If you’ve removed a door any reason you know you are left with recessed areas where the door hinge was. It’s technical term is a hinge mortise.

I built a barn door for the mudroom and removed the door. I left the hinges for a while…then left the ugly empty holes for a while.

Not so cute, right?

I realized that a 2×4 is close to the hinge size.

I thinly sliced the 2×4 using my miter saw today get these mortise fillers.

I used the hinge as a template and traced on the wood. The wood is thin enough to cut with scissors to trim.

Used some wood glue and brad nailer to hold the wood piece in place.

Here you can see it fits pretty well.

I used some wood filler on the tip of my finger to fill in gaps and nail holes.

Wood filler dries quickly. Lightly sanded off any chunks after dry.

Primed my new wood with Zinsser then one coat of white semi gloss.

Gone, baby, gone. You are looking at 2 of the hinge mortises that are now barely visible.

I suppose if you are looking for them you can find them but this is a VAST improvement and very easy to do!

Now to repeat the process upstairs for 2 doors I took off as soon as we moved in plus one of the linen closet doors that I removed.

Easy Peasy.

Happy patching-

Kristen