Lynn and I were at an antique stop in Mt Pleasant and found this door. It came out of an old house in Charleston. We loved it so bought it. The beveled glass is in perfect condition. The oak needs refinishing though. The door is 39.5 inches wide and our front door is 36 inches wide. So I either had to cut the door or redo the entire entry. Of course I'm doing the later.
Here is the door in the shop. I've stripped off the trimwork and hardware and sanded it.
I bought beveled glass and caning and made replacement side lights. They sort of mimic the lower part of the door glass.
Below is our current front door. The top isn't being replaced, but everything else is.
Here is the door hardware. The only one that is original to the door is the second from the left, with the petina. That will be on the inside. I bought three brass reproduction hinges, far left. The ones tht came with the door were just heavy duty stainless steel. The plate on the right and brass knobs on the right were bought at a local place, Charleston Hardware.
If you look at the first picture on this page, you can see that there is a cool trim on the inside of the door. The outside of the door is totally flat, no trim. So I decided I would replicate the trim on the inside of the door and add it to the outside of the door. The picture below shows the new trim. The far right piece is one of the original pieces I'm replicating.
The picture below is the top two pieces I need to replicate. I have a 11" wide piece of oak I need to cut the shape out of. Then a couple passes through the router should do it. In the picture below, the top trim is sitting on the outside of the lower part of the door. The outside of the door was totally neglected by the previous owner. I've stripped the 1/8" veneer off the bottom and need to replace it. We are painting the outside of the door a red color so getting down to good white oak on this side isn't important. I don't think I would have bought the door if we weren't painting the outside.
I have so much of the trim because I am going to add it to the lower side panels as well. If you look at the photo of the current door above you can see that those panels are raised panels. The door bell is going back in.
1/9/2017 I made the top trim for the outside of the door. It will look so much better than just the flat wood.
Like I said, the outside of the door is going to be painted, "Ruby Lips".
2/3/2017 I put all the trim on the door yesterday and this morning and stained the inside and painted the outside this afternoon.
Now I'm tearing apart the front door getting ready to install the new door.
2/5/2017 My neighbor Steve came over to help me bring up the front door from the basement and help me put the beam up in the kitchen. Well we not only did this but we put the door in. Still have more to do today. Have to get new screws for the hinges, the brass ones that came with them just don't like screwing into oak. Have to put in the hardware and the threshold. Then there is a little trim on the outside frame to put up then a little painting.
2/7/2017 Well the door is almost done. Notice the door knob isn't there and there isn't a threshold. The threshold should arrive tomorrow and the front door plate should be done early next week. I replaced the hinge screws on the posts with steel ones. The palm door knocker is on the left side and the twisty bell ringer on the right. Lynn painted all the trim today. Looks great!!
The inside is all done.
2/10/2017 The door is completely done, inside and out. We got a new bronze plate for the outside. Got the vinyl strip for the threshold and made the rest from oak.
