Reader: Hey Steve, why is there a picture of a front door on your blog when you’re meant to be promoting kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms?
Steve: Because we cover the whole project for our clients, and that included this door
Reader: Tell me more!
Steve: I’m glad you asked!
Rooms that we work on are more than just furniture and appliances to us. They’re complete spaces that need our care and attention. During the design process we consider how our new work will impact existing features and future plans for the home. For example, we often consider what happens if a boiler needs to be replaced and if our design allows for potentially different sized equipment. Another example would be putting in extra pipes or cables ready for a future extension.
That brings us nicely to this lovely new exterior stable door. It’s the back door of a listed building in Faversham and it replaces a well worn door that probably dates from the 1990s and had reached the end of it’s useful life.
It’s clear the old door had seen better days and as part of replacing the kitchen, fitting a new floor, decorating, electrics and so on, we also organised the choosing and replacement of the old door and door frame. If you look carefully you’ll also notice the original door opened outwards and the new door is a stable door opening inwards.
If you’re like me, then you’ll like to know what things cost to use as benchmarks for your own projects. We itemise all our prices to customers and checking the invoicing records I can see this door, as an addition to work we were already planning, was just under £1,000 for the stable door, door frame, threshold, new handles, locks, fitting and including VAT. The painting of the door was extra (a small extra cost to decorating we were already doing).
Original interior door with cat flap 
Renovation in progress, cat flap removed and new timber pieces inserted and blended into the original timbers. A fresh coat of paint to follow.
Replacing doors isn’t always necessary though. Did you notice the cat flap on the outside door? The new owner doesn’t have cats and as well as the old outside door an interior door also had a cat flap. For this door our carpenter worked out how to repair the existing door by removing the flap then making and inserting new timber panels. Here they are ready to be painted.