Winter is upon us and with it comes the bone-chilling breeze that sneaks under the crack in your door to throw a shiver into your spine and laugh at your attempts to warm your home. A draft isn’t just a problem in the winter; left unattended, a drafty door or window can really undermine any attempt to climate control your home or office and fixing it can lead to almost instant savings on the energy bill. Enter Meg Angela.
Using a few common household items, she fashions a door guard to block out any unwanted draft, akin to the “As Seen on TV” models you can find at your local Big Box Store. For this project, she recommends the following items:
- A foam pool noodle (Meg Angela suggests length of PVC if a noodle is unavailable, but cutting that really ups the complication factor.)
- Fabric Glue (Technically optional, it significantly reduces extra work.)
- A length of fabric (This can be an old sheet, as used in the video, or really any large swath with a design you like.)
First, Meg Angela lines the noodle up with the door and marks said noodle just slightly beyond the length of the door. This is her cut line, where she saws the noodle into a not-quite-even pair. This, she says, should leave one noodle slightly longer than the width of the door and one slightly shorter, to prevent the door sticking when it’s opened or closed. She continues by placing the noodles on the old sheet she’s using for this instructional, measuring and marking three inches out from the longest noodle.
She cuts the fabric, before measuring the doors depth to see how far apart the noodles to be placed. As she goes, she reminds the viewer that it is better to cut too large than too short. From here, the noodles are folded into the sheet and the entire thing slid beneath the door, a rough model of the finished product. From here, she can make her final measurements. Using a marker that doesn’t clash too wildly with the fabric, Meg Angela pulls the fabric taut beneath the door and around the noodle so it resembles the finished product; from there, she marks with subtle dots a line along which to seal the door guard and proceeds to do exactly that. She adds a line of fabric glue to her marked edge as well as one of the shorter sides, creating a sort of bag to easily add and remove the noodle pieces, for convenient cleaning. She leaves the glued fabric to dry overnight, returning to an effectively finished door guard.
In a fun finishing touch, Meg Angela produces two velcro strips. Using fabric glue, she secures one strip to the opening of the door guard, providing a convenient seal to prevent the noodles from flying out as the door is used. She glues half of the other strip to the outside of the door guard, between the noodles; the other half of the strip she adheres beneath the door, in so doing creating a clever means of holding the door guard in place. When everything is done, she demonstrates the final product’s effectiveness using a blow dryer and packing peanuts. Check it out for yourself.