Turning a door frame in to something more appealing

Adam

Adam

Adam

Soldato
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18 Oct 2002
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When I moved in to this house one of the first things I did was to remove the doors separating the dining room and lounge. I'm not planning on decorating both the lounge and dining room and as taking the doors away made the space so much bigger I have decided I won't be replacing them.

I was therefore looking at a way to make this look more appealing than a door frame. I could remove the architrave and wood which makes the door frame and have it plastered, the skirting board would then go around the bottom of the edges between the dining room and lounge. Having an arch used to be quite popular but I worry that it's perhaps a little dated now.

My only concern with this is that perhaps it becomes an area that could be damaged easier with it being plaster rather than wood by my son who likes riding his bike/scooter up and down the dining room/lounge.

Here is a picture, the fire place will be going as is the flooring etc.

 
Take door stop off and fill and paint would be the cheapest and easiest.

You can buy eml arch kits that you just tack and plaster over.
 
I'd take the stop bead off. Wood filler the hinge rebates and any other damage then paint it up.
 
Ok so I don't think I will ever need the door, the doors when open take up space and there isn't really anywhere to go. I won't ever need to separate the 2 rooms.

I'm not keen on an arch, if rather keep the rectangle shape.

Are you suggesting keeping the wood for durability? Having it plastered isn't too much of an issue as I have other plastering that needs doing too.
 
Adam said:
Are you suggesting keeping the wood for durability? Having it plastered isn't too much of an issue as I have other plastering that needs doing too.
Click to expand...

I'd hazard a guess that if you remove the woodwork there will be expansion gaps for the floor so you'll have to skirt round it yo cover it up. Removing it all fitting some stop beads and plastering it square then fitting new skirting would look more permanent and not like you've just removed the doors.
 
I personally think it'll look a bit odd just plastered square. Looks like a nice moulding on the architrave and matches in with the skirting. I think once the stops are removed and its all filled and painted it will look fine.

If you remove it you will need to replace the skirting along that wall, as just patching up around the area you remove the door casing will show up, especially if you can no longer get an exact moulding match.
 
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Fair point, all of the skirting will be replaced in both rooms as the skirting will go on top of the floor rather than using scotia.
 
Dosent look like a supporting wall from the pic (guess) is it a hollow wall? If it is I would remove the lot and get it plastered in.
 
Yeh, I'd at least find out if it's a supporting wall and remove it entirely if so. Not a great deal of work if you're replacing the flooring anyway.
 
I'd either knock it out completely or leave it and just cover up where the door hinges have been.

What will the dimensions of the room be if you did knock through?

Not really a fan of long and narrow living rooms (20" x 9/10" kinda sizes) - look fine if it's a kitchen/diner as the space is easily separated, but as a kiddie area/tv room, not so sure.
 
I believe the lounge is somewhere in the region of 19' by 10' and the dining room 10' by 10' which leads to a conservatory via french doors.

I'm going to consider knocking the wall down but we would have to relocate 2x radiators (they are on either side of the wall to the right at the moment). I suppose I could get the pipes moved and get one of those nice decorative radiators in black or something (like this perhaps: http://www.screwfix.com/p/ximax-for...adiator-anthracite-1800-x-472mm-5003btu/34057)

While we don't need to separate the rooms (we would add a door if we did) I just wonder what it would look like as one big room.
 
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