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Closing off a doorway


Bluestocking

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The previous owner of my house had sealed off a doorway between two of the rooms -- quite rightly as there is an absolute plethora of doors! with a lot less wall space as a result.  She had filled in the opening with a piece of foam board cut to size, then hot-glued a piece of paper over the foam board, then "papered" the whole room with fabric for wallpaper.  The other side of the doorway was just left with the foam board showing, since she had also made a full-sized bookcase that covered it completely.

When I was cleaning the house, most of the fabric wallpaper pretty much fell off in my hands, the glue having given up long ago.  I've since removed it all.

But I do want to have the doorway closed off, so my question is how should I do it?  I'm going to keep the bookcase (of course!) so it doesn't matter what that side looks like -- in the room with the currently-green wall -- but the other side needs to look finished, at least, if not mostly invisible.

I was thinking a piece of scrap wood -- I have lots of bass, and some thinnish plywood -- cut to fit the doorway, and then a piece of thick paper (like artist's paper?) that would cover from the corner of the room to the wiring bump.  I'm torn between making it more-or-less permanent, or so that it is removable at some point in the future (say, if the next owner wants the doorway back). And there is the bump of the door frame to disguise as well, I see now.  Should I use a thicker paperboard to even out the surface, and then a piece of paper?  Or is there a better way?

I was planning to just paint this room, not wallpaper....

Jeanne

 

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At first I thought this was going to be an easy solution, but then I saw the picture of the door frame. I'd just use a thin 1/8" board to cover the entire wall. A filler board the same thickness as the frame will be needed at the front to hide the gap.  Some Ailenes white glue dotted over the frame and filler piece could be removed with a blow dryer at a later date. 

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1 hour ago, Bluestocking said:

... the other side needs to look finished, at least, if not mostly invisible.

How 'bout a small bump out wall - 1/8" plywood would be fine.

You'd need to replicate the baseboard tho.

591cd45c1e1c1_bumpout.png.f35f3c0e4c1d54

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4 hours ago, Elsbeth said:

What lovely floors - I love the tones in the different wood floors. Wow. nice house.

They are really lovely, and each one is a different yet equally lovely color.  Except that she glued them on top of the original contact paper, and now a number of them are curling up at the edges.

Sigh.

Jeanne

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5 hours ago, havanaholly said:

What about making a bookcase to fit?   Back the flat side up even with the door frame and cover it with paper or whatever to flatten the surface.

Yeah, I'm wondering about a big wardrobe, so that could work ...

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7 hours ago, mesp2k said:

How 'bout a small bump out wall - 1/8" plywood would be fine.

You'd need to replicate the baseboard tho.

591cd45c1e1c1_bumpout.png.f35f3c0e4c1d54

Wow, Mike, you just tossed out an architectural drawing in less than an hour! 

My husband has been looking at this and saying, "Yeah, we could do something like that ..."

Is it okay to cover up that bump which I'm assuming is the wiring?  There is a hole in the baseboard there that had/has a socket, I guess -- we've never done anything with electrics before.

Jeanne

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With a house that old, if you're going to redo the walls anyway, I'd rip out all the old wiring and redo it. Or, on that bump by the door, you could take that off and then just cut the wiring underneath between the baseboard and the ceiling so it's not visible under either the paint or wallpaper you redo the walls with. And if you do make MIke's bump out, have you considered a fireplace in front of it?

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5 hours ago, Bluestocking said:

Is it okay to cover up that bump which I'm assuming is the wiring?  There is a hole in the baseboard there that had/has a socket, I guess -- we've never done anything with electrics before.

Jeanne

:oops:I didn't realize that might be an outlet...

If you don't want to cover up the outlet, just make the wall shorter.

Another option is a diagonal wall.

Either way - if you want - you can add a fireplace or a built in shelf/bookcase/china cabinet etc.

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3 hours ago, mesp2k said:

:oops:I didn't realize that might be an outlet...

If you don't want to cover up the outlet, just make the wall shorter.

Another option is a diagonal wall.

Either way - if you want - you can add a fireplace or a built in shelf/bookcase/china cabinet etc.

591d8d23eae79_bumpoutGL2.png.a3b8641de12

 

Corner fireplaces can be really cute. I have no clue what era your house is, but I'd be tempted to fireplace over it! I like the bookcase idea, too.

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16 hours ago, mesp2k said:

How 'bout a small bump out wall - 1/8" plywood would be fine.

You'd need to replicate the baseboard tho.

591cd45c1e1c1_bumpout.png.f35f3c0e4c1d54

Who else loves that Mike mostly speaks via cad drawings?!? I love it! I wish you could sketch up my 1:48 scale mansard roof house, Mike.

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3 hours ago, Elsbeth said:

Who else loves that Mike mostly speaks via cad drawings?!? I love it! I wish you could sketch up my 1:48 scale mansard roof house, Mike.

...tell me about your mansard...?

 

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15 hours ago, havanaholly said:

Or, what about pulling off the door frame and installing fireplaces in both room in that space?

In another life, I'd say a fireplace is a great idea, but there are fireplaces in three of the six rooms on this side of the house, and I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but that's enough!  Wall space is at a premium in this house.  I discovered recently that the previous owner had in fact taken one out, so there were originally four on this side!

 

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  • 1 year later...

It has been a long time, and I actually finished this in May, but here is what I did.  Mike's solution is fabulous but more complex than my talents, for sure, so I adapted Sable's idea, and simplified it even more -- this way I can have the room "finished" and usable but it can be modified at a later date if desired.

This is just a piece of balsa cut to fit between the wiring bump and the corner, with notches trimmed out at the bottom to accommodate the baseboards.  There was a slight jog because the balsa was ever so slightly thicker than the wiring bump, so I just sanded the edge of the balsa to make it meet more evenly.  At the moment, the dummy wall stays in place purely by friction, which was actually my intention (!).  The missing baseboard is not at all noticeable once the bed is in place.

There is obviously some quirkiness involved, if you are looking at it realistically, but my rationale is that it's an "old" house -- the story is that it's the original inn converted to a family home, with lots of inherited things from previous generations -- so there are bound to be some oddities!  I'm hoping that with a wardrobe and some pictures on the walls, the join will be less noticeable.

Thanks, everyone, for their suggestions and advice!

 

 

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