DEBBIE Scott is the first to admit she's no Mike Holmes. But the 40-year-old teacher does like to "dabble" in home-improvement projects.
Take the old dresser she converted into a bathroom vanity in the powder room off her kitchen or the many pieces of used furniture she's given new life with her talent for faux finishing.
Last summer, Scott overcame her fear of power tools and transformed an old door she bought at Habitat for Humanity's ReStore into a beautiful headboard for her master bedroom.
"I finally built up my nerve to use a circular saw and I still have all my digits," says the do-it-yourselfer, who spent three days stripping old paint off the recessed panelled door before trimming it with decorative mouldings and repainting it crisp white.
The challenge with the bedroom she shares with her husband Greg is it's only 12 by 13 feet. Adding a footboard to their king-size bed was not an option and in order to squeeze every inch of space out of the room, the headboard had to have a flat profile.
That's when Scott decided to use her imagination and make her own, spending only $60 on the entire project.
"It was very trial and error for me," says Scott, who had to buy a second piece of moulding after splitting the first. Tip: Always predrill before hammering in nails.
Luckily, she only had to make one cut with the circular saw to even up the space on either end of the door.
A narrow piece of trim was also added to hide the holes after the old hardware was removed. To cut costs, Scott used leftover white paint she already had and mounted the headboard to the wall using inexpensive two by fours screwed into the studs.
-- Canwest News Service
