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New doors vs. old doors

Bridget19
9 years ago

I am looking for input. We are building a new home. We've been buying old doors, refurbing them and planned on using them in the house. We have to make all the door jams and retrofit things. I love the idea of every room having a different door. We don't plan on reselling anytime, this is our forever home.

Now, I am second guessing myself and thinking we should just go with 5 panel doors and use some of the older doors for closets. I thought instead of different doors we could do different door knobs.

I love ecletic, but give me honest thoughts please.

*I originally got the idea from Joanna Gaines, from HGTV Fixer Upper. She did different doors in her own farmhouse.

Comments (8)

  • sombreuil_mongrel
    9 years ago

    I'd say go for it. Make the jambs out of solid 5/4 stock with the door rabbet cut out, so no applied door stop molding. The heavy jambs will be such a great upgrade over the stuff they send out with prehung doors, not to mention the unspeakable garbage of split-jamb doors.
    You will need to figure out how to mortise the hinges accurately, and troubleshoot hanging problems like hinge-bind, and the one tool to invest in (for rabetted jambs) is a #78 stanley rabbet plane so you can plane tight spots on the jambs in place, after the doors are hung. A real time-saver. You will probably also want a #10 1/4 jack-rabbet plane (yes, seriously) to clean up the rabbets that you make with a table saw.
    Casey

  • dekeoboe
    9 years ago

    Sounds like a fun idea and I think it could turn out well, but it depends on the style of the house. And have you been buying doors that are all the same size? (I bought a number of stained glass windows and used them as transoms over our interior doors. They are not all the same, and I think they look wonderful.)

  • Mags438
    9 years ago

    I love the idea too. If you can have them all retrofitted to work, I'd do it! Different knobs may work too.

  • kayakboy
    9 years ago

    What is the style of the house? If it fits the style, I would do it.

  • Bridget19
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    The style of the house is a ranch style. Very simple lines. The interior will be a mix of new and old. We are going to have an open concept with kitchen and family room and nook and then a dining room. My hubby is going to build a 3.5ft. by 12ft. harvest table. The chairs will be different sets. I am looking for an old hutch to redo and then we will build a buffet table too. My lights over my island will be industrial looking barn lights.

    My style that I like is pretty much what Joanna Gaines from Fixer Upper has her house like. Whites, gray's, wood and industrial look.

    attaching a copy of our plans, we did redo the master bath.

  • rwiegand
    9 years ago

    I really haven't found it to be all that much more difficult to make door jambs from scratch vs futzing with pre-hung to make them right and you have a lot more freedom to make stuff that actually fits the first time. So by all means, do it! If you can use the same hinges a router jig to make the hinge and lock mortises is nice, but it's not so bad to do with a chisel

  • Fori
    9 years ago

    Sounds nice!

    Do it. You can always replace them with boring doors in the future (if you change into a boring person, or have to sell or something).