I set about getting the kitchen door refurbished from top to bottom as it was in the poorest condition of any of the internal doors. In fact, after stripping it of paint, it was debatable as to whether I should bother trying to restore it at all, as nearly all of the panels were badly damaged:
There was also a large chunk missing from the middle rail:
Many of the rails had also begun to split apart:
Regardless, I decided to stick with it and sent the door to Paul Dowdall Joinery who popped in six new panels and a set of new molding strips on one side. He retained the quirky shape of the top rail as it shows the history of door alterations as the shape of the door opening changed over the years.
I then began filling and sanding the stiles and rails, as well as removing old hardware:
As per my typical method, I began applying new panel moldings one by one:
The door was also too long due to the new reclaimed floorboard height, so the length had to be corrected:
The smell of this wood was phenomenal!
The frame also required a lot of repair work as it was very badly worn:
The quirky shape of the top panels:
All painted up with new hinges:
Seamus Martin of Sash Window repair, along with his colleague Sean designed and built two brand new window shutterboxes for the kitchen window and stairs window. The kitchen window originally had a full sized, floor to ceiling shutterbox but it had been lost decades ago. As the kitchen sink now sits below the window, I wanted a new shutterbox made up to match the original, traversing down and joining the kitchen countertop.
Lots of measurements were taken, with an incredible amount of attention to detail in regards the profile of the moldings, thicknesses, dimensions etc.
Fitting a mock up piece on the stairs window below. The architrave was made as a perfect copy of the other window shutters in the house.
This was the empty window reveal in the kitchen before installation:
The new shutters in place:
The guys made dummy shutters; as in, the panels are non functional despite looking like they are. It was just impossible to make them functioning with the tap in the way:
The amount of effort it took to ensure the shutter didn't touch the draining area, didn't impinge on the cabinets opening and ensuring there was just enough depth to cover the worktop upstand was mighty!
And then the stairs shutterbox:
The window reveal was always going to be oversized, so I followed up by filling the gap with plasterboard and a several skim coats of plaster. The lime on these walls also has a small bit of gypsum added in as a stabaliser, so the two coats should be seamless:
I've begun painting it the same Colourtrend Wolf Grey as the kitchen door, the window will be painted in the same:
