Needing mouldings matched

[JoceAndChris]

I completed the papering of the jib door today. A jib door is where you ignore the fact it's a door and carry on with the decorations regardless. This one's there because of an architectural error, they clearly thought it could be the way into the dining room, but the dining room fireplace, on the other side, unhelpfully obstructed the arch that had carefully been created, and so that's now hidden within the cupboard, whilst another arched doorway was created on the left, forever ruining the symmetry of the hallway. I always wondered why this door wasn't panelled when the others are and I now think it's meant to take the same treatment as the walls.

So to complete the illusion I need to find identical skirting and dado and get Chris to screw it to the door. Been and Queued today, no joy. Any ideas where I can get it to match?

 

[JoceAndChris]

Excuse the terrible phone photo, the camera's broken.

 

[Nigel Watts]

Does the door open into the room?

If so, if you plant a skirting and dado moulding onto the door across its whole width it won't open. Even if you stop it short it wont open fully because the door mouldings will bump into the adjacent wall mouldings. This problem arises in part because the door opens outwards but is made worse by the fact that the door appears to have its hinge right in the corner. A parliament hinge might solve the problem. These have pivots which are forward of the face of the door, so that when the door is fully open it will hang away from the adjacent wall.

In the pic below, imagine you are in the cupboard looking at the hinge (frame on left, door on right). The open door hangs to the right of where it otherwise would, preventing the mouldings from getting in the way.

Mouldings can be copied by a good carpentry shop, at a price. You can make mouldings yourself but it's hard work and requires certain tools. Narrow ones (less than an inch) can be made using a scratch stock. A piece of thin steel needs to be filed to the profile and gripped between two L shaped pieces of wood. This is then drawn back and forth over the edge of a suitable piece of timber and the moulding formed.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Hall is coming on a treat Joce--!

 

[JoceAndChris]

Nigel - thanks for the superbly detailed reply, what a craftsman you are! I hadn't really considered the door might not open well, and the hinges are also something to mull over - thanks very much for the pics. Yes, the door opens into the room and as it's my wardrobe it gets very heavy use. It might be better to paint faux mouldings, or use the computer to make trompe l'oeil borders.

The skirtings, anyway, are work in progress as I've decided to have a go at faux marbling them black.

Hall is coming on a treat Joce--!

Thanks Joce, the big thing this year was remaking the curtains which I set about after completing the swags and tails. What with all the hand sewing and interlinings it took a month! They're incredibly warm now though so definitely worth all the work.

 

[lou]

Wow - what an amazing room! It must have taken ages and lots of patience. It's as much as I can do to decide on a colour and paint the walls and woodwork.

 

[LadyArowana]

Hallway looking so lovely now, well done. I was told it would be about 100 pounds to have the cutter made for a bespoke skirting profile, probably not worth it for such a short run. I wonder if you can approximate something by combining some standard things though.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oh heavens, that's a lot. No, I'd sooner put a three figure number towards the cellar steps door that's needed next in this room. I'll have to cobble something together - will go later and see what Wickes has to offer.

Wow - what an amazing room! It must have taken ages and lots of patience. It's as much as I can do to decide on a colour and paint the walls and woodwork.

Thanks! More off than on, but around two years now on the hall. Cutting out the hanging pieces for the prints took a solid month. The Print Room is sort of based on the few remaining examples we have in country houses and stately homes - there's a nice one at Blickling. My Print room cheats as it uses a lot of cut-out images from Vitruvius Brittannicus but combined with around 20 19th C architectural prints.

Just go for the colour I say, get a large tester pot and cover one wall with it and live with it for a month or two!

 

[Feltwell]

I'll have to cobble something together - will go later and see what Wickes has to offer.

Very, very little - bog standard Torus, Ogee, and the dreaded half round and chamfered is all the DIY sheds seem to carry, as well as all the timber merchants round here.

The only exception seems to be Homebase - they have a very small selection of Richard Burbidge brand mouldings as well as the bog standard ones described above, although being Homebase they are of course very expensive.

