The project rumbles on and now we hit step W of X in phase Y of Z - the under stairs cupboard door. Space is at a premium so making use of ...
The project rumbles on and now we hit step W of X in phase Y of Z - the under stairs cupboard door. Space is at a premium so making use of all available is mandatory during this project. The steepness of the stairs, normally a drawback and a challenge, are this time a valuable attribute as they lend an uncommon sense of generosity to the space under them. (It's a bit of illusion really but it's the steepness of the taper that prevents the cupboard appearing as long, low height, unwelcome hiding place).
In the finished state this cupboard will house the microwave, the Festool Dust Extractor (the best vacuum like evah no matter what that James Dyson chap will tell you) and the normal odds and sods that clutter our day to day life (ironing board, airer, the list goes on).
It has an unusual "feature" - a sealed window. We've no idea why but it's there and as a result we were pushed in the direction of looking at doors which had some kind of way of letting some of that light in. The original door was your classic thin, 4 panelled, pseudo VicGeorgia type job that at some point had been thrown in a tank of stripper before being treated to the ye olde worlde varnish.
We considered many options right the way from full bespoke fabrication, through up cycling industrial chiller display cabinet doors and ending up the quite frankly obvious solution of a gaol cell door (we love that word, gaol, but we'll spell it wrong at some point so will revert to prison). Why? because of the feeding, document, CS gas admittance slot of course!
We'd seen a few on various architectural salvage sites and eBay but £480! really for that? The thing which you admit doesn't work, has no keys and has clearly been stood outside for some time. Then we were saved by a bloke living on a hill farm in the Brecon Beacons but curiously in one of those "I don't believe it" coincidences hailed from the same town as us. Listing an "Authentic prison cell door" and showing just two pictures BUT with the crucial attributes of a low start price, keys - yes keys! and dimensions that made it a practical reality.
Cue some bidding, some transport shenanigans and it arrives - lets stop and put some numbers around it to get an idea of what we're talking about here. It's pitch pine, 1890mm high, 725mm wide, 70mm thick and weighs around 50kg - in other words it's solid, heavy and solid. One side is covered in a steel plate (this is side upon which I'd beat my hands, furiously though ultimately helplessly, should I find myself incarcerated). Both sides had been treated to the benefit of an unspecified number of paint coats at least some of which probably reduced my life expectancy during their removal.
Now the fun really starts; the plan is simple BUT likely time consuming (we've been here before...). Strip the paint off the metal to expose some of that there lovely "patina" seal with lacquer, strip the paint off the front of the door and then repaint in Farrow and "that much?" Ball. Ok enough pre-amble lets walk the walk..
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| The start of it all |
The metal side
I know you're thinking "lol easy, couple of gallons of Nitromors, cup o tea and jobs a goodun" - We'll just say no and you can read why later. Here's the actual method we used and some rough ideas of times - for any of you labouring under the illusion of finding patina this may show you what's actually involved in making it happen outside of the TV/YouTube environment.Bulk paint stripping was done with an angle grinder (+1 likes to Bosch Professional) and a 125mm wire cup brush (boo to MachineMart). This got us a pretty good finish with almost all the paint gone in around 2 hours. Then it's brave pills for the arty-farty part; replace 125mm wire cup brush with very aggressive 3m Strip-IT (yay to MSC again) and apply liberally and randomly to lift some areas - repeat for 30 minutes. Re-install the 125mm wire cup brush and use it with lots of pressure to "blur" the work done in the previous step, simmer for 60 minutes or until happy. Now cover the door and leave to the weather for 7 days - some "flash rust" will occur (we want this to happen). Take the cover off, use wire-wool to remove the loose rust but to leave some blurred rust coloured staining and then, finally, lacquer.
When I say lacquer we mean spray 5 thin coats of gloss with a finish coat of matt to knock it back (approx. 1 hour with lots of rattle can rattle).
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| Texture! |
The "other" side (front)
Here's the Nitromors story - In our mind we go to B&Q, pay an extortionate price for something we could have brought a lot cheaper had we planned, we apply said product to the door, the paint comes off with the merest brush of an ostrich feather (what, you don't have one in your decorators kit?) revealing a perfect, paint free surface ready for a spot of sanding before being hit with the F&B magic.In reality it all went wrong after the "pay extortionate price..." bit - said product "Nitromors - extra, super, duper strength" is applied as per instructions, nothing happens for a bit, we get impatient and decide we may try the hot air approach (and I don't mean us talking to it), 10 minutes later there's some vague bubbling where the Nitromors was applied whilst we've managed to remove a whole load of paint with hot air.
Around 3 hours later it's done. The majority of the time taken was in removing the paint from the bead moulding. Sanding was nice and quick and was a good opportunity to wield the Festool in it's proper role as a dust extractor. We sanded the door using a trusty DeWilt RO Sander, trusty because we can't think how else to describe a power tool that we've owned for getting on for 15 years, has been used and abused, has sanded wood, metal and plastic and yet still works.
Now off to paint as they say at GMG. We used F&B's undercoat for light paint colours and for sealing resinous wood (remember the door is pitch pine) and then applied two coats of F&B Wevett.
Lets be clear about the intent before some of you look at the pictures and point out the visible panel cracks, the dinks, donks etc - that's the idea! To remove them would give me a new door or in other woods a door with the character and quality removed from it so enough already, k?
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| Off to Paint |
The Iron-Work
So at this point we have the door painted but hey the funs not over yet, we still have the small question of the iron-work; spyhole cover, spyhole escutcheon, feeding hatch, feeding hatch escutcheon, door lock, ventilation grill. Fortunately they been painted in some kind of military spec, null-entropy, black stuff which required around 6 hours of what felt like continuous abuse with a wire cup brush. When it was done we were was questioning the parentage of the spy-hole and accusing the main lock of some frankly appalling acts.Next the parts were cleaned up with white spirit (we've found this to be a really important part of the process, no joking, using White Spirit does "something" in addition to just cleaning) before being subjected to the multiple lacquer coats progrom. You can see in the album how the challenge of cleaning the screws was done - lets just say it didn't involve some crazy person holding them by hand hoping to not wire brush their fingers away.
The install
Lets get this out of the way at the start; the door is not the right size - it's both too short and a little too narrow BUT this isn't about perfection and 1mm shadow lines.The major challenge is not the dimensionality (is that a word?) but just the physicallity of the thing. It weighs a lot and as any one who has fitted a door knows it's a combination of brutality and finesse. The weight thing also impacts hinge choice and some concerns around the frame (will it hold the door? will it crack? will it... tune in next week, oh wait).
The solution proved to involve spending some proper money after we showed the door some B&Q hinges and it basically laughed and said "no way, like, no way". Equipped with thrust bearing upgraded certifired ISO 90000001000 etc etc hinges the install proceeded. In the end it wasn't the drama we'd anticipated other than a days delay to allow the paint on the mortises to dry. We had to do some shimming to get the door centered horizontally and to get the hinges to sit level on the door (we re-purposed the existing hinge mortises).
The Result
We're satisfied, no mildly happy, no fiercely elated ... It's pretty much as we'd hoped, we love the look of the cast iron work, the way the extra flat paint on the frame and skirting literally frames the door and of course the rear of the door. In some ways the back of the door is the "money shot" here and it's a shame it's hidden but the compromise is having to look at those nice bits of cast iron and a funky big key. |
| Front/Back! |
