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Our customer, Heather, has been working her way through her home making improvements to upgrade the quality of the fittings builder used in her home.  Heather’s home is a beautiful new construction home in the Heights area of Houston.  The home is fitted with numerous custom touches, including designer glass knobs on the doors and custom glass in the windows.

Heather had been looking to change the stamped steel air return grill for a long time because the grill looked like it came from a big box store instead of from a design shop.  Additionally, the grill is right in the middle of her living room where it was an unattractive element in an otherwise gorgeous living space.  Like you, Heather found Interior Door Concepts on the internet, and called us when she learned we can install custom wood air return grills.

We came to her home and gave her an estimate for the custom wood air return grill.  This grill is 14″ wide and 30″ tall, so it is a standard, but unusual size.  Our supplier was able to ship the grill to us in just a couple of weeks, instead of the overnight delivery for normal size air return grills.

We built the frame to surround the grill out of standard wood moulding material.  The surrounding frame makes the unit more attractive, and also covers any flaws in the sheetrock that were left by the builder when he installed the original stamped steel air return grill.

We painted the grill and the frame in our state-of-the-art spray booth in our shop using Sherwin-Williams Kem-Aqua water-borne lacquer.  Heather chose one of our standard colors, in this case Dover White, for the grill and frame.  We’ve painted the grills to match walls, using a satin version of the wall color paint.  Heather’s choice to match the color of the adjacent woodwork is more typical.  While making the grill blend into the walls is neat from an interior design perspective, our customers generally prefer to accent the grill by having it contrast to the wall.

The installation went pretty smoothly.  We removed a little wood from the 2×4 framing the original opening in order to get the new wood air return grill to fit easily into the wall.  Enlarging the opening is usually not required when the builder uses a standard stamped steel air return grill, but in this case the hole was about 1/8″ too tight before we enlarged the opening.

While we were installing the wood air return grill, we also took care of a couple of other minor door issues that Heather was having.  We enlarged a flush bolt hole on an exterior door, and we installed a missing part on one of her beautiful Emtek glass knobs.

If you’d like to find out about getting a custom wood air return grill installed in your home, please call us at 713-467-3667.

Take care,

Dave

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Our customer Reina had just moved to Houston and needed a private space for her home office.  Like many of our customers, Reina had an open formal living or dining room that she was not using for that purpose.   Like many of our customers, Reina needed to convert the space into a home office!

We proposed installing double French doors in the arched opening between the entry hall and the home office space.  To give her the privacy she wanted in the office, and the ability to “close the doors” at the end of the work-day, we chose frosted glass for the French doors.  The doors, manufactured by Woodgrain, came from the factory with the frosted glass installed.  Frosted glass is great for privacy, but it is a cool element for interior design.  Reina’s home is a cross between contemporary and classic, so the frosted glass blends in nicely as an element of the interior design.

The opening in the home was about 67″ wide, so Interior Door Concepts selected a pair of 30″ wide doors for the opening.  We built a jamb to install on the surface of the sheetrock that covers the arched opening.   In addition to providing a location to hang the doors, the jamb takes up the space on the arched opening that the doors themselves do not fill.  There are a variety of ways to construct the jamb to fill the arch, and Interior Door Concepts will use one of its several styles of jamb, depending on the size of the opening.

Interior Door Concepts can use a variety of casing styles to match what is in the home.  In the case of Reina’s home, we used a colonial style casing.  Colonial casing has evolved through the years, so some of the older homes have colonial casing that does not match the modern style exactly.  Usually, the customer is content with the current standard, but we have the ability to have the older style colonial casing re-created to match the other casing in a home.  There is an additional charge for the custom casing, but it is a small portion of the overall project.

Reina also selected the traditional way of closing the French doors.  You’ll notice on the “after” photo a raised moulding down the middle of the two doors.  This moulding is called a T-astragal, and is attached permanently to one of the two doors.  T-astragals serve several important purposes.  First, they give the active door a place to latch closed.  Second, they provide a place for the flush bolt to be mortised into the secondary door.  Finally, the T-astragal fills the gap between the two doors so noise is reduced and so that people cannot peek through the gap.

As with most our projects, Interior Door Concepts brought the doors and materials to Reina’s home pre-painted.  Pre-painting the doors and materials in our shop with Sherwin-Williams brand Kem-Aqua water borne lacquer.  This is a great paint product.  It cures to finish hardness in hours instead of the weeks that latex or enamel paint take to cure.  Kem-Aqua is also a low VOC paint, so it contributes less to Houston’s air pollution than other types of paint.

Reina was pleased with her doors and the home office that was created with the doors.  If you’d like a similar installation in your home, please give us a call at 713-467-3667.

