Sunday, December 30, 2007

Swing In - Swing Out

In prep for the floors getting refinished, to let us in and keep the cats out, I decided to install the swinging door between the kitchen and dining room. There was no door there, but the signs there once was could be noticed in the jamb. Two setups used to be found - one with double action spring hinges, and another that swung on pins located in the top jamb and floor with a spring built into the floor pin/bracket assembly. It looked like mine was the double action spring due to no wood was removed to mount any pin assemblies and that the ghost of a single stop moulding was seen on one side that would shim out the spring hinges. Plus a good deal of holes in two locations where hinges would have been.

So back to good ol' EBAY I found an original pair of double action hinges and at a good price - keep in mind these are the rarer of the two setups. They are quite impressive at about 2 pounds a piece! The hinges are marked Brommers and latest patent date is 1896.

So first I sanded down the jamb in prep for a shim strip which I made from the oak flooring I removed to expose the original floor. Next with some help from Rach I mounted the hinges to the strip. This is quite an act since these guys want to spring shut and you need to keep it open to expose the mounting holes.

double-action hinge in closed position


With hinge side complete, now there was the story of coming up with a door. Originally the whole house was 5 panel oak - but now only 3 oak doors remain, and only one that would fit this spot. The rest of my salvaged doors are all pine, and downstairs will be all stained oak - so the only solution was taking the oak door I found between the two front bedrooms that was walled over. This I will replace with a pine door which will keep the upstairs consistent.




double-action hinge in open position, door pivots off opposite pin for other direction

So after some minor trimming to get the size just right, Rach again helped hold things while I pried the other side of the hinge open and mounted the door to the hinges. A little more tuning and the door works great. Now it was time to strip all the white paint off and expose the oak graining as it was meant to be.




Now just needs some finish sanding, stain and poly, and eventually do the kitchen side which will remain white to match the kitchen scheme.

1 comment:

Sandy said...

A lot of work to be sure, but it looks to be well worth it. The apartment that my Mom and I lived in years ago (about 41 to be exact) had that kind of door between the kitchen and the living room. I absolutely loved that door. Never had a drop of paint on it. I'm betting that the door isn't even there anymore.