Trompe l'oeil on a Thursday - Bifold Door Makeover

 I know you've probably lived in at least one apartment or house in your lifetime that had these... Lovely, non-descript boring bi-fold doors...........

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Yes indeedy, completely void of any detail or architectural interest of any kind. Oh wait, I'm sorry, there are....the knobs........

 
But you CAN improve these I promise..........So gather up some tape, lots of painter's tape, and paint and brushes, and let's get to work.

What we're going to do is fake the eye into thinking the doors have dimension by taping off sections and using different paint tones.  Here's how to do it:  Base coat the doors and let them dry a couple of days if possible.  Next, for each "panel," apply two rectangles of tape.  Apply tape following the outside perimeter of the door, about 1-2 inches in. Then leave an inch or so, and apply a smaller rectangle of tape inside the first. It's all in the prep. Next, mix up some white with your original paint color and paint inside the smallest rectangle.

Next you're going to paint the strip between the two rectangles of tape.  In my case, there was a window in the room to the left of the doors, which would be my lightsource, so i'm going to mimic that light.  I painted the "L" on the left hand side in white.....

Then, on the right hand side, paint the inverted "L" a darker color.  You can mix some black or brown with your original paint color, or you can just pick a darker shade of a similar color.

Peel off the tape.  And here's what you're going to get. Amazing.........with a little optical trickery, you can give the illusion of dimension in the doors!  (If it's your first time, you might want to mimic just one panel.  For these, I did upper and lower ones.  It's a lot of taping, but the effect is well worth it!)

Next, I applied a white glaze to "knock down" the color a bit and age the finish.

 

I added satin nickel chunky knobs, and here's the final product.  Tuscany right there in your bedroom!....What an improvement!  Thanks for reading!!!!!!!!