides, then the operation must be repeated, and in this order:

1. The door is removed from its hinges and laid on the floor.
2. Remove all fittings.
3. Drill holes for installing plywood on both sides.
4. The plywood is fastened on both sides.
5. Glue the insulation on both sides.
6. Leatherette is glued on both sides.
7. The door is reinstalled.
8. The fittings, lock, and apartment number are reattached.

How to decorate the front door in a private house or apartment with your own hands

Correctly finishing a modern front door from the inside with your own hands requires a fairly large amount of work and the presence of some tools. The decor depends on whether the door is iron or wooden. To install a three-dimensional design on a metal door, a special synthetic resin is purchased.

The work does not require the use of physical force - even women can do it.

Required Tools

To work you will need different tools:

• metal tape measure;
• pencil for marking;
• hammer;
• glue;
• perforator;
• screwdriver

Methods for creating decorative finishes

To create a unique decor, frame or frameless finishing methods are used. They differ in structural strength and labor intensity of the process.

Interior decoration can be chosen to suit every taste, the main thing is that it is made from environmentally friendly material.

Frame

All frame elements are made of wood or aluminum corners. The structure is assembled and installed entirely.

Without proper protection, plastered corners will quickly begin to crumble and lose their presentable appearance.

Frameless

With frameless design, the arch trim, as well as platbands, are mounted on pre-leveled surfaces. This option is simpler, but less maintainable.

Plastering is necessary to fill irregularities, depressions or cracks in the wall.

How to decorate slopes

The space of the slopes is decorated with natural wood veneer, boards, plastic, MDF and fiberboard. Finishing with plaster followed by painting also looks good.

Porcelain stoneware is a noble and high-quality material, but the color spectrum is very limited.

How to remove the cladding

In cases such as interior renovation, severe damage to the coating, the lining is removed from the doors. The removal process depends on the type of finishing material. The door will have to be removed from its hinges, laid horizontally, the fittings removed, and the nails that secure the trim in place.

Modern technologies make it possible to decorate doors in various ways - everything depends on the taste and capabilities of the owners.

How to upholster a steel door with leather substitute

Covering the entrance door with leatherette is not too different from upholstery with leatherette. This work is even easier to do, since artificial leather on a knitted base is much more practical and flexible. Modern materials have a greater selection of colors. It can be mounted from the outside without fear, because it can easily withstand temperature changes and direct rays of light, maintaining the brightness of the color.

The sheathing process is completely similar to working with leatherette if you lay insulation or foam rubber. If the skin needs to be fixed directly to the door, then coat the surface with glue and pull the material on both sides. You can choose one color for the outside and another for the inside.

Chipboard for metal doors

One of the cheapest options for finishing an iron door from the inside.
In addition, such cladding is easy to do on your own. Another “plus” of this material is that you can install insulation with it, of any thickness. True, chipboard is rarely used in apartments; non-residential suburban or utility rooms are decorated with this material. But chipboard is afraid of moisture, so it is unsuitable for exterior decoration or unheated rooms.

A metal door definitely needs finishing. This way it will look more attractive and will last a long time. In addition, the finishing material allows you to insulate the structure and increase its sound insulation. But before you decorate an iron door from the inside or outside, it must be prepared to protect it from damage by rust. Also, do not forget that not only the door leaf needs decoration, but also the slopes.

Decorating the front door is done for different purposes. Of course, it should be borne in mind that this design is a kind of calling card of any house or apartment. The coating should look beautiful, be of high quality and durable.

How to cover a door with panels or laminate

Covering a metal door at the entrance to an apartment with laminate is similar to installing MDF panels. The door can be removed, the fittings can be unfastened, building insulation can be laid into the base, a starter profile can be installed and the sheathed side can be covered with laminate. Here you will need a complete set of tools. Insulation or soundproofing material can be attached to liquid nails.

Laminate allows you to achieve the perfect color combination with the floor or with other doors. You can choose panels with a pattern. Designers love this kind of cladding. Working with laminate is easy. It does not require additional maintenance, is moisture resistant, resistant to scratches and fading, which allows you to increase the service life of the door for many decades.

What are doors being decorated with now?

First of all, remember that lining a metal door on the outside and decorative finishing on the inside are not the same thing. Even if visually the materials look the same, their characteristics or at least the level of processing are completely different.

After all, do not forget, we are talking about entrance doors, where the outside cladding is regularly watered by rain, freezes and roasts in the sun, and from the inside the finishing of metal doors is in the comfortable conditions of a residential building. By the way, at this address you can learn about insulating iron doors with your own hands.

Diagram of a disassembled metal door.

