The Last Pocket Door

Because of the weather, work on the last pocket door had to move inside. The basement was also too damp and too badly lit. I finally set up a work space in my old office where I could close the door, but there was still a lot of sawdust everywhere.

As it turns out, this last side of the last pocket door has the most minor damaged both on the face and on the edges. I finally decided to fill the edge damage and it will probably require a little faux painting to blend it into the rest of the door, depending on how it looks after the stain and the first coat of varnish.

** As it turned out the patch is at the back, bottom edge of a door that is not going to be closed all that often. It shows, but not enough to be a problem.

Once the door was finished and the hardware was in place, I finally hung this last door and had all my doors up and functional.

Unfortunately, two problems became apparent once all three doors were up. I did not like the way the doors overlapped when they closed together. Also, when the side trim was in place, the doors went too far into the pockets.

After mulling over the problem and asking a lot of people their opinions, I decided to apply a false post to the edge of one of the doors so that when they were all closed it would fill the connecting space. After checking out several possibilities, I found a piece of poplar that filled the bill at The Rebuilding Center, had it trimmed. Then I sanded, stained and finished it.

I considered for a long time which door to apply it to and finally decided on the third door. The one that will probably be closed the least often. This means that the double doors can close with or without a post.

The post is a different wood than the door (poplar not fir) and doesn't match completely in color, but it's similar and I didn't want the post to blend into the door itself.

In the end, it is a subtle difference with all three doors closed from the inside corner, but one that matters to me.

It makes a much bigger difference on the outside when two adjacent doors are closed, making a corner. The post gives a more finished look to the doors and makes a much more solid corner.

I also now have an official theme for the doors, each of the doors finished so far has a different kind of leaf somewhere on the panel. The new door has an oak leaf to go with the ginko, ivy and aspen leaves on the other doors.