Take care,

Dave

Our customer, James, was looking for a great gift for his wife and figured out that a good looking door on her home office would surprise and please her.  We’ve completed several projects like this for customers in Houston.  Adding a French door to a bedroom is a great way to make it into a home office.  The glass in the door lets the person in the office stay connected to the activities in the home while the door keeps the noise from the home out of the office.  With the large number of people working from home these days, French doors are a great home improvement idea that will add value to the home.

Once he settled on the idea of getting his wife a door, James looked first to the big box stores, but  they could only sell him the door and have it installed; getting the door finished was not a service they offered.  James was looking for someone that could do a complete project, so he turned to Interior Door Concepts.

During our free in-home consultation, we measured the door we were to replace, and talked to James about the various options for the door.  Since he’d found the 15-lite door fitted with clear tempered lites (glass) at the big box store, that is the one he selected.  Interior Door Concepts has access to a wide variety of doors and glass styles to fit all tastes, so we are not limited to doors like the one James bought.

With the door selected, we discussed the stain process.  We use Sherwin-Williams standard stain colors.  The stain, when applied to the doors, will be unique each time because the wood under the stain impacts the color of the stain.  Even on a single door, the color of the stain will vary across the door as the grain changes.  James wanted to get as close to the color of his floor as possible, so we selected “Warm Chestnut” as the color, since it has some red in it that is similar to the color of James’ laminate floor.

With the details established, we returned to our shop and assembled the materials.  We cut and sanded the door, then hand-rubbed the stain into the door.  After the stain dried, we sprayed two coats of polyurethane onto the doors, with a light steel wool brushing between coats.

After the door had a weekend to cure, we took the door to James’ house and installed it in place of the old, ugly, flat door in just a few minutes.  James opted to have us re-install his existing hardware, but many of our customers instead opt to upgrade to new designer-grade hardware.  The designer-grade hardware comes in a variety of styles and finishes that compliment any interior design.

James and his wife were very pleased with the results.  We would like the opportunity to

Our customer, Nate, needed a back door with a dog door installed so that his pooch can get in and out without having to be let out.  He called Interior Door Concepts, and we were able to solve his problem.

We started by providing a free in-home consultation where we discussed the options and took the detailed measurements needed to install the new door in place of the existing door. During this meeting, we assessed the condition of the existing door jamb and determined that a new slab door was all that was needed.  The frame around the door was is great condition, so it did not need to be replaced.

Once we’d agreed to the project, Nate provided a dog door to us, and we installed it in a new Therma-Tru fiberglass door.  This particular door has a 1/2 lite with raise/lower/tilt blinds installed inside the insulated glass (IG) unit.  We really like this type of door because we’ve found  the blinds are very durable, and they provide excellent privacy when closed.  Also, because the blinds are inside the IG unit, they stay clean and out of the way.

The fiberglass door is a fantastic product for exterior installations because it is designed to resist the effects of water.  The bottom rail is a man-made material that simply does not rot.  As a test, we soaked a portion of the bottom rail in a bucket for over a week, and the material did not absorb the water and swell up like the materials we’ve seen in cheaper doors.

Another feature of the door is that the bottom is flush, or flat, which allows a clean, solid seal between the dog door and the face of the door.  Many times, owners will install dog doors on paneled doors that leave unsightly crevices between the dog door and the door itself.  These gaps will collect dirt, and can allow air and water leaks, since they are hard to caulk.

The installation included our usual in-shop paint job, so the door arrived at Nate’s house with the paint already applied.  This allows us to have a high quality paint job, and it keeps all the fumes and sanding dust out of the customer’s home!

If you’d like a similar dog door installed in your home, please give us a call at 713-467-3667.  We’d love to talk with you about your project.

Take care,

Dave

Our customer Diane wanted to change the formal living room into a home office for her husband.  A quick internet search later, Diane found Interior Door Concepts on the web.   Interior French door installations are one of our specialties.

As you can see from the “before” photo, the living room has an existing door jamb that was built with the home.  During our free in-home consultation, Interior Door Concepts found the jamb was perfect for our hassle-free installation process.  We gave Diane and her husband our written estimate for the installation, and they signed up right away.

The doors we selected, the 10-Lite French doors with clear tempered glass are a great selection.  Not only are they readily available, they are a great all-round addition to a home’s interior design.

We cut the doors and built the box that would become both the head of the door jamb and the base of the transom in our shop.  After the cutting and assembling, we pre-painted the materials with Sherwin-Williams Kem Aqua water-borne lacquer.  Diane chose Alabaster, one of our standard colors, for the paint on her doors.  It is a very close match to what is on the existing door jamb.  Painting the doors in our shop keeps the sanding dust and paint fumes out of your home.  Painting the doors and woodwork in our shop also means that when the doors are installed, the job is complete.