Laminate

Finishing metal doors with laminate flooring has long ceased to be a curiosity. After all, the flooring was initially designed for quite serious loads:

Finishing an iron door with laminate flooring is a good and inexpensive option.

• It will not be difficult to wash an iron door finished with laminate from whitewash, to remove dirt or traces of shoes, because on the floor this coating is subjected to even greater tests;
• Any laminate will easily withstand the claws of pets; even a large dog is not able to scratch such a coating;
• A big plus from a design point of view is the same finish of the floor, slopes and door leaf;
• The thickness of the planks ranges from 6 to 12 mm, the weight of the cladding is also not large, which is an additional advantage when choosing;
• The planks are connected according to the tongue-and-groove principle, and after splicing they form a smooth monolithic surface, in which even the seams are difficult to feel;
• To fix it on the canvas, it is enough to clean and treat the steel sheet with primer, after which you can safely glue the planks, for example, onto liquid nails;
• If the doors from the inside are not sheathed with a solid steel sheet, then the laminate strips are attached to the bars of the internal sheathing, and in order to hide the unflattering cut and screws, a plastic U-shaped profile is glued along the edge.

It is quite possible for an amateur to decorate the inside of a door with laminate flooring.
Now let's move on to the pitfalls; there are plenty of them here too. Let's start with the fact that laminate flooring, no matter how expensive and elegant it may be, was originally created as an internal covering, which means it is not designed for sudden temperature changes, frost and excessive humidity.

Accordingly, they can only be used to decorate doors from the inside. Exterior finishing is possible only in multi-storey buildings with relatively warm entrances.

If you decide to opt for laminate, then keep in mind: this material is divided into 7 classes. If the marking starts with 2, then this material is made for apartments and private houses (21,22,23). Everything that begins with three (31,32,33,34) is designed for commercial organizations, offices and shopping centers.

The classification of laminate flooring depends on the level of wear resistance.

When buying, you don’t need to listen to the consultant’s persuasion. The fact is that visually classes 21 and 34 may not be any different, and if you are not going to dance on your doors or wash them with a fire hose, then take the twenty-first class, and the thinnest slats (6 mm), the price will please you.

MDF panels

MDF panels are solid large door linings; professionals call these panels cards. Now upholstering a metal door with such cards takes up almost half of the market.

Finishing metal entrance doors with MDF panels is now considered the most popular.

The material itself is made from wood dust and, according to the manufacturers, does not contain any harmful additives. Wood dust is poured into molds, pressed and fried under high pressure, as a result of which the natural glue lignin is released, which turns the compressed mass into a monolithic sheet.

Before sheathing the canvas, you need to decide which panel you want to see. You can sheathe a metal entrance door with pure MDF, laminated or veneered.

To be honest, blank MDF sheets are not suitable for decorating a door leaf. The top layer of the sheet is practically not protected, its appearance is rather mediocre and the most you can do is paint it with something, but you won’t achieve much beauty.

Pure MDF and chipboard panels in comparison.

There is an important point here; it’s better to forget about such a common material as chipboard right away; you shouldn’t even think about how to decorate a metal door with chipboard sheets. This material is not suitable for either external or internal cladding of entrance doors; the sheet will begin to delaminate within a year.

The most common is laminated MDF; such cards have quite a lot of advantages:

• Laminated MDF card is resistant to fading;
• Finishing a metal door with your own hands will not be difficult for you, and both external and internal finishing are done equally simply;
• For finishing work you need a minimum of tools. If you are covering only the door leaf, without slopes, then a drill and a screwdriver are enough;
• Washing MDF card from stains and other troubles is as easy as laminate flooring;
• The door trim does not require additional adjustment or modification; the product is immediately sold with fixed dimensions according to door standards. If your canvas is not standard, then you can use several small cards or order a panel according to your size;
• In serial factory doors, MDF panels are inserted into special grooves, so before disassembling the old door, see if you have such grooves. The principle is simple, the side clamp is removed, after which the old panel is moved to the side and pulled out, and the new one is inserted in its place.

Decor options for MDF door cards.

When choosing a new MDF “shirt” for your doors, keep in mind that the interior decoration can be done with any panels, but the outside of the doors can only be clad with a special MDF panel. The back of the outer cards is green, and the back of the inner ones is yellow. The result of such an error is shown in the photo below.

The result of the wrong choice of MDF card.
In the elite sector, MDF panels covered with natural wood veneer are used to decorate entrance doors. Veneer is a thin slice of wood, so if you use it to cover an MDF panel, it will be no different from a natural board.