Have you got Dresser's catalogue? If not, give them a ring and get yourself a copy. You might just get lucky - they carry a very close match to the "posh level" and "poverty level" mouldings in this house, but not the "mid level" (typical show-off Victorians - the mouldings are all big and fancy downstairs, then get progressively smaller, cheaper and plainer as you move through the house). Dressers have one of the better selections I've found, although if anyone else has found a good online mouldings supplier I'd like to hear about them.

http://www.dressermouldings.com/products/mouldings/architraves.html

I share Nigel's concern though - I think you'll find it hard to put mouldings on that door that both look OK and allow it to open properly with standard hinges. He has a very valid point with trying a parliament hinge - it needs a good look and a bit of head scratching to find the best solution I suspect!

 

[JoceAndChris]

Thanks Feltwell, that's great. The company have the identical dado rail (which is 1980s) but not the skirting, which looks pretty old to me, and is small, at just 140mm.

I could order a length and take it from there, it may be we can mitre off a bit at the end to get it to open sufficiently - Chris has a good sliding mitre saw if that means anything.

 

[Feltwell]

Bit hard to tell from that picture Joce, but the skirting looks quite simple - does Chris or your Dad have a router and a selection of bits? It may be something that he can make up, or get close to, as it's such a small section. Router bits can be bought quite cheaply if you buy a set - I've got a 40 piece set that was about £15, the quality is dreadful but the obscure ones last long enough for the small jobs I need them for. Using a combination of those and a bit of imagination I've found I can get close to most shapes that I need.

Alternatively, have a look at the small mouldings section in Wickes or B&Q - where they sell wooden dowel and very small stripwood and beading. There are all manner of odd shapes in there - it may be that with a combination of those, on top of a plain section to form the main body of the skirting, you can get pretty close. The technique of using a steel stock as Nigel shows is perfectly feasible though, for such a small piece, if you're prepared to fiddle about making the tool.

Does the door open all the way at the moment, or does it foul the existing mouldings? It looks like it does, and extra mouldings will make it worse if you're not careful. You can mitre the new ones but you still won't be able to open the door all the way unless you do something with the hinges, or you cut the door down slightly in width and make the frame on the right thicker by adding a new piece of timber, to bring the line of the hinge pin away from the corner. This is what I'd be tempted to do, but it would upset your carefully done decoration.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Does the door open all the way at the moment, or does it foul the existing mouldings? It looks like it does, and extra mouldings will make it worse if you're not careful. You can mitre the new ones but you still won't be able to open the door all the way unless you do something with the hinges, or you cut the door down slightly in width and make the frame on the right thicker by adding a new piece of timber, to bring the line of the hinge pin away from the corner. This is what I'd be tempted to do, but it would upset your carefully done decoration.

It hits the mouldings on the wall, yes, but opens plenty enough for me to get to the right side of the cupboard.

All a bit tricky, so today I've done as LadyA and Gareth suggested in The Other Place and just painted on the skirting and the dado. Will put up a pic tomorrow after coat 2...

 

[JoceAndChris]

I returned the skirtings to off-Black in prep for faux marbling. And painted the fictive skirting and dado on the jib. I think it looks OK, especially the skirting, will get Chris to put some shading into the white line to create more of an illusion of their being a proper moulding there. So thanks ever so much for the help, but this might be the easiest solution to the problem.

 

[Feltwell]

Looks good - much better than without anything.

 

[LadyArowana]

That has worked really well, and no problems with the door binding on things, a girl has to have easy access to her necessaries!

 

[Feltwell]

a girl has to have easy access to her necessaries!

I think I saw a video once about that.

 

[LadyArowana]

a girl has to have easy access to her necessaries!

I think I saw a video once about that.

"once" ?

 

[Feltwell]

Yes, only once. The plot was a bit thin. Quite what she actually did to Dallas was beyond me. :wink:

 

[Penners]

a girl has to have easy access to her necessaries!

She should also ensure that her chap has access too.


I'm talking about access to the room, of course...

 

[jocelyn plummer]

PENNERS :roll: