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    Home » DIY Crafts

    Make a Daily Ornament Advent Calendar from an Old Door

    Published: Nov 14, 2014 · Modified: Jan 13, 2015 by Christina Dennis · This post may contain affiliate links · This blog generates income via ads · 34 Comments

    This is the story of how I turned something sitting in our storage into a gorgeous, vintage rustic DIY Christmas decoration for our home. (Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see more beautiful vintage rustic Christmas ideas from my talented blogging friends!)

    I have a love/hate relationship with doors. I love doors because they can be incredibly beautiful - especially old, weather-worn doors that have loads of history behind them. However, I hate doors now too. When we built Our DIY House, we had to order doors 3 (THREE!) times because of a comedy of errors. First, I made the mistake of consulting our blueprints for our door sizes rather than measuring the actual framed openings when our home was at the framing stage. Thankfully, my dear and patient husband was able to modify most of the frames to fit the doors, but some had to be re-ordered. When those doors were re-ordered I made another mistake. I gave Hubby the rough idea of what the doors looked like ("five panel doors - easy!")... but there were a couple of different 5 panel door available and he bought the wrong ones. We now have a stack of gorgeous, brand new doors in storage that are all machined to open a specific way that are really impossible to sell because of this. I've been patiently waiting for an opportunity to use one (or 5!) of our extra doors for a DIY project, and I finally had the opportunity this past weekend! Hooray!

    A DIY Christmas ornament advent calendar made from an old door

    I've wanted to make a unique advent calendar for our family for quite some time. It needed to be something that was beautiful to display, but also functional and interactive for the kids. I thought it would be fun to take one of our extra doors, make it look like an old door, and turn it into a beautiful Christmas ornament advent calendar. I'm so happy with how this project turned out! I did use a new door, but let's pretend this is an old, weathered door full of history that I scored at an antique shop. It's just much more romantic that way, OK?

    A DIY Christmas ornament advent calendar made from an old door

    This project was really easy, but it was quite time consuming.

    For this DIY Christmas advent calendar, I used:

    • a door
    • Annie Sloan chalk paint in French Linen
    • DIY chalk finish paint in white + water
    • a door knob
    • paint brushes
    • Annie Sloan Clear Wax & Dark Wax
    • twine string
    • eye screws
    • clothes pins
    • printer + paper (for the numbered tags - you can download the linen look ones I made for free here ---> Advent Calendar Tags by The DIY Mommy)
    • a set of decorative metal antlers
    • 24 handmade, vintage or special Christmas ornaments
    • a handmade bunting made of map pages

    First off, I took one of our old-new doors (this is a 32" wide one) and painted it with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in French Linen. It's a gorgeous warm grey - the same colour I painted the wicker baskets in our family room coffee table with. I didn't care about brush strokes at all - I wanted the door to look old and rustic (plus, I was trying to get at least two coats on during the girls' nap time).

    A DIY Christmas ornament advent calendar made from an old door

    After that colour (I did two coats of French linen), I waxed the door with Annie Sloan Soft Wax in Clear. Before the wax completely dried, I slopped on a white wash I made out of about 50% DIY white chalk finish paint and 50% water. Then, I took a clean dry rag and started wiping the white wash off the door in long strokes. The wet paint + the wet wax + the wiping creates a lovely aged look with lots of splotches and smears - just what I was going for.

    DIY-ornament-a-day-Christmas-advent-calendar-made-from-an-old-door-14

    I could have stopped here and put on a coat of clear wax to seal it, but I wanted to try some of my Annie Sloan Dark Wax, so I smoothed and buffed on a coat of that and then did another layer of white washing and wiping.

    A DIY Christmas ornament advent calendar made from an old door

    I'm smitten with the finish on this door! I even installed a new doorknob and white washed and waxed it to match the finish of the door:

    A DIY Christmas ornament advent calendar made from an old door

    I mounted my silver antlers in the center of the top panel of the door, and strung a banner made of map pages just beneath the antlers.

    A DIY Christmas ornament advent calendar made from an old door

    Next, I screwed 8 eye screws into the sides of the door. There are 4 on each side, and they're about 1 ½" from the edge of the door. If you're using a hollow core door like mine, remember that the sides and top of the door are solid, but the center is not!

    A DIY Christmas ornament advent calendar made from an old door

    I tied and strung twine string between the eye screws as shown and made some numbered tags.

    A DIY Christmas ornament advent calendar made from an old door

    Here's where all of our handmade ornaments went! Each numbered tag represents a day in December, and I've hung them from the twine with clothespins. Along with each tag, I've hung a special ornament that my girls can hang on our tree that day.

    A DIY Christmas ornament advent calendar made from an old door

    Here are the ornaments I used for our advent calendar this year:

    1. Glittered Snowflake (old)
    2. Turquoise Ball (old)
    3. Cinnamon Stick Star (here's the DIY tutorial)
    4. Wrapped Ribbon Ball (here's the DIY tutorial)
    5. Glittered White Metal Snowflake from Lowe's
    6. Green Glittered Ball from Lowe's
    7. Wrapped Burlap Ball (here's the DIY tutorial)
    8. DIY furry ball (Little C thinks this looks like a hair ball - ha! It's two circles of faux fur sewn together)
    9. Silver Pine Cone (old)
    10. Pipe Cleaner + Beaded Snowflake (here's the DIY tutorial)
    11. Cream Glittered Ball from Lowe's
    12. A Peacock Feather in a small vial (DIY)
    13. A Peacock Feather
    14. Blue Vintage Glass Ornament
    15. Wrapped Ribbon Ball (here's the DIY tutorial)
    16. Gold Glittered Snowflake (old)
    17. Map Paper Star (here's the DIY tutorial)
    18. Gold Pinecone (old)
    19. Bronze Pinecone from Lowe's
    20. Sparkly Snowflake (old
    21. Green + Turquoise Vintage Glass Ball
    22. Book Page Paper Star (here's the DIY tutorial)
    23. Wrapped Drop Cloth Ball (here's the DIY tutorial)
    24. Tree Snow Globe (here's the DIY tutorial)

    Thank you, May Arts Ribbon, for providing some gorgeous ribbon for my DIY ornaments!

