How We Turned A Window Into A Doorway

The vision of turning our Dining Room window into a doorway that leads out onto a deck was thought of on the very first day we moved in. Worn out from moving both Mr P and my stuff from 2 different houses into our first home together we were sitting back under the patio admiring out new house and one of my mates who helped us move said ...

 

It would be good if that window was a door to outside

then I said

Yes yes oh yes onto a deck ... I've always wanted a deck!
 

The window on the right hand side is the one we want to turn into a door way

We've had some Dining Room dilemmas due to the size of our Dining Room being too small to entertain in so we decided to create an outdoor dining area with a new outdoor setting and entertain outside. This has worked really well throughout the years we've had some great dinner parties outside. Because the Dining Room was then free of furniture the aquarium and wine buffet was moved into the Dining Room and the space was otherwise left free so there was room to sit at the kitchen bench without feeling to crammed in.

 

Dining Area inside

Aquarium and wine buffet moved into the Dining Area



Dining area outside

Fast track a few years on and in our kitchen renovation we have allowed for the doorway to be built into the design. Although it will take some space out of our already small dining area, we have the idea of having a slim line dining table and chairs like a bench seat and table up against the wall so we can entertain in here if there's just a few of us and we'll otherwise head outside to the larger area. This allows us the best of both worlds - a small entertaining area inside and a larger entertaining outside.

 

You'll see below we have drawn on the wall where the kitchen bench will come up past the window. We've allowed enough room for a set of double doors to be installed in place of this window. Unfortunately, we changed our minds after the design was signed off on where we wanted the kitchen bench to come up to - where it is now it's going to protrude into the dining space too much which would mean the doors would be pushed into the corner rather than centred. As this part of the kitchen cabinets had already been made we had to pay $200 extra for the change, to reduce the size of the bench and the set of drawers on the end. Whilst I wasn't happy about losing storage space in the drawers we decided it was worth the sacrifice to get the right feel for the room and be happy with the end result.



Kitchen bench drawn on the wall to show where the bench will come up to

 

Last weekend the brickie who built our garage extension and Mr P spent the day turning the window into a doorway. Firstly, the glass windows and jarrah frame was removed. 



Loosening the jarrah frame

 

The old glass windows removed

 

Removing the jarrah frame and taking out the metal lintels around the brick frame work



Window removed ... there's no going back now!

Once the window was removed the heavy duty wet saw was used to cut a doorway out of the double brick wall - this was a very dusty and noisy job. The height of the doorway didn't help either, as you can see there is quite a steep drop from the inside of the house to the backyard.

 

Out comes the heavy duty artillery - wet saw to cut through the double brick walls



Making progress cutting out the doorway

Once the doorway was cut out we were ready to install the timber frame and then brick it up and cement it into place.

The custom made double door frame

Doorway cut out ready for door frame to go in

Fitting the door frame and making sure it was perfectly level took a bit of time and patience

 

Once it was in place the frame was bricked into place with bricks and cement

Fitting a metal lintel across the top of the frame

Once the frame was in we had to protect it by either painting or staining the wood. We decided to paint it to match the rest of our window and door frames which are painted white. The double doors we are going to keep the wood look and stain them to make them a feature.

Mr P sanding the frame ready for painting ...
my big bro helping or hindering (not sure which!) by keeping the beers flowing!

Painting on the undercoat and the next day they got a light sand and another coat of undercoat
and are now ready for a coat of white after the doors are installed
(they will probably get scuffed or marked which is why we're painting them after the doors go on)

The door way will be boarded up for 2 weeks until we have the double doors fitted

So these are the doors that we are installing, we scored them for $50 each they are seconds doors so have slight imperfections and they also need glass which we are getting quotes for and will have a go at fitting the glass ourselves. Once the doors are installed we will stain them to protect them from the weather.

 

Our 2 doors we scored for $50 each - they need glass inserts and staining

So what about that deck? Yea ummmm that's the next project after the kitchen ... and probably after the Courtyard too.

For now it will be a doorway out to the backyard with a steep drop so we'll probably keep the doors locked until we can come up with some sort of platform!

Take a look around your home you might have a window that would make a perfect doorway too!

Sharing with Link Parties:
The Dedicated House - Make It Pretty Monday 
Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays
52 Mantels - Thursdays Are Your Days
 

[All images my own]