The original Edwardian internal doors throughout the house were boarded up when we moved in. This is what the bathroom door looked like. If you are thinking it doesn’t look too bad, you would be right.
But after removing the board to show the original panels it looked more like this (It’s the same door, but the picture is take from inside the bathroom):
And close up it was more like this:
The frame and door were covered in loads of layers of paint which was chipped all over the place. The amount of paint also meant that most of the detail in the wood was lost. With the help of a heat gun we stripped away the layers back to the original wood. (You have to be careful when stripping old paint, as it can contain lead) It took days to remove all the paint and then still looked quite messy.
So after a few more days of sanding, this is what it looked like. Not bad for a 100-year-old door frame.
We striped and sanded the door as well. It seemed to take for ever and in future we will probably have the other doors dipped – it’s still loads of work to just strip the frame! Then, when all the sanding was done, we got rid of the dust and treated the knots with knotting solution. This is really important, as we obviously missed one of the knots, and it is already turning yellow.
Now for the painting. We have chosen a white eggshell finish for all the internal woodwork that we are painting. We definitely didn’t want a shiny gloss finish and the eggshell just gives it an ever so slight sheen when the light shines on it. All in all it probably took about 3 full days of work spread out over about 4 weeks to completely finish the door. In order to get the paint to cover completely we had to apply 3 coats. We also lightly sanded the surface with 240 grit paper between each coat to get a perfectly smooth finish. Last but not least, we attached our new door knob. And here is the result.
Here are the side by side before and after pictures for you:
You can see that there is loads more detail.
Although it was loads of work, we think it was worth it. We especially love the detail that is now visible. The door would actually look new if it wasn’t so warped!
