Interior Wood Door, Interior Hardwood Doors

¶ We have had occasion to observe the violations of good taste that occur through the country in the interior dressing of windows and doors. Some of our good friends, the joiners, think that the sole merit of a door or window finish consists in its width without regard to the dimensions of the opening to be dressed. This is an unfortunate error, and one which should be dispelled as soon as possible. The dressing of an opening should seldom exceed the one-sixth of the width of that opening; in pointed openings it may be much less, and there are some circumstances under which it may be more.

¶ In short, while it is an object to avoid extreme meagerness, it is no less a desideratum to shun a clumsiness which comes at so high a rate to the proprietor.

¶ White pine being at once light, rigid, and easily worked, seems to have been intended for many things, but particularly for doors. Apropos to this, however, we may mention that for first-class doors, mahogany formerly was the favorite wood, but latterly walnut, and in the most expensive houses rosewood has superseded it, partly owing to a ruling passion for novelty, but mostly to the scarcity of a good quality of mahogany.

¶ But in evidence of the real value of white pine it may be noticed that nearly all our everyday doors are made of it in regions where it can be procured. Although less skill is required in the joinery of white pine than in that of almost any other wood, yet the painter's art being necessary to render it at all presentable, it can never take position among the fine-grained woods above mentioned, where a superior style of inside finish is attempted.

¶ A sort of mania has arisen in some parts for wide door-stiles; we hear joiners boast of putting eight and ten-inch stiles in a door of ordinary dimensions, as though the achievement were deserving of universal approbation. Now, after the first requisite of the door is attained, which is sufficient strength for the intended use, this excessive width of stile is entirely superfluous. Broad stiles, for the sake of consistency, induce broad panels, and the consequence is, we sometimes see a communicating and sometimes a front door made with a single panel set in a single frame. As to the practical working of such doors we will let their owners answer. If they are not shrunken in dry weather so as to show a terrible gape at the unconfined edge, they are so expanded in damp weather as to preclude a chance of shutting them, a condition of things which needs no comment.

¶ Observation has led us to the conclusion that the stile of an ordinary door should seldom exceed six inches; perhaps our true meaning on the subject will be better conveyed by saying that the size of all members of a door, and indeed of all panel-work, should be determined, first, with reference to the strength required, and second, with a view to prevent as much as possible the pernicious effects of shrinkage.

¶ The folding doors of former times have given place to the more convenient and easily managed sliding doors for extension rooms. The most perfect method of hanging these that has yet been or probably ever will be devised, is to suspend them by large sheaves on a concealed head-rail instead of running them on a floor-rail. The latter method necessarily interposes a line between the rooms, while the other permits the carpet to be continued directly through without interruption. All the ladies, and particularly those who delight in entertaining large companies, will perceive and appreciate the advantage thus afforded.

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