Applying an oak veneer to an existing door lining

[Irn]

We're renovating our house and approaching the point when I'll need to deal with the internal doors. We want to fit oak (or oak veneer) doors and want the framing to match. I had been looking into replacing the door linings (which are currently painted white) with oak or oak veneer ones, but this obviously comes at quite an expense.

I had the idea last night of possibly keeping the current door linings, sanding them down and applying an oak veneer, so we get the look without needing to replace the lining. I'm thinking this will be cheaper, less work and less waste.

Would this work? And will it look good? Or is this likely to fail?

Any experience or thoughts welcome. Thanks.

 

[foxhole]

Are your frames perfectly square and exactly the correct sizes , veneered doors do not normally allow trimming .

 

[^woody^]

The chances of failure will be greater than of success.

 

[Notch7]

Your best bet would be a wood veneer laminate -its real wood veneer made into a laminate

I wouldnt fancy your chances of using oak veneer -standard veneers are 0.6mm thick and there is a fair bit of skill doing veneering -Ive done a fair bit and I wouldnt consider doing door linings.

see Woodys post above -succinct but also wise

 

[Irn]

Thanks for your advice everyone. Sounds like it's not an appropriate way forward, so I'll stick with my original plan of replacing the door linings.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I agree - veneer just won't be durable enough, but there is a way forward!

The architraves will need to be replaced by solid hardwood architraves, the door casing or door lining could be lined with 4 to 6mm thick hardwood lining pieces ripped to the exact width required, and the stop laths (for linings) are replaced by solid hardwood ones. This leaves the door opening 8 to 12mm narrower than previously. The doors might need to ne made to order or standard size then resized and relipped to make them the correct width for the opening. I have done this sort of reskinning job on a couple of posh restaurants in mahogany, and a couple of Next shops in walnut - in all cases where the cost of replacing door frames/casings with solid hardwood ones was probitive. Not easy, but can be done

 

[^woody^]

Aesthetically, oak doors in oak frames, with presumably oak architrave and associated oak skirting can lead to OD'ing on oak which at best requires a painful stomach pump and at worst death by oaking.

Less is moar.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

The alternative might be to find a decorator, a proper decorator, to do a graining job on the door linings/casings. I saw this done on a dental surgery a maybe 10 years ago - from a distance it looked spot on, even nearby it fooled most people. Maybe a skill the OP could learn (needs graining combs and Ratcliffe's scumble, however). I'd still replace the architraves with the real stuff, though.

Less is moar? Oak is nice - can't ever get too much