Custom Front Door

[Bobmarlon]

Anybody here build there own front door.  I have a white home depot door on my cabin and I have been thinking of building my own wood door.  Ive built cabinet doors before and I have a pretty good grasp on what I would want to do but was wondering if anyone here has done this.   

[MartyM]

 I was going to post this in the Home acc. built in thread when I was done finishing it. But this looks like a fine place to post the first step of my build.  I dont have a cabin to put it in yet, my plan is to have the doors and windows built and ready to install when the shell is built.












I built the door from Ash that I milled with an Alaskan chainsaw mill.  I really like the wild grain that comes with knots and other growth features in the wood. So rather than cut out the knots and splits that come with the grain patterns I used inlays to cover the defects that might be problems down the road.

If you look close at the lizard inlay you can see the grain pattern in the door closely matches the shape of the lizard.  That is the pith of the tree you can see the pith running up and meeting the lizards tail the four legs were knots that were split length wise from branches early in the trees life. The head was a small loose knot.  Some of the other inlays are acorns, leaves end mushrooms.

The whimsical look was intentional, and my idea was to put a smile on the face of anyone that happens to come knocking. 

Did it work?   

[bayview]

  Wow!   Nice door!

/.

[MountainDon]

Nice looking door!   

[johnky]

That is really nice!  It has a lot of character and will definitely set your place apart from the rest.

[PEG688]

Nice work!

  The side rails are a bit wide , maybe a 1" narrower would have been better balance. And I would  have ran the "stronger" candles, the bigger loopy grain patterns , on the lower  flat panels so the strongest candles pointed up.


But all in all GREAT job, love the let in details , and the frieze ledge , different length corbels , and the lizard on the center rail. Outstanding job ,one of the  best front door seen here on C/P.

  Can hardly wait to see what you come up with for windows!

Again nice job!

PEG

[Mike 870]

I really like what you have done.  I love the inlays and the corbels.  It's details like that that yell you "you can't buy me at home depot!"

[Whitlock]

Top of the line!!!

[Redoverfarm]

 

[Ernest T. Bass]

Amazing--I think it might be the best looking door I've ever seen! I'm jealous..

[UK4X4]

That doors awsome- roll on the cabin !

[glenn kangiser]

Very nice door.

I built my own front door too, but a bit more on the rustic but functional side.

[MartyM]

No worries about unwanted visits from bull elephants..

Way cool Glenn. 

[MartyM]

Thanks for the kind words folks, it was a lot of fun.

Peg

The side rail width was some what dictated by the taper in the panels.  I think the panel needed at least a 2 inch taper or it just kind of blended in. I laid out the side rails in several widths before settling on this set up.  When I laid it out with thinner rails the bottom of the rail was less than 3 inches wide.  It just didn't seem to have enough meat left.  Not to mention the door knob would have fallen right on the edge of the panel. 

Is the candle orientation a just your preferance?        I had never given that much thought.  The only board I had that was wide enough to make the panels had some wane on one end so that ended up at the top, or thinner end. 

[PEG688]

I see , the why of it  now.

On the candles , ya I guess it's my preference.  On drawer fronts I like to match my grain at least on the top most drawer the the grain "keeps going". On raised panels that run horizontally I'll try to do the same thing, keep the same board with the grain  lined up.

On balusters on stairs I try to have the VG side of the balusters all facing in and out , the mixed grain face  goes toward themselves / the 4 inch apart way.  Newel post same thing the VG faces match the balusters direction.


  I think it makes things look better / cleaner / a calm.   Have the grain "fight" each other distracts the eye.

It's a excellent looking door , and I missed the tapered rails    , so I see what you where working with . And the wane edge thing , ya , ya got a plank that only works one way , so what ya gonna do. All understandable situations / issues.

Nice job!!