Picture a tall, narrow collage with a row of doors in it: a red one with a foil knob, a blue one with a crack of yellow light at the bottom, a green one that’s mostly stripes. It looks far fancier than it is, which is my favorite quality in a project.
I started mine when a neighbor’s front door was swapped for a new one and the hallway looked suddenly bare around it. When someone types door installation Colorado Springs into a search box, the new door is what they have in mind; the empty wall beside it comes later, and that’s where scrap paper earns its keep.
What you’ll need
- A stiff backing, about the size of a cutting board (the side of a shipping box, or the back of a writing pad)
- Scrap paper in many colors: wrapping paper, gift tissue, the insides of old envelopes (colored copy paper)
- One sheet of plain paper for the base (a paper grocery bag, cut open and flattened)
- A glue stick, plus white school glue thinned with a little water in a cup
- Scissors and a pencil
- A scrap of kitchen foil for the knobs (a candy wrapper)
- An old flat brush for the thinned glue (a folded paper towel)
- A damp rag, a baking sheet to hold your scraps, and a stack of heavy books
| Glue | Hold | Dries | Kid-safe |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glue stick | Light, fine for flat paper | Fast | Yes |
| Thinned white glue | Strong, good for foil and thick bits | Slower | Yes, washable |
| Flour-and-water paste | Medium | Slowest | Yes |
Set up your space
Use a table you don’t mind getting glue on, and put a few sheets of newspaper under the work. Here’s what I’d tell my first-year self: lay a spare sheet under the piece while you glue, then peel it away and the table stays clean. Keep the damp rag within reach, because sticky fingers leave prints on pale paper.
The baking sheet is the real hero. Cut scraps go on it, sorted loosely by color, so tiny pieces don’t disappear into the newspaper. I lost a whole afternoon’s worth of yellow on my first collage that way.
Step by step
Step 1: Sort your scraps by color
Spend ten minutes dividing the paper into piles: warm colors, cool colors, patterns, and a few neutrals. When it’s right, you can see at a glance which colors you have too much of. The common slip is skipping this and cutting from the middle of the stack, which gets you five blue doors and no green ones.
Step 2: Cover the backing
Glue a sheet of plain paper over the backing, working from the center out and smoothing with a clean rag. When it’s right, the surface is flat and the edges are folded around to the back. If a wrinkle shows up, lay a piece of baking parchment over it, set a heavy book on top and give it twenty minutes.
Step 3: Sketch the doors lightly
Draw five or six door rectangles in pencil, all different heights, with a gap of a thumb’s width between them. Make some tall and thin, some short and wide, and one with a rounded top. When it’s right, the row looks like a street where nobody agreed on a style. My first doors were all the same door, five times, like a very dull parade.
With kids: Let them draw their own doors, however wobbly. A door with a drawn spiral on it is a much better door than a perfect one.
Step 4: Cut and glue the doors
Cut each door from a different paper, cut a slightly larger darker rectangle for each as a frame, and glue the frame down first. Press the door on top of the frame and rub it flat with the rag. When it’s right, each door has a thin colored edge around it. Use less glue than you think you need, because glue that squeezes out the sides leaves shiny halos once it dries. If it does, wipe it at once with the damp rag.
Step 5: Add the small details
Now the fun part: knobs from rolled foil, a window from a scrap of tissue, a stripe of yellow under one door for light, a patterned strip for a welcome mat. Dab thinned white glue on the back of each knob. If a knob peels off, it’s because the glue stick can’t hold foil; switch to the white glue and press for a count of thirty.
Step 6: Paint the hallway with paper
Fill the gaps with long strips: a floor stripe along the bottom, a wall color between the doors, a darker thin strip beside each door as a shadow. When it’s right, the doors seem to sit in a hallway rather than float on a page. If the strips overlap messily, tuck the ends under the doors and trim with scissors.
Step 7: Press it flat
Lay a sheet of baking parchment over the finished collage, set it under a stack of heavy books and leave it for an hour or overnight. In a dry-air place like Colorado Springs, glued paper dries fast and likes to curl, so press it as soon as the last piece goes down. If an edge still lifts afterward, glue it again and press for another hour.
Finishing and display
Once it’s dry, you can brush on a thin coat of white glue mixed half and half with water. It dries clear and gives the paper a soft sheen, but test it on a spare scrap first, since some tissue papers run. Follow the label on whatever glue you use.
Paper fades in strong sun, so hang the piece on a wall that doesn’t get direct light for long stretches. A hallway beside the front door is often the sunniest spot in the house, so move it somewhere calmer if you notice the colors paling. Keep it away from damp walls and bathrooms too. A thrift-store frame, or a simple cardboard mat, makes a handsome finish, and any hook should be rated for the weight of what it holds.
Try it this weekend
A three-door postcard version that fits into one free afternoon.
- Time: about an hour, including drying under books.
- Supplies: one postcard-size piece of cardboard, scraps in three colors, a glue stick.
- The step that matters most: cut a slightly larger darker frame behind each door.
- Press it flat under a book before you decide whether it’s finished.
Where to take it next
- Carve a single door into a soft printing block and pull a few prints. A small block is quick, and a carving tool should always cut away from your hand.
- Turn the doors into greeting cards, one per friend, with a different knob on each.
- Make it a group piece: everyone brings one door on a square of cardboard, and the squares go side by side into a long hallway.
Keep a sketchbook page of your failed doors, because they make the good ones look even better.