Going Dutch

Well, lookie, lookie what we did.  We converted the door at the top of the stairs from the kitchen to the basement from a regular old door to a dutch door!

You can see the door here on the left side of the photo in all of its natural wood glory.

And, this is what it looks like now:

Oh yeah, and I might have forgotten to mention that I PAINTED IT BLACK!!  Which might be the coolest part of the whole project, but back to the door itself.

Why do I want a dutch door, you might be wondering.  Well, I'm glad you asked.  Our kitchen is sort of the doggy isolation area when we get back from our daily river walks.  You see, my dogs love to swim in the river that we walk along, so most days I return home with two dirty, wet, happy swamp monsters for dogs.  See exhibit A:

And, exhibit B:

So, to keep the entire house from becoming a nasty pit of dirt and filth, I often keep them in the kitchen until they are slightly less dirty.  Which means I need to be able to close off the exits.  And, having a door that can be open on the top and closed on the bottom means heat from the basement stove can travel up and light from upstairs can travel down while the dogs stay put.

Of course, turning a door into a dutch door was not as easy as I had hoped it would be.  (Is anything?)  Making the actual cut was simple:  a friend came over and did that for me with a circular saw.  After cutting the door in two, I was left with a top half, which already had 2 hinges, and a bottom half with only 1 hinge.  The top could be rehung right away, but I needed to install a second hinge on the bottom before it would be functional.

I won't go into the gory details of installing hinges, but let's just say that it's not one of my talents.  If you ever decide to give it a try, I have one word for you:  precision.  Be precise!  The hinge placement- both on the door and on the door frame- can't be just "good enough".  It has to be exactly, precisely correct.  Or else you get a wonky door.  Which won't go back on its hinge.  Ask me how I know that.  Go ahead- ask.

Anyway, after some trial and error, I was able to successfully add a hinge to the bottom half.  So, I had a door, cut in two, which now had two hinges on the top and two hinges on the bottom.

Time for paint!  The painting process was simple:  one coat of primer, three coats of paint.  While I was at it, I also painted the molding around the door, which also required three coats of paint.  All of the waiting between coats of paint (and that darned full-time job) made this project drag out to nearly 3 weeks.

Once all the paint was finally dry, I was super excited to rehang the door and finally get to see all of my hard work pay off.  Picture me springing out of bed last Saturday morning (this alone is noteworthy, as I am not a morning person) ready to *finally* pop the door back onto its hinges and fall in love.  Now picture my disappointment as I discovered that 7 coats of primer/paint can really affect how a door fits into its opening. It wouldn't fit.  Not even close.  Cue the violins, and give me some cheese for my whine.  'Cause I was super disappointed.  Back to the drawing board.

But, you know what they say:  where there's a will, there's a way!  And, will has never been something I've been short on.  I pulled out my palm sander, and showed that door who's boss!  I sanded down the edge of the door (on the door knob side, not the hinge side) until it closed without hitting.  And, I also ended up needing to recess the strike plate on the door jam a touch further.  But, once it was all said and done, I was left with a fabulous and wonderful dutch door.

It's totally functional for us, and frankly I love it for its looks alone.

It's unexpected, and the black paint really sets it off with the white molding and bead board nearby.

At this point, this project is about 90% done.  You can't tell from the pictures, but when both halves of the door are closed, they rub each other just the slightest bit.  I'm sure this is because of my questionable hinge installation skills, because when the halves are open, they don't touch at all.  At any rate, this can be easily corrected by taking a blade width off the top half, which I plan to do this weekend.  Other than that, I just need to decide how/if to top off the bottom half.  Right now, the cut edge is just painted, but I could top it off with some wood or laminate or something to make it feel a bit more polished.  I'm still researching what to do there, so stay tuned.

 

I love catching a glimpse of the black door from across the room.  See how it ties into the black curtain rods and shelf supports?

 And, when its all closed, it looks like a normal door!

 

But, of course, I prefer to show off all of its dutch-ness!

So, what do you think?  Do you like dutch doors?  Do you like doors that have been painted black?  I hope so, because I foresee some more in my not-too-distant future!

xo,

Emily

**  linking to
Elizabeth & Co.
Shabby Creek Cottage