A hinge is a hinge... unless it's a different hinge.

 Its time to make, and hang, a door.

 

As usual, no idea what to do…. I have people I can ask, my friend’s husband is very handy in this department, in fact I am pretty sure he is enjoying these antics and shaking his head wildly at all the things I am doing wrong. But I want to discover how to do this stuff myself. It is incredibly frustrating when something goes wrong, and right now I am realising that one job leads to another almost immediately. I am almost definitely doing things in the wrong order… but next time I need to build a shed, or a rabbit hutch, or a doll’s house for the Granddaughter, I will be a dab hand… right?

 

Anyway, the door.

I’ve got a pile of (which I have since discovered is called…) tongue and groove. I liberated this from my Dad’s garage. I took two pieces, measure them to fit the gap and cut them down to size.

I thought the wood looked a bit raw and unfinished, so off I went to my shed to find my stash of spray paints…. But what colour?

In the end I decided on a dark grey.... you're all surprised at that aren't you?  I bet you thought it would be purple....

 

Leaving that to dry, I went off to B&Q to buy some hinges.  Having never hinged a door before I had no clue what to buy. I thought my only decision would be what size…. But no, I had to choose colour and style too!

A flush hinge or a butt hinge?  WHAT??

So I stood, with a flush hinge in one hand and a butt hinge in the other, glancing back and forth at each, wondering which hinge I needed.

I mean, I could hardly ask a member of staff could I?

“Excuse me, could you tell me what kind of hinge I would need so I can add a tongue and groove door to a mini shed made out of an old coffee table and some blind slats please?”   They would think I was quite mad!  They might be right.

I decided on a flush hinge (they looked most normal) in gold with a length of 38mm.

When I got home and unpacked I realised I had put the gold flush hinge back on the shelf and bought the silver butt hinge instead!  That was annoying!!  But at least it was the right size.

Hinge drama! 

Right, so how do I fix these things?   I started by screwing the hinge to a piece of scrap wood the same as my door – disaster, it split!  That didn’t fill me with joy at all, what if my door splits?  I’ve cut it, glued it and painted it, I don’t need it to be splitting and having to start again.  What could I do?

As it happens my Hubby came downstairs to see how I was getting on, and I mentioned the split wood – he told me that if I drilled a small hole first to give the screw something to grab onto, it shouldn’t split.

Now, the issue is here that Hubby does not, can not and will not do DIY.  He is utterly rubbish at it.  He is good at a lot of thngs, but DIY is definitely not one of them… so should I trust this information?

I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try it out on some scrap.  So I did, and miraculously it worked!!

Now, I had wanted those hinges to be on the inside and hidden, but that wasn’t going to allow my door to open.

As It also happens, I have a bar of wood running across the inside of the table which stops the door swinging inside. I was going to jigsaw it out… but for two reasons I have decided to leave it.

• It looks like it could be a proper fiddly job, and would leave a raw strip in side which I would then have to deal with.

• It would be really useful as a barrier to stop things falling through the door when moving the Shed about.

• I could make a safety feature of the strip by adding a ‘Trip Hazard’ warning.. therefore recognising the health & safety aspect.

(Ok, number 3 might be a bit of a cop-out, but clever all the same, right?)

So, once the paint on the door was dry (and touched up as I have left it out to dry in the garden and it got rained upon) it was time to take the plunge and fit the hinges. I was a bit nervous about this as if I messed this bit up I would have to completely remake the door. 

So, like a good DIY-er I drilled little holes first. 

That worked.  (breaths a sigh of relief)

Then I screwed the hinges in.

That worked too.  (high fives oneself)

Swung the door to check it all fitted….. now I am happy with that!  Proper patting myself on the back.

Door mission accomplished.   ** Blows the dust off the screwdriver in a Wild West kind of manner and goes to make a cup of tea. **