(I apologize for the terrible lighting in these photos. My pocket door lives in a spot where there is NEVER any natural light.)
A while back, there was an unfortunate meeting between a skateboard and my laundry room pocket door.
Because pocket doors are encased in the wall, replacing them means taking apart a lot of moulding and whatnot, so initially I was all, “WAAAAHHHHH!!”
But then I thought, “Hey, why not at least try to fix it?” If the repair went badly, it’s not like I’d have been out a whole lot of time or money.
So, I took some spackle and shredded paper, and proceeded to fill the hole (the shredded paper gives the spackle a bit more heft and helps the patch to hold together better.)
I did several coats of this (with paper just on the first go-round) and sanded it down at the end.
For the last coat of spackle, I took a little scrapbooking tool and tried to mimic the lines of the initial door pattern, and then I sanded and painted the patch.
The fix isn’t perfect by any means, and I think it still could use one more coat of paint.
But considering what it looked like before…
…I feel like this is a significant improvement.
And I think we are not going to bother replacing the door.
LDA
Thursday 10th of November 2016
We have had to do this same type of repair on our pantry door in our former and current homes. That's just what happens when you have boys in the house who for some reason prefer to close the door with their foot! And you are right, it's not perfect, but good enough. It has also provided 2 of my son's "Remember when..." stories.
Carol
Wednesday 9th of November 2016
Congratulations on a creative and inexpensive repair. We have a pocket door, which I insisted on having installed. Now the pocket door is stuck & won't open all the way & it's challenging to wiggle through. So we're looking at around $400 to cut a hole in the wall in the adjacent room & repair it. Not sure when we'll do this. I can certainly think of better ways to spend $400. By the way, thanks for your Aldi's post! I live in Atlanta and my Aldi's is practically across the street from Trader Joe's. So I went after reading your article & another bloggers. Wow! Organic grass fed ground beef is around $5.50 per pound compared to $7.50 at TJ's & even more at Whole Foods. Plus I bought a 1/2 gallon of organic milk for only $3 which exactly 1/2 the price of a gallon at Trader Joe's. So now when we run out milk, I have more ready to go without having to go to the store on short notice. We drink both whole and skim milk in our family so I don't want to have 4 gallons in the frig at a time. Have a great day!
Kristen
Thursday 10th of November 2016
Yay! I'm so glad that Aldi is working out for you.
Gina
Wednesday 9th of November 2016
Looks great - I needed your skillz when my son did that to my laundry door. I patched it, but it's not near as elegant a fix as yours!
Angela
Tuesday 8th of November 2016
Wow! That looks amazing! Filing this away for the future. With a house full of boys it will come in handy one of these days.
Kris
Tuesday 8th of November 2016
Wow! Impressive! We have 2 pocket doors in our home, and I hear ya about the hassle it creates for repairs. Glad you found a good solution. I DO love the functionality of pocket doors, however. In our smallish home, every inch of floor space is valuable.