How to Make a Quick and Easy Card Display

This was a project that was inspired by my mother-in-law. Her previous house had wooden louvered doors throughout the home. One in particular was a closet door in the den near the kitchen.

This door became the place, especially during the Christmas season, where she hung all sorts of cards. The cards hung by slipping them in between each louver. When she moved into her new home, she commented, "I don't have anywhere I can hang my cards!"

Now it happened that her birthday and a scheduled visit was coming up, and since she lives so far away and I had the chance to easily give her a gift in person, I decided that a hand-crafted birthday gift was the way to go. So, I went to work on a cute and functional item that I hoped would give her a new place to display her cards.

To get started, I purchased an unfinished, pine bi-fold louvered door from a local home improvement store. The door was on clearance so I paid less than $30. I went ahead and had a guy in the lumber yard cut the door in half so I could fit it easily in my car.

One side of the door after being cut in half.

I removed the hinges, filled the holes with wood filler and then lightly hand-sanded the entire surface using 180 grit sandpaper.

Once I finished sanding, I wiped them down with a dry cloth and then got to painting. Spray paint was definitely the way to go since you cannot beat how easy it is to use. The red paint required primer, however, the teal paint was a handy paint plus primer in one (awesome!). I painted both sides of each section so that the color coverage would not be an issue when hanging on the wall.

Once they were completely dry for 24 hours I deemed them good to go. I then added 3 hooks to the bottom of one of the longer sections that I was making specifically for my mother-in-law. I thought she could hang keys and such from them. I then attached picture hanging hooks to the back for easy hanging on the wall. I made sure to place the wall hanging hooks so that the louvers pointed up since that would make the cards hang easier.

Once this step was finished, I placed some cards and they were ready to hang!

These are two that I made for my own.

I (as well as my mother-in-law) think they turned out great! We look forward to changing the cards up with the seasons!