What To Do About Doors

I’ve been pretty much ignoring this issue for a number of reasons. I think the only time I have mentioned the doors is when I lamented the shear number that I need to make. I need 18 doors in all. It just seems like it is going to take forever.

For me, the two big challenges with door making are the mortise and tenon joints, and making the panels. Ok, aside from hinges and latches, that is pretty much the entire door. Oh, and did mention that I hate doing hinges as well? As for the latches, I’m fairly indifferent towards them.

The other issue with the doors is the material. Even though the butler’s pantry side will be painted, you will see the inside of those doors from the dining room side. Especially on the uppers, because the doors on the dining room side will be glass.

The face-frames on the dining room side are, of course, all made from the curly redwood. I don’t have anymore of that for the doors. Even if I got more, which I’m sure I could if I really wanted it, it would not look the same as the face-frames. With this in mind, I’m probably going to do plain redwood, of which, I have an abundant supply. I’m not sure if that will look odd, though, to have curly redwood face-frames and plain redwood doors.

Then there are the panels. Lots and lots of panels. Eighteen of them, to be exact. That is a lot of damn panels and a lot of wood. I will need a lot of nice wood too. I need a lot of 12 and 16 inch wide panels. I have found that I am not the best at gluing up panels. I can do it, but sometimes my seams show.

So I’m thinking obscure or stained glass for the butler’s pantry side uppers. The dining room side uppers will be clear glass with some subtle etched design around the edges. The idea is that one would display their assortment of fine china in the uppers to impress their guests. If I did a stained glass on the butler’s pantry side it would look very cool with the lights on in the butler’s pantry. The inside of the cabinets would be bathed in a colored light. Very Victorian and a nice alternative to having lights on the inside of the cabinet.

I’m not thinking any kind of designed stained glass in the traditional sense. Rather, large panes of colored glass in place of solid wood panels. Glass size could become an issue. Most glass makers, except Kokomo Glass, make glass in either 12 or 24 inch wide pieces. I’ve been trying to calculate the width I would need, but my brain has seized up. If I had to get it from Kokomo Glass again, then that means another trip The Bay Area.

Plenty to think about and plenty of time to think about it.