New Doors

Front door and closet door
Front door and closet door
Last January we bought supplies from Lowe’s to redo a bathroom. I decided we should replace the door, since it was crappy. This then turned into replacing all the interior doors, and Clare decided to go ahead and throw on the exterior doors too. We got the exterior doors done in February and March (thanks Dave and Mekayla), and I have 3 out of 7 interior doors done now. The front door is fiberglass, which I painted Reaction on the outside, and Ginger on the inside. We couldn’t get a matching stock 30″ fiberglass door for the back, so we went with a steel door, which has blinds in between the glass, which I like.[1] I used the same paint as the front. We got six-panel pine doors for the interior, which were modestly priced, and much nicer than hollow doors (there is cardboard on the inside of them). The key with a soft wood like pine is to use a pre-conditioner before staining. I used Minwax Golden Oak, followed by several coats of Minwax Satin Polyurethane.

I have always liked the look of rosettes (corner blocks) for trim, so we decided to use those. I looked into fluted trim, which normally accompanies rosettes, but it was pretty expensive, and I since I wanted to stain the trim, not paint it, I thought it would be a real pain to sand. Ellen came up with a great idea. We found some 1×3 select douglas fir boards at Lowe’s which have a nice grain pattern to them, and already had kind of rounded edges. They were also cheaper than any of the other trim options, and weren’t terribly expensive. The stain on the doors doesn’t exactly match the trim, since they are different types of wood, but it is pretty close. Thanks to Rick, Mekayla, and Nathan for helping me hang some of the interior doors.

[1] Actually, I did buy a matching 36″ door, then realized that the back door was actually 30″. I blame it on Spencer, who was getting antsy while I was placing the delivery order at Lowe’s. Fortunately, my next door neighbor Micah, who has a truck, helped me exchange the door. He is a great neighbor.

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