Lots of doors

We pride ourselves in our unique problem-solving skills. The Compound Design team has decades of experience in all types of wood fabrication but one thing that none of us had ever done before 2021 is build doors. So when a local architect called us and said that he needed custom doors made for his own home renovation, we told him that we were up for the challenge if he was willing to be patient with us while we figure out what we’re doing.

In total, the home required about 30 doors, including five exterior glazed doors. All the doors were oversized, and some measured nearly four feet wide and over eight feet tall and every one of them, even closet doors, were a full 1-3/4” thick! All the interior doors were slabs. Most were paint grade, but the bedroom wing called for horizontal grain walnut veneer. We ordered custom walnut veneers for these doors. The customer required all the slab doors to be solid core. Due to their immense size, we developed a CNC machining strategy to save about 30% of overall weight without compromising strength or the impression of density.

Building the doors in batches of 5-8, we carefully constructed each one using vacuum press clamping for even pressure and strong mortis-and-tenon joints. All the doors we pre-machined for concealed hinges.

Since this project has wrapped up, we’ve taken on the challenge of all kinds of other doors, including a pre-hung set of arched French doors with matching jamb that we’ll talk about in a later post.