Adding French Doors to an Open Space

Another thing we did in our old house’s office was close in a wall and add French doors. The original spot that divided our office and dining room was really just a big opening, and we wanted the two rooms to have more of a separation from each other.

Before… with furniture everywhere. Standing in the office, looking into the dining room.

Stephen and our neighbor, Billy, measured how big the doors would be, and framed out extended sides of the wall. They then dry-walled the frames.

I missed a picture of the framing, but they used 2x4s and screwed them into the top of the original frame and into the base (which was screwed into the floor).

They installed the French doors. Then, they mudded the edges of the drywall to help hide the creases and have it blend in better with the existing wall.

They added trim around the doors and baseboards on the new walls. I painted the doors and the trim ahead of time, so that saved time once they were installed.

The centering looks kind of weird, but the doors are centered with the dining room. The new closet took up some of the wall space which makes the doors look off.

I think it’s telling that I have no pictures of the next stage… sanding the dry wall mud. That makes a MESS! We had furniture covered in plastic, but that dust went everywhere and got into everything. Bleh. Once that was done, and all was cleaned up, we painted the walls.

This was a great addition that made a big difference in our home. We could leave the doors open and still have that “open concept” feel, or we could close them if we needed to work or didn’t want anyone to come into the office.