It turns out that for reasonable money you can make yourself luxury wooden doors, for example, from oak. Of course, a veneered card is not cheap, but compared to a natural solid card, the difference will be at least 2 times.

But there is a small but significant subtlety here: if you want to get truly natural veneer, then look among domestic or Belarusian manufacturers.

Veneered MDF panels are practically no different from natural wood.

Most European companies produce cards covered with so-called eco-veneer. If you don’t go into details and brush away the advertising tinsel, then eco-veneer is just high-quality plastic that contains some percentage of wood.

There is also veneer under the tricky name “Fine Line”. So, if you are offered, for example, a “Golden Oak” veneer panel made using fine-line technology, then know that cunning manufacturers took inexpensive poplar or linden, cut the veneer from it, and after painting and processing, this veneer suddenly became golden oak

The story is approximately the same with multi-veneer, but it is visible to the naked eye. The design there is quite abstract, cubes, waves, circles and a lot of other options, but this is natural wood, only pressed, glued and cut, this is not for everybody.

Varieties of multi-veneer.

Leather upholstery

Many people associate quilted door trim with Soviet design. Indeed, if you take cheap dermantin and upholster the doors with it, the look will not be the best, but do not rush to discard this option; with a reasonable approach, quilted upholstery can look luxurious.

Nowadays you won’t find doors trimmed with natural soft leather because they are very expensive. A new material called eco-leather is used for upholstery; this material is a synthetic coating that visually and to the touch is no different from real leather.

In addition to its solid appearance, quilted cladding has two tangible advantages: firstly, additional insulation, and secondly, serious sound insulation. Although for domestic cats and dogs, quilted upholstery is first in line to be torn apart.

The carriage screed belongs to the elite finishing of entrance doors.

The easiest way is to take eco-leather and cover it with a sheet of plywood, and use foam rubber as a filler. If you want to get a truly luxurious door, then there is a carriage tie for this; it is more difficult to make, but the result is worth it.

Detailed instructions for budget door trim and arranging a luxurious carriage frame with video and step-by-step photos are available here.

If you decide to buy soft panels for doors, then keep in mind: high-quality upholstery is made from solid canvas. If you are offered a quilted panel sewn from pieces, then know that this is a cheap, low-quality product.

Powder coating

Powder coating of doors cannot be done at home with your own hands. This is a high-tech process: the metal is cleaned, processed and special paint is applied, after which the door is “fried” in ovens, as a result the surface acquires unique protection.

A fine-crystalline film is formed on the surface of the metal, which is easy to clean and reliably protects the doors from corrosion. Manufacturers claim that such a lining cannot be scratched; we do not know whether these claims are true, but powder paint can withstand animal claws without problems.

Hammer paint is a good alternative to powder coating.

Hammer paint can be a good alternative to powder coating; you can use it to paint your doors yourself and the look will be no worse than powder coating. At “this address” you will learn how to properly disassemble doors, how to wash metal from rust, and most importantly, how to paint the doors yourself.

Lining

Lining has been used for various types of finishing for about 100 years, and despite such an advanced age, it is still among the leaders. Neat wooden planks are connected using tongue-and-groove technology. The lining has quite a lot of advantages.

• Lining can be used for both external and internal finishing of doors, although for external finishing the wood will have to be treated with a complex primer and varnished for external work;
• The material is 100% environmentally friendly;
• Natural wood will never go out of fashion; with proper care, such doors will always look fresh and original;
• The technology for installing lining is quite simple and accessible to any home craftsman; we can assure you that even if you have never dealt with lining, within a day you will cover your front door with it;
• The slats can be combined as you wish, as a result your door will have an original pattern.

Various options for door trim with clapboard.
When finishing iron doors with clapboard, novice craftsmen often do not know how to fix the strips to the metal. So from the inside, the lining is hemmed to a pre-fixed wooden sheathing, which in turn is attached to the stiffeners and the internal frame of the doors.

The outer cladding is prepared separately, first the lining is screwed with small self-tapping screws to a plywood sheet, and then this shield is attached to a metal sheet. In order to securely fasten the facade shield, you will need to drill a dozen holes in the metal sheet and screw it on the inside with self-tapping screws.

For those who are going to do everything with their own hands, there are good instructions that describe in detail how to decorate the front door in four relatively simple ways, it is located “here”.

By the way, lining is not only made of wood; now they produce many options for plastic lining. Theoretically, it is possible to cover doors with plastic, but not everyone likes such cladding, plus the strength of plastic is not high.

Plastic lining.

How to cover a door with PVC panels

It is better not to use panels for exterior cladding, since the material is not resistant to light or temperature. The advantages of plastic are its cost and light weight. You can assemble the trim without removing the door from its hinges. Plastic can be placed on pre-screwed wooden slats, plywood, starter strips and “liquid nails”. The set of tools for working with plastic is minimal.

For cladding there are square plastic panels (joints are allowed for the inside), PVC in the form of lining, long panels with locking fastenings. There is a large selection of colors, patterns, and even panels with photo printing. They are easy to care for and are not afraid of moisture. Be careful in terms of physical impact, because the plastic can crack even from a strong blow with your hand.

Options for finishing door slopes from the inside

Many owners of country houses are interested in how to decorate an entrance door made of metal from the inside of the house with their own hands. When planning the interior decoration of door blocks, you need to carefully consider all the nuances: the dimensions of the adjacent room, its overall interior design, the finishing materials used, etc.

Fake diamond

Artificial stone today is very often used when performing finishing work. This material has a rather rich and stylish appearance. At the same time, it is durable and does not require special care.

The modern market offers examples of finishing materials of a wide variety of textures and colors. With their help, you can realize any artistic composition, incl. with imitation of rough stonework.

But, when compared with natural material, artificial stone is much lighter, therefore creates minimal load on the main structures, and also costs less.

Facing the slopes of door blocks using facing stone is carried out in several stages. A project of the proposed structure is first created, the working base is prepared, the laying scheme is determined and the workpieces are cut to the required dimensions. To attach the material to the base, polyester resins or liquid nails are used.

Tree

When decorating rooms in a classic style, wood is the most popular finishing material. Today, it is not difficult to choose a finishing material made of wood on the construction market that will fit into any interior in terms of texture and color.

At the same time, wood has many advantages, the main one of which is its environmental friendliness. And when treated with special compounds, it is not afraid of moisture and mold. The only drawback is that wooden surfaces need to be updated more often during operation than the appearance of products made from other materials.

Plaster

One of the budget options for finishing premises, incl. entrance doors, is plastering of surfaces.

You don't need any experience to work with plaster. The finishing of the entrance opening can be completed in just a few hours, and at a fairly high quality. After applying the plaster, the surfaces are painted in any color, depending on the overall design of the hallway (corridor). Experts consider plaster to be the simplest and most reliable option for self-finishing.

Plastic

Plastic cladding for entrance blocks is used quite rarely, because... it does not have sufficient strength, and this area is subject to constant physical impact.

But, if PVC panels were used for finishing in the adjacent room, then this option is the most relevant.

Additional decor

For additional decoration, you can attach a mirror sheet to the door on the inside. It's not just decor. A mirror at the entrance is very convenient, because you can look at yourself before going outside. A mirror in the hallway will help to visually enlarge the space.

For self-assembly, choose lightweight panels, because factory-made doors with a built-in mirror often use a mirror film instead of real glass. The canvas is attached only to a solid base using special fasteners or “liquid nails”. You need to choose a specialized glue, which is marked “for glass and mirrors.” The canvas can be full height or only in the upper part. Make sure that when opening the door, the mirror does not hit anything.

The door is like a business card of your home; people who come by it begin to form an impression of you. If it is in poor condition, this is not an argument in favor of the owner of the house. A door doesn’t have to be beautiful or creative, but many people want to make it neat and well-groomed.

Prices for modern doors are affordable, although they cannot be called low, so upholstering or reupholstering them with a new coating is much easier than purchasing a whole door. The advice and instructions received will allow you to step-by-step replace the door trim without resorting to hiring craftsmen.

Finishing with laminate

Today this material is very often used for cladding. Laminate as a finishing material has many advantages.

It is chosen because of the following advantages:

1. It imitates wood, but is much cheaper in price compared to natural wood.
2. Laminate is not afraid of exposure to ultraviolet radiation, it does not fade and is not afraid of temperature fluctuations.
3. The cost of the finishing material is low, everyone can afford it.
4. Dust is invisible on the laminate; it practically does not settle on it.
5. If you wish, you can purchase products that look like stone or any other material: there are no restrictions in decor and colors.

Laminate also has several disadvantages. So, this material is afraid of high humidity. Therefore, they cannot be used to decorate the exterior of a metal door in a country house. If, however, the panels are mounted on an external door, they must be covered with a special moisture-resistant film. Also, when finishing a door with laminate, it is quite difficult to insulate it.

Laminated planks come in different thicknesses from 6 to 12 mm; the larger it is, the stronger and better the coating. There are several classes of laminate. In apartments and country houses classes 21 and 22, as well as 23 are used. In non-residential premises (offices, government institutions) classes 31 or 32, as well as 33 are used. Along with the class, the wear resistance and impact strength of the material increases, but its price also increases significantly.