Adding a Z Brace to an Existing Door

I’m in the middle of a slow going makeover of our patio. We have been and will be spending lots of time out there in the upcoming months so I thought it was time to give it some attention. There’s more to come but I spruced up the old door between our patio and garage with 1×6’s and paint. Let me show you how.

I spruced up the old door between our patio and garage by creating a z brace with 1x6's. It was so simple and gives so much detail to a plain door.

First off, here’s the door before. Grimy and ugly.

I measured the width of the door while it was closed. Because it has to sit in the threshold, you have to measure and make room for it to close after all the extra pieces are on.

I used a 1×6 and cut two pieces a little smaller than the door width.

Use construction adhesive and a nail gun to attach the pieces. Use a level to make sure they’re straight.

The cross pieces ended up being around 5″ in from the top and bottom.

I used a clamp to hold the diagonal board in place. Once it was where I wanted it, I used a straight edge to mark where I should cut. No angle math involved— I would have been out of luck.

I cut the bottom part first, placed it again and marked for the top.

After it was all attached it was time for paint.

That’s all! It looks so much better.

I used Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze. It’s the color of our back door and our garage door.

Read about how we modernized this door

Also you can check out the video version of this tutorial here.

Let me know if you have any questions. It’s been fun to find ways to work with the doors we have. A couple weeks ago I made over the face of a door in our big kid’s room. It was pretty much the same process but with beadboard instead of a diagonal bar. And I added carriage hinge hardware which made it the cutest.