new closet doors with mirror

nydesign

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Jul 24, 2011
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These are doors I made to replace a wall of full length mirrored doors from the 70's.
This is for my parents house, my mom told me what she wanted them to look like and I
took it from there. I tried to copy the existing molding around the bedroom door, and window.
The mirrors used to be floor to ceiling, the new doors look like they have always been there, a huge improvement
to the 100+ year old house. No more disco  [big grin]

This project gave me some headaches and it drove home the importance of choosing perfect lumber when making doors.

I used 6/4 maple and a set of freuds door bits to make the stick and panel doors.
I bought the maple from a lumber yard with limited stock. At the time I noticed some slight bowing in the lumber, but it
did not look that bad, and I thought it would just flatten out once I got the doors together. That was a big mistake.
After milling the pieces some of the doors rails had a noticeable cupping to them, I ended up planing them down, which worked, but now the
door parts were close to 5/4  [mad] This caused a problem fitting the doors together, as the freud bits I used were made for thicker stock.
After some creative sanding I got the doors together, painted and installed. And guess what, more bowing in the wood. One of the doors has
twisted out slightly preventing it from closing even with the door next to it, of course it had to be one of the doors in the middle.
Rather than making a new door, I'm going to plane it down till it closes properly. After painting I don't think you'll be able to see a difference,
it's the inside corner that needs about an 1/8" taken off it. I will never buy lumber in a rush again.

I got the mirror from a local glass shop. It's 1/4" thick and covered with a 1/4" plywood backing.
The ply is held on by 1" wide x 1/8" thick strips covering the door frame and ply. I hope that makes sense, I did not take any pics of the backs.

In the end I like the doors quite a bit, and my parents are happy with them, that's what counts :)

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Very nice!  I made a similar pair of double french doors for our MBR closet and getting them to line up was a bear!  Great idea on the mirrors; I'm sure it makes the bedroom bigger and filled with light. My wife would love the mirrors, so I'm not going to show the pictures to her till everything else is done  [big grin]
 
Thanks, yeah before this the entire wall was mirrored, it was too much.
I like the mirror in the door frame, it adds a lot of depth to the room, without being in your face so much.
I hung the doors first, then put the mirrors in them. I did not want to try moving the doors around and hang them
by myself with the heavy pieces of glass in them.
My wife looks at photos of stuff I make for clients and always asks why don't we have something like that...
It's not like I don't make furniture for our place either  [unsure]
 
The mirrors in the doors really do add a lot to the room.  Very nice.

Are you a vampire? 
 
Vindingo said:
The mirrors in the doors really do add a lot to the room.  Very nice.

Are you a vampire?   

haha  [big grin], it was actually easier than I thought to hide from the camera.
 
Very Nice work. Looks like it has been there all along and blends in with the room.

Its amazing now how many people in our line of work have no idea how to build or hang a door. If they don't come with the hinges already installed in a frame they can't do it. I was at a customers house Monday and fixed a door going into a bathroom, the door is bowed because it only has 2 hinges(Hollow core) and won't close due to pinching the stop in the middle and they took a knife and tried to shave the door….Oh did I mention the bottom hinge "was" upside down...
 
nydesign said:
These are doors I made to replace a wall of full length mirrored doors from the 70's.

I think the design looks great. What (at least what I can see) a nice house to work on.

nydesign said:
This is for my parents house, my mom told me what she wanted them to look like and I
took it from there.
I tried to copy the existing molding around the bedroom door, and window.

Your mother has good taste  [big grin]. Curious, what Freud set did you use.

nydesign said:
Rather than making a new door, I'm going to plane it down till it closes properly. After painting I don't think you'll be able to see a difference,
it's the inside corner that needs about an 1/8" taken off it. I will never buy lumber in a rush again.

It will be interesting to see if this door continues to cup and cause problems. Do you know what the moisture level of the offending rail/stile was? I have never been happy with wood that starts out with a problem (cupping twisting etc.) Always creates more work than the savings on the stock. Ya, I can get the board flat and yes it is relatively stable but there is always a problem milling it as it is a different dimension than all the other pieces.

Doors look great!

Tim
 
JLB builders LLC said:
Very Nice work. Looks like it has been there all along and blends in with the room.

Its amazing now how many people in our line of work have no idea how to build or hang a door. If they don't come with the hinges already installed in a frame they can't do it. I was at a customers house Monday and fixed a door going into a bathroom, the door is bowed because it only has 2 hinges(Hollow core) and won't close due to pinching the stop in the middle and they took a knife and tried to shave the door….Oh did I mention the bottom hinge "was" upside down...

thanks JLB, I agree hanging a door is a skill in itself, I'm much better at making the doors  [tongue] I did get a crash course in hanging them this summer, I did a job making 13 custom doors and frames. The carpenter I worked with made it look easy, I did all the fabricating work and he hung them for me. After watching and helping I think I have the hang of it, lol.

Tim, thanks a lot :) The set I used was one of these, I don't remember which profile it was.
http://www.freudtools.com/p-208-two-piece-entry-interior-doorbr-router-bit-set.aspx
The set was pretty easy to use, all would have been great if I did not have to plane the boards down.
My moms an interior designer, her home looks pretty nice, she got me some of my first clients for built-ins :)
I think the doors are done with any more movement, I'll see what happens this winter.
I did not have a meter with me when I picked up the lumber, I should have waited or used a different wood species.
 
Thanks, I have some skills, but not all the skills  [tongue] I learn something new with each job.
I guess that's how it is making custom things, each project is a little different.
 
nydesign said:
Thanks, I have some skills, but not all the skills  [tongue] I learn something new with each job.
I guess that's how it is making custom things, each project is a little different.
Thats why I luv my job. Keeps it from getting boring. Always learning and getting new skills. I find as much as I thought I might know looking at projects from others, like furniture, would be challanging since I do not do that kind of carpentry,YET :)
 
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