You want your room to feel:

Exotic

Exotic is a mood that reminds you of adventure. It’s the memories you bring back with you from vacation. It’s the tropical scent of coconut. Like placing mementos from your travels next to old family pictures, it’s that thrilling feeling when the extraordinary becomes a part of your home.

Want to create a new mood? Start Again

To create an exotic feeling in your home, we recommend

LIFE SCENTS™ MYSTICAL GARDEN

Discover mystical gardens of sun ripened rasberries, blooming roses and delicately soft marshmallows with this constantly changing fragrance.

Turquoise Oasis Freshmatic Complete

Expert Insights

These tips will help bring to life the mood you’re looking to create in your home.

Seek Global Inspiration

Bring a taste of the tropics into your home with an indoor palm tree or exotic plant with lush, large leaves such as an Amazon elephant’s ear. No room for a large houseplant? An African violet with its stunning pink or purple flowers is a perfect tropical beauty for smaller spaces.

A Surprising Touch

Add personality to your home by using a variety of different textures. Dried bamboo blinds and chairs, as well as chunky rattan weaves, will make your room more exotic and welcoming to touch.

Imported Adventure

Do you have a passion for experiencing the sights, smells and sounds of faraway places? Bring colors and patterns with a global flavor into your home by using boldly patterned Turkish rugs, curvy Moroccan tiles or carved Asian-style folding screens.

Upgrading a Flat Door with Panel Molding

The transformation of unattractive flat doors into paneled stunners shows that adding little details can make a huge difference to the look and feel of your home. And since you get to decide on your own paneling design, you can create any type of look from classic box panels to more exotic patterns with a unique flair.

Supplies List:

Low profile panel molding (available at hardware and home improvement stores)

Miter box and saw

Level

Tape measure

Fast-drying wood glue

Painter’s tape

Small brad nails

Hammer and drill

Wood filler, sandpaper, paintable caulk, and paint

Before starting work on your project, you'll need to decide on the type of paneling pattern you wish to create on your doors. Once you've figured out a design, measure your doors and calculate how long each piece of panel molding needs to be cut in order to create a centered pattern on your doors. Using a pencil, tape measure, and level, mark the spots on your door where your molding pieces will go. To determine how much panel molding to buy, add up the measurements of the paneling pieces that you'll need and then add on an additional 15% of material. There are many different size options for panel molding but molding that’s about 1” wide and has a flatter profile (between about 1/4” – 3/8”) works best for this project.

Now that you have your panel molding, use a miter box and saw (or an electric miter saw if you have it) to cut all of your molding pieces to size. Prep your doors by lightly sanding them. Then use painter’s tape to tape each of the molding pieces into place at the marked spots on your doors. Double check that all of your molding pieces are level and aligned.

To adhere the molding to the door, add a small line of fast-drying wood glue to the back of each piece, push it into place, hold for a few seconds, and then secure it to the door with painter’s tape. Wipe away any excess glue with a damp rag. If you have any molding pieces that won't lay flush on the door while the glue dries (due to warping of your door or the molding piece), drill a tiny hole into the end of the piece that’s sticking up and lightly hammer a small brad nail into it until it lays flat. Pre Drilling the hole before driving in the nail keeps the molding from splitting.

Once all of your molding pieces have been glued down and the glue has completely dried, the painter’s tape can be removed. If you needed to use any brad nails, fill those small holes with wood filler and sand them smooth.

The final step is to caulk any gaps between the molding and your door and paint the entire front of your doors. Add new knobs or pulls and you've transformed your flat, unattractive doors into decorative paneled beauties!

Other Projects

Share Your Mood

I want my home to feel Exotic. Pass it along and help friends find the right mood for their homes.