CUSTOM DOORS

​This is where we started.

The client wanted to close off the stucco arch and build a door there, so that she could turn her porch  into a room at the front of her house.
She wanted the structure of the  door to reflect the ​line of the roof.
 She wanted translucent glass panels in the top of the door   ​

After we had agreed on a design, the first task was to  create a "frame" for the doors  that would exactly fit the irregular stucco arch.  I taped some paper to the inside walls and marked out the interior edges. I built the uprights from old growth Redwood and the four curves with Alaskan Yellow Cedar.  I cut fingerjoints  in all four pieces,  held them in the place,  glued  them together and lagged them to the stucco. ​

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​Then   I took two 1/8 plywood doorskins, tacked them to  inside of the fame and drew out the shape of the doors. My workshop was two small to build them so I used our  living room floor.   I worked directly from the full scale  layout on the door skins and hand cut "through mortice and tenons" for everything except the curved  corners which were butted together and strengthened with a  simple hardwood spline.  The door frames are built from  Alaskan Yellow Cedar and the diagonal panels are made from ​Brazilian Red Cherry

​I took a picture of some timothy grass, inverted it and Kim drew her design onto the glass and sandblasted the panels.

​I made the door sone at atime.  Allowing for the fact that my frame was 3/4" of an inch out of true from one side to the other, I hung the first door with a 3/8" variance up and down, hoping that I would be close to square with the other door and wouldn't have to move the inhiunges too much.  When it came time to hang the second door, it fit beside the first door perfectly flush up and down with  exactly 1/16" gap between the two door edges.  I have hung a lot of much simpler doors and never been so lucky.  I very nearly cried with joy and relief.   I certainly jumped up and down and yelled.