The fixed lite, or fixed glass, over the top of the doors helps keep the sounds either in or out of the room.  In this case, Diane wants the room to become her husband’s in-home office.  We decorated the box separating the doors from the glass with some fluted trim pieces.  There are a variety of options available, but the fluted fit the interior design of Diane’s home.

The benefit of this project is that in addition to making the room into an office, it enhances the home’s interior design.  The classic 10-lite doors are appropriate for most any decor.

If you are ready for a similar project in your home, give us a call at 713-467-3667 and we’ll be glad to talk with you about your project.

Take care,

Dave

Our customers Jeff and Susan were looking for a way to enhance the privacy of their home office, and contacted Interior Door Concepts to see what we could do for them.  During our free in-home consultation, we reviewed their needs with them, and measured the opening where they wanted doors installed.

Based on the conversation with Jeff and Susan, our proposal was a pair of interior French doors with a fixed lite over the top.  The interior design of their home favored a traditional 10-lite French door.  We enhanced the installation with an upgraded lite over the doors.

Instead of the usual clear glass, Jeff and Susan wanted something that would make the installation really stand out without being too “out there” for the interior design of the home.  We selected a Flemish style glass (sometimes called “heavy water” glass) for the fixed lite.  This Flemish style glass makes the fixed lite stand out without detracting from the attractive doors.

The doors Interior Door Concepts installed are 34″ wide, a standard width door, but one that is not normally in-stock at the big-box retailers.  Because the door was not available at the big-box stores, the other proposals Jeff and Susan received were from contractors that wanted to shrink the opening with new studs and sheet rock so they could install a standard off-the-shelf door unit.  The problem with shrinking the opening is two-fold.  First, the arch would have been lost and the room would have looked smaller.  Second, the installation would have taken a week, once the time  for construction, tape, float, texture, paint, and installation were added up.  By contrast, the installation you see in the photos above only took about 2 hours.

Interior Door Concepts was able to complete the interior French Door installation in only two hours because we complete much of the work in our shop before we come to the home for the installation.  The shop work consists of building the jamb, cutting the doors, mortising and boring the doors, installing the T-astragal and flush bolt, and pre-painting the materials.

Interior Door Concepts uses Sherwin-Williams Kem Aqua water-borne lacquer to paint the doors and materials.  This paint is great for doors and trim because it cures quickly, without the usual tackiness you get with latex and enamel paints.  And the Kem Aqua has a great durable finish that stands up well to the use that doors see in your home.  For the convenience of our customers, we keep the five most popular Sherwin-Williams white colors in stock: Extra White, Dover White, Alabaster, Pure White, and Snowbound.  We can get any color you wish for your interior French doors, but we do charge a small color match fee for using a non-stock color.

The French doors are fitted with tempered glass panes that make them resistant to breakage.  If they do get broken, the glass falls into little pieces that are much less dangerous that the shards that come from non-tempered glass.

If you would like to have French doors installed to enhance your home’s interior design or to create a private office, give us a call at 713-467-3667.

Take care,

Dave

Our customers, Larry and Diane, needed a way to keep some of the volume from Larry’s custom stereo set-up contained in his stereo room.  They came to Interior Door Concepts for some ideas, and we worked with them to create a great solution for their project.

When customers come to us looking for a way to improve the privacy in their home, we usually suggest installing solid core doors.  These doors look just like the other doors in your home, but are much heavier than the typical hollow core doors that builders put in homes.  The manufacturer says solid core doors reduce sound transmission through the doors by 50% compared to hollow core doors.  Solid core doors accomplish this by having a heavy particle board liner inside.  The weight and acoustically disorganized characteristic of the particle board are what makes these solid core doors great at sound isolation.

The installation was accomplished with our standard customer-pleasing methods.  We made a free in-home consultation to give the customer the estimate and to take the detailed measurements we needed to fit the new doors.

Once Larry and Diane signed up, we ordered the materials and had them delivered to our shop.  We cut the doors to fit the opening, mortised them for hinges and bored the active door for the knob.  The inactive door received a T-astragal with a flush bolt mortised in.  We then painted the doors in a color-match with Sherwin-Williams Kem-Aqua water borne lacquer.  Kem-Aqua provides a superior finish for doors because it is hard, smooth, and cures very quickly.

After the doors were cut, sanded, and painted in our shop, we scheduled the installation in the customer’s home.  We installed the two new solid core doors in an existing opening in about an hour on the installation day.  Installation required cutting hinge mortises on the existing jamb, installing and adjusting the doors, installing pre-painted door stop, and installing the knobs.