    A DIY Christmas ornament advent calendar made from an old door

    Now our family's ready to start the Christmas season with our pretty new advent calendar. I think it looks great in our living room - it's a lovely feature behind our couch and between our two front windows!

    Ready for more vintage rustic Christmas ideas from more Canadian bloggers? These are gorgeous!

    Rustic Christmas Ideas

    Santa Cookies from A Pretty Life in the Suburbs

    Deer Head String Art from Clean and Sentsible

    Vintage Door Advent from The DIY Mommy

    Rag Ribbon Christmas Trees from Craftberry Bush

    Rustic Christmas Tree from Fynes Designs

    Christmas Window Box from Echoes of Laughter

    Ribbon Napkin Rings from Suburble

    Vintage Table Setting from The Sweetest Digs

    Twig Stars and Snowflakes from The DIY Dreamer

    Pretty Gift Wrapping from The Sweetest Escape

    Rustic Wreath from North Story

    Wood Block Presents from The Happy Housie

    Winter Swag from Satori Design for Living

    More Inspiration

    • DIY Thrift Store Candle using a kitchen canister
    • Turn an IKEA SORTSO rug into a gorgeous pillow
    • How to Make Money with your Cricut in 2023
    • DIY Dollar Tree Heart Shaped Wreath

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Christine

      November 14, 2014 at 5:26 am

      Absolutely BREATHTAKING!!! Love everything!! Pinned!

      Reply
    2. Virginia Fynes

      November 14, 2014 at 5:34 am

      This is such a unique idea! I have an old door kicking around, I should incorporate it into our decor too! Awesome idea for an advent!

      Reply
    3. Jo-Anna

      November 14, 2014 at 7:56 am

      This is a beautiful advent calendar Christina! I love your display on the door - I have a thing for doors! Very festive and classy!

      Reply
    4. Holly

      November 14, 2014 at 8:21 am

      What a beautiful project, Christina! And, I'm a bit giddy that I found such a fabulous blogger that's local (I'm in Spruce Grove). You now have a new follower 😉

      Reply
    5. Shauna

      November 14, 2014 at 9:45 am

      LOVE this! So pretty and such a great way to count down to Christmas. (Your ornaments look great too.)

      Reply
    6. Jennifer

      November 14, 2014 at 5:54 pm

      So, so pretty! Advent calendars are so fun and it's such a creative way to display your beautiful ornaments!

      Reply
    7. Tara

      November 14, 2014 at 10:24 pm

      This idea is simply lovely, Christina! I know that my girls would love to hang an ornament every day, and the door - so fantastic! I love it!

      Reply
    8. Melissa

      November 15, 2014 at 9:04 am

      I'm a sucker for a good advent calendar. Who doesn't love something that gives you gifts for 24 days!? I love that you made it a feature in your space and good work on making it look vintage.

      Reply
    9. Kendra @ www.joyinourhome.com

      November 15, 2014 at 10:02 am

      Oohhhh I felt so bad for you Christina, reading about your doors! 🙁 Oh well, you are making the best of it! Such a cute idea for an advent calendar! And the door looks straight from an antique shop!

      Reply
    10. [email protected] of Laughter

      November 17, 2014 at 1:43 pm

      This is fabulous Christina! The colours and the ornaments...everything is SO lovely! You are so talented! I never get tired of looking at your house or your projects! Amazing job! Angie xo

      Reply
    11. Carrie @ Curly Crafty Mom

      November 17, 2014 at 8:15 pm

      This is one of the best advent calendars I have ever seen, seriously! Gorgeous!

      Reply
    12. 204 Park

      November 18, 2014 at 4:06 pm

      Oh my gosh I LOVE this!! And those antlers on top are too perfect to finish it off! Great idea! XO, D

      Reply
      • Christina Dennis

        November 23, 2014 at 9:34 pm

        Thanks a bunch!!

        Reply
    13. Lindi

      November 19, 2014 at 12:12 am

      Hi Christina!! I LOVE this post! Including the ides of having kids decorate the tree with the ornaments, rather than candies, or chocolates. Such a great family activity! I'm also LOVING this Canadian blog hop. I just started blogging so it's great to find some other Canadians out there! Thank you for sharing 🙂
      Lindi @ http://www.lovecreatecelebrate.com

      Reply
      • Christina Dennis

        November 23, 2014 at 9:33 pm

        Thanks so much, Lindi. I love all of these bloggers - so much inspiration! Congrats on your new blog!

        Reply
    14. Krista @ the happy housie

      November 25, 2014 at 9:32 pm

      The door is absolutely stunning, Christina, and looks totally vintage!! The perfect backdrop for so many pretty seasonal vignettes- including this beautiful little advent! It was fun to be on this hop with you- sorry it took me so long to get here (crazy couple of weeks:).

      Reply
    15. Printable calendar

      January 16, 2016 at 1:17 am

      Your style is really unique in comparison to other folks I've read stuff from.
      Thank you for posting when you have the opportunity, Guess I'll just
      book mark this site.

      Reply

    Trackbacks

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      December 9, 2015 at 8:16 am

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