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Willow - does the door open?


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Hello everyone! This is my first post but I have been lurking for the last month, gaining lots of wisdom and encouragement! I'm building a Willow and am nearly done! All I have left is to add the door, door trim, some interior trim, and then fill with very expensive furniture. :please:

I have a question though... is the Willow front door supposed to open and close? I can't seem to make it fit in a way that would allow that, plus there is nothing resembling a hing on the door itself or in the kit. I had just about decided to glue it directly to the house, but the stairs in this design face the front door and mine look so lovely that I would hate to permanently seal the only possibility of really admiring them. Anyone?

Thanks!

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Hi and welocme! I like your user name! You can hinge several ways. One would be to use ribbon and hinge it this rib on would be hide later on by the wall coverings and door coveings so the other way to go is to insert a pin, a little bit trick unless you build a frame, if its to late for that then you can use mini hinges, if you sand the edge of the door so it forms a upside down u then it will ope easier if you are doing the pin hinge method. Please post pictures of your buil;d when you can and enjoy your stay.

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Yes, what Corwin said. You need to build the door, but insert strips of ribbon, or whatever between the sandwiched pieces of the door on the side to be hinged. Sand the door edges so it fits the opening and can open and close nicely. The ends of your ribbon hinges will be glued to the house and covered with your door trim. You could always buy the little hinges, but in my experience they don't hold well and come loose, plus they are so tiny they are hard to work with. Hope this helps and WELCOME! :please:

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Welcome, Angie, and please do introduce yourself to everybody at the Newcomers' Forum. Peggi describes pin-hinging in her Team Coventry cottage blog. You will have to trim a bit off the door & opening to get it to move freely, but it's not that difficult. I use a bench vise to hold the door haves together while I shave & sand it to fit. I use chamois strips but ribbon or twill tape will work well for hinges. I do NOT recommend even trying the ornamental tiny brass hinges.

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Thanks for the help on my door... I am so surprised that the door was apparently not made to open and close? I'm glad there's a way to fix it. Gah... I've already constructed the door itself, so there's no way to add ribbon between the halves, which would have been my first choice. I'll try the pin method. I wish now that I had simply turned the stairs around so you could see them from the open side, but at the time I was thinking it would take up more room that way. Now that I am nearly finished, I am finding that the rooms are HUGE and I wouldn't have needed all the room anyway. I forgot when purchasing to consider how much it would cost to furnish. LOL

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You could always buy the little hinges, but in my experience they don't hold well and come loose, plus they are so tiny they are hard to work with.

I do NOT recommend even trying the ornamental tiny brass hinges.

I agree don't even look at the little hinges (unless you aren't going to make the door open and then you can put them on for show.) They are ridiculous to work with.

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Hi, and welcome. :) I never use the doors that come in GL kits. They don't have hinges and I would never be able to put them on. I always buy new doors from Housworks for all my houses. You may have to cut the opening to fit but it's nice to have a door that opens the way it should. I used the Carolina door available from HBS on one of my Willows and one called the Americana on the other. There are so many choices to pick from.

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And in the event that the Houseworks doors are out of your budget if you build a lot of kits, the doors that come with the kits can be sanded to size and hinged in different ways to work quite well, or you can make (and hinge) your own doors.

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Pat, your Willow is one of the best I've ever seen. It's lovely! The doors really make it look fabulous.

Thank you for the compliment. The Willow is one of my favorites. I'll probably do another eventually because there are so many ways it can be done. The chimneys really add a lot and the rooms are good size. I look forward to seeing yours when it's finished. :)

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