We recently bought a 1956 home. Thankfully, a lot of the house has original finishings. All of the doors in the house match, but this one has a dent in it. I don’t know if there is any way to fix it or make it look better. Any advice is welcome!
Our facebook group were very keen to offer their opinions on this one. Here’s a selection of some of the comments on this topic that were shared in our exclusive Facebook Group dedicated to midcentury modern home owners. If you own a midcentury house and are not already a member, join us now!
- “You can get specific timber fillers that don’t shrink and are tinted to your existing timber at hardware stores. It’s never going to be exact but it’s a possible option. Alternatively you could try to fill it first then use a special decal/sticker with a timber finish. Once again it’s not perfect but it is an option. Take an up close photo and then have it printed on a sticker material so the color and wood grain match”
- “The screw holes in my 1964 hollow plywood doors were filled with a teak wood filler. It’s not a perfect match but they were just small holes, so they aren’t too noticeable. If the doors are very bad then you can just buy a new plywood flush surfaced door. If you do buy new doors only use water based satin varnish (if you like the wood grain look) as oil based varnish darkens and yellows with age. I spent days paint stripping the old glossy varnish off and sanding back to bare wood. The doors look much better now and lighter, in satin water based varnish.”
- “You can get a door like that at Home Depot. You can also get the ‘skin’, it is just a thin piece, and remove the old and replace. Any furniture maker or cabinet shop can do these.”
- “The best answer is to buy a new birch or maple hollow-core door and finish to match the originals. A patch will always look like a patch.”
- “I had same problem. Here is door where my handyman put a thin sheet if veneer over the old door and I stained it. Looks great unless you get close in the sides and you can see the veneer layering.”
There’s much more to this discussion in our facebook group. If you own a midcentury home you can see examples and read more ideas for this member here.
