There's a bear outside my door!

Or is there???

Little by little I'm pulling our living room/computer room together.  The living room and hallway has been going through a make-over for the past 2 years. Plain walls bore me, and this closet door was no exception. There are 5 doors in this little area of the house. 2 closet doors, 2 bedroom doors and the bathroom door. They were all stained dark cherry and badly in need of refinishing. Yesterday I decided to paint 4 of them to match the walls.

We live in the woods because we enjoy the seclusion and communing with nature. On Father's Day 2012, our dog Shadow chased this bear up a tree in our front yard, about 30 feet away from our front door. I was able to capture it on camera. Ever since, it's been a favorite picture of mine. I was standing about 12 feet away from him when I snapped the shot. This door was crying out for something, and this picture seemed perfect since we have birch trees painted on the walls across from it, and a bear theme ceiling lamp. I'm quite pleased with the end product. Now that I've brought a bit of the outdoors into our living room, I have to remember that it's only a picture and not a bear staring in at us.

A quick explanation on how the door panel was done.

Using my photo program, I set the print size to be the size of the door panel and inserted it into an excel spread sheet. I had to make the width a bit wider than the panel in order to keep the same proportion and obtain the proper length. The next step was to print the sheet out landscape style on 5 pieces of 8.5" x 11" fabric printing stock with 1/4" margin all around. I trimmed the pieces and glued them to the door with a spray adhesive. I then used black grosgrain ribbon as a mat border and painted the edge molding metallic gold to appear like a frame. 

I use the excel program for this type of application because the worksheets automatically generate pages. By establishing a 1/4 inch margin on all 4 sides, I'm ensured that the pieces will match perfectly once they are trimmed, and there's no guesswork involved. I always print on paper first to make sure that my finished product will be the proper size. Once satisfied, I print each sheet individually. 1 sheet at a time rather than set it to print all 5 sheets. I do this just in case I run into a printer problem. I hate to waste the fabric stock if I don't have to.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed my little project. I managed to get all of the doors inside and out, and molding painted in one day, and finished this door on the 2nd. Not bad for two days work.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope this has inspired you to do something different with your doors.

Huggs!
     Joanie