The customers were pleased with the results and the hassle-free installation.

If you have a stereo room or a media room that you’d like to make more quiet, please give us a call at 713-467-3667 to discuss your project.

Take care,

Dave

Alexandra wanted to install a dog door in her back door for her pet.  Interior Door Concepts was able to fulfill her requirements by replacing the old French door with a new 1/2 lite back door with a flush lower panel.

We used our normal turn-key process to install the new back door/pet door combination.  During our free in-home consultation, we took careful measurements of the existing door.  Once we got the customer’s approval, we special-ordered the door from one of our exterior door suppliers, Therma-Tru, and once it arrived at our shop we prepared it for installation in Alexandra’s home.  Preparation included trimming the door to fit the existing door jamb, pre-painting the door and installing the dog-door.

Alexandra found her dog door online at Moore Pet Supply. Moore Pet Supply shipped directly to Interior Door Concepts, and we were able to install the pet door before we took the door to the customer’s home.  Installing the dog door took a little more than just cutting the hole for the door.  We glued wood blocks inside the door to provide adequate support for the dog door.  Not every handyman will take the time to add wood blocks to make a secure installation, but that is part of the service we offer.

When we installed the door, we took care of one of Alexandra’s special requests.  We removed the old, ragged copper weather strip from her door jamb, and replaced it with a new vinyl covered foam-filled weather strip.  This installation is one of our specialties, and it is a great way to ensure the new door has a good seal against the hot Houston weather that comes every April and stays with us until October.

If you want a dog door installed in your home, please give us a call at 713-467-3667 to talk about your project!

Take care,

Dave

Our customer, Kay, was looking for a way to separate her home office from the rest of her home.  Her goal was to be able to “close the doors” at the end of the day and physically separate from her work.  However, she did not want to close the opening to the office up so that it made her home feel smaller, and she wanted the color of the new doors to match the color of her front door to maintain a consistent interior design.

We took the time to work with her to find just the right door style and the correct door color to suit her design requirements.  To maintain the open feel of the installation, Kay selected the 15-lite BEV glass design.  This glass is clear, but comes with grooves cut into the glass so the doors look like traditional 15-lite French doors.

To match the color of the front entry door, Kay selected cherry wood veneer for the new doors.  We stained and clear-coated the new doors to provide a finish that makes the doors look beautiful.  As with all our paints and finishes, we completed the finishing in our shop, taking advantage of our facilities to keep the dust, fumes, and mess of the finishing process out of the customer’s home.

The doors were installed as a pair of visible pocket doors.  Instead of swinging into the room and taking up space needed for desks and bookcases, the center two of these doors slide to the side to open.  We used extruded aluminum pocket door track, and fitted ball bearing rollers to provide smooth and quiet operation.

The frame we built to install in the opening was pre-cut and pre-painted in our shop before the installation.  We assembled the frame and doors on-site in a 4 to 5 hour process.

Kay was pleased with the results, and enjoys being able to close off her office with a door system that meets her interior design expectations!

If you’d like a similar installation in your home, please give us a call at 713-467-3667.

Take care,

Dave

Our customer, Crystal, has noisy kids and was looking for ways to make the home quieter.  Interior Door Concepts has some great solutions for making a home quieter.

Our first go-to for making a home quieter is solid core doors.  These doors are made to look identical to the hollow core doors, but are filled with a large piece of machined particle board.  This particle board makes the doors much heavier, and, according to the manufacturer, about 50% quieter than a hollow core door.  Our customers really like the solid core doors for the  privacy they add to a home, but also for the feel the solid, heavy door adds to the home.

The other go-to for reducing sound transmission is an automatic door bottom.  Automatic door bottoms are used in sound studios to seal the gap at the bottom of the door so sound cannot easily get past the bottom of the door.

Because the automatic door bottom seals the gap at the bottom of the door, you need to provide a way for the air conditioned air entering the room to get back to the rest of the house.  Usually, conditioned air enters a room through a vent on the ceiling, then leaves the room by passing through the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor.  The automatic door bottom will close off this gap and cause the flow of conditioned air to a room to be greatly reduced, unless there is another path for the air to leave the room.  Sometimes customers will place a vent to an adjacent room in a closet to provide a way for conditioned air to leave the room.

Automatic door bottoms fit on the face of the door, and usually end up facing the hallway.  A variety of finishes are available, but most customers go with the aluminum finish (mill finish) because it is the standard color.  In the pictures above, you can see what an automatic door bottom looks like when it is installed on a solid core door.