Ideas for "wall doors" under stairs....

Joined
29 Dec 2014
Messages
119
Reaction score
7
Location
Wiltshire
Country
United Kingdom
Hi

Planning on knocking down the wall under the stairs (the tri-angular bit) and building a clever cupboard setup.

I'm planning on 3x 500-600mm wide doors, floor (ish) to the top - so the top of the door is angled. Sort of like https://i.pinimg.com/736x/dc/02/b2/...0fc--under-stair-storage-basement-storage.jpg - but my stairs are steeper and taller, so the biggest door will be 2m.

I also plan to have "flush" doors that are wall coloured and thus look hidden (except the lines). Handle-less - with push-to-open catches and the kitchen-unit style hinges.

*anyway* :)

The question is - what to make the doors out of? the best I can think of which would be flat and not twist/warp is 18mm MDF? would that be too heavy? Is there anything better? Normal ply would also be heavy and prone to warp, and I guess I could go internal frame and thin ply face, but I'd guess that would be prone to warp?

Final finish would be wall coloured emulsion.

Ideas welcome. Thanks.
 
Sponsored Links
If you have a local Howdens, they do hardboard faced doors that are just a frame of wood that's 1x1.5" wood all round the edge, and then cardboard baffles inside. You can cut the doors, strip out the wood that you've cut off, plane the hardboard off, and then apply wood glue, and reinsert it back in place.
 
If you have a local Howdens, they do hardboard faced doors that are just a frame of wood that's 1x1.5" wood all round the edge, and then cardboard baffles inside. You can cut the doors, strip out the wood that you've cut off, plane the hardboard off, and then apply wood glue, and reinsert it back in place.

That's an idea! Not sure about planning the hardwood - too manual for my liking :) Flush router bit maybe!

May need to reconsider my hinge idea - as these may be too thick for the kitchen unit concealed hinges? (the 3 doors will be next to each other with no visible uprights as they will be behind. (I know the kitchen hinges are limited to 18mm door thickness for them to be next to each other. If these faced doors are thicker then they'd foul the door next to it on opening. Other ideas?)

Guess the hardwood would take emulsion ok

edit: B&Q (yeah yeah!) sell similar to how you say - http://www.diy.com/departments/flus...gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CPySp5m2lNgCFU_cGwodNpcAQQ - and yep, I see it could be a great idea and better than MDF. Modifying is fine. 40mm deep though...... Hinging will be the challenge.

edit2: they also do 626 wide - using those would like my life much easier! So glad I asked :)

(the "goal" is to just have the doors on view that open (push-spring). The vertical supports would be "inside" (think of a kitchen unit run of 3 cupboard, the "carcass" is not visible - just the doors. ). So how can these be invisibly hinged? ....runs to google)
 
Last edited:
Sponsored Links
The B&Q doors are ply faced, and might well be a bit stronger. The Howdens door are hardboard, not hardwood, and take seconds to plane/clean off the old hardboard, but both types of doors are about 1.25" thick, so the concealed hinges wouldn't work. The Howdens doors are already primed, so will take the emulsion, but the wooden sides are bare, so need priming and undercoat first.

You could hinge the two side doors normally, and then hinge the middle door on a post, but you'd then have to open the door next to it to be able to open the centre door.
 
Faced ply pre-made would be fine, think I need to go look & feel - but thanks for planting that idea! (The internal honeycomb would stop the warping, so ideal! I had considered making my own frame but without the internals I was concerned about warp). prepping the wood is fine, delegate painting to the wife :)

As for hinges, those threads don't help - but thanks.

See http://www.sdslondon.co.uk/img/pdfs/80254.pdf which is "kitchen unit" style hinges but max door depth of 38mm.... So will be fine for 40mm (!) by increasing gap by a couple of mm.

Appreciate the ideas - :)
 
Unfortunately, you may have cardboard honeycomb where you need to fit the hinge, not complete wood, so you'd need to cut the wood out at that point, and insert a deeper piece to take the hinge. I suspect that the B&Q doors would be better, but the ply face won't be as forgiving as hardboard when trying to prise it apart. If you're skills are good, then you could cut a section out where the hinges are to go, and then fill it with 2 part wood filler, but you've got to smooth it off and get your hole drilled (or the other way round might be better) before it sets rock hard, then it become a bugger to work with; you'd make sure that the filler goes up against the wood side piece to extend it's support.
 
Fairpoint Doggit. Looking at the hinge spec - the screws will need to be in @ 31mm (20mm radius of hole, + 11mm from edge for 40mm door) - so will check any door I get :) TBH - even if the hinge hole had to be 2mm from edge (thus screws at 22mm) then I'm happy I can engineer the "posts" to cope.
I don't think I need to prise the door apart either - I think I should be able to cut it to shape (rail plunge saw) and then replace the wooden frame I removed with new or old wood, glue clamp, and happy.

Happy I've got a plan now better than when I started this thread, thanks.
 
Kitchen style hinges act against touch latches as they try to close the door.
 
Kitchen style hinges act against touch latches as they try to close the door.
Thanks
I have some that I bought to look at a while ago that should work. (*should!*)
Assuming the hinges are undamped and not soft close, these act on the opposite side to the hinge and act as a soft-close too. So the last 2cm of closing pushes in the piston. Then pressing the cupboard door depressing the piston another couple of mm will then reverse the piston action and it will push out. Not much, but enough to then open the door.

That's the idea. May work. May not :eek:

Similar to https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/20X-Cabi...hash=item3af61b7b7d:m:mjX6CXiCkWsLQXp_6cGkfDw
 
Links in this post may contain affiliate links for which DIYnot may be compensated.

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top