Specialty Items of the Week

For those of you who are joining us for the first time, welcome to My Door Company's ongoing discussion on custom handcrafted doors and cabinets. My Door Company is a Colorado-based company that offers all things woodworking, particularly custom doors and cabinets. Our main facility is in Palmer Lake, Colorado, just about 40 miles south of Denver. We are proud to have been part of the woodworking industry for the last 30 years, with almost half of those years present in Southern Colorado. Check out our photo gallery above to see a handful of the doors and cabinets we have built in the past, or see www.MyDoorCo.com for a full set of our photos. Also, feel free to contact us anytime by phone or email - and if you happen to be in the neighborhood stop by the shop and we'd be happy to give you the grand tour. Visitors are always welcome. And of course, thanks to our returning readers for the continued visits. 

This week we dive into some of the other talents of My Door Company - obviously our namesake pegs us as official Door "Aficionados," though our craftsmanship does not stop there. Not only is My Door Company proud to be one of Colorado's finest door companies, we also consider ourselves to be a top-notch general woodworking outfit as well. Given the custom nature of our handcrafted doors and cabinets, we often work with our customers on other woodworking projects as well. During the last three decades, we have built a great deal of tables, entertainment centers, beds, countertops, mantles, and staircases (among other custom items). Your imagination is our only limitation. 

For a living room or den, the options for mantles, fireplaces, or other accents are endless. The top image is a decorative fireplace, built entirely from MDF (medium density fiberboard), which worked great for this project because it was painted. It is an overall simple design, though the fluting on the columns, the prominent crown moulding, the faux finish, and the "H" monogram above the outer columns, make this mantle/fireplace one-of-a-kind. 

This picture frame was made from stacking and mixing a variety of different moulding profiles, and complete with a hand carved finishing effect. Great for that hard to frame piece of art or photograph. 

And for a bedroom, the below bedroom sets were made to match images provided by our clients, though custom built to fit their specific size restrictions and preferences. Complete with matching bedside tables, raised paneling, fluting, and decorative accents. 

The craftsmen of My Door Company can build from an idea, a magazine picture, or one of our previous designs. As with any of our custom projects, we are with you start to finish - from the initial design consultation to the final product. Nobody does custom handcrafted doors, cabinets, and specialty items like My Door Company. 

Visit MyDoorCo.Com for more info. Thanks for stopping by.

-rh@mdc

The Shaker Castle

We welcome you back to the official blog of My Door Company - where we explore the handcrafted details of the custom doors and cabinets created by the highly trained staff of My Door Company. We extend a particularly special "Bienvenidos" to those of you who made it through the heaviness of last week's "Doorspeak" (see our archives to the right if by some unfortunate chance you missed this definitive guide on doors and door components). As promised this week offers less words and more pictures as we explore the elegance of one of Southern Colorado's finest residences - The Shaker Castle. This beautiful estate is located in Monument, Colorado, and situated with an uninterrupted view of the Front Range of The Rocky Mountains, especially the local favorite Pikes Peak.

Rising far above Monument's 7,000 foot elevation, this beautiful home was built with the same splendor as the ancient castles of centuries past. Arches, columns, marble, and superb Cherry (among other things) grace both the ins and outs of this home. Rarely does one come across such a homeowner that has the vision and taste to maintain a perfect level of consistency and originality throughout a home, though the creator of this residence achieved just that. His attention to detail was present in everything from the heated marble floors to the multi-level, multi-shaped ceilings, and everything in between (doors, cabinets, furnishings, fixtures, etc). My Door Company was fortunate enough to play an integral part in the finishings of this immaculate castle, namely the entry-way door, all the interior doors, and the kitchen cabinetry. As we dive into our projects that rest within the walls of the Shaker Castle, we extend many thanks to the man with the driving vision behind our work. 

We begin with the commanding front door - like we always say on the shop floor of My Door Company, "no better way to greet your friends and family than with a most grand entrance." This castle does just that - this magnificent entry-way door is a plank-style, round-top pair with oval-headed wooden clavos (plugs). The exterior of the front door is Alder, and the interior is Select Cherry to match the woodwork on the inside of the house. My Door Company has built a variety of doors with two species of wood - one type on the inside, another on the outside. This is done for a variety of reasons, but mainly to match different woodworking schemes or for different finishes (paint on the outside, stain on the inside). 

As we have discussed before, Alder is a common hardwood used for cabinets and furniture, originating from Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. American Cherry (Prunus Serotina) is grown in both the USA and Canada, and much like Alder, is used mainly for furniture, cabinets, and turnery - though it is also used in pianos, violin bows and other musical instruments. Also known as New England mahogany, an American Cherry tree typically grows 80 feet tall with a trunk diameter of 2 feet. Strangely enough, extensive industrial contact with Cherry wood and sawdust can cause wheezing and giddiness (Alder has been linked to Dermatitis and some bronchial problems). Though not to worry, these health problems are easily avoided - simply take advantage of the custom handcrafted doors and cabinets available from My Door Company, one of the industry's leaders in overall safety and safe-woodworking techniques. 

Not only did the wood vary between the inside and out on this front door, but the style itself was entirely different. As you can see from the photos below, the wooden arches on the interior of the door set (right) mirrors the stone arches on the outside of the house (left). The double doors of this unit were 2 1/4 inches thick and the overall unit was 8 feet tall and 6 feet wide. 

Let us now step into the extravagance of the interior of the Shaker Castle - we move onto the doors of the inside. Between the bedrooms, bathrooms, office, closets, pantry, so on and so on, My Door Company built almost 30 doors (not including the entry-way door unit). As stated before, the consistency of this home was incredible, and the interior doors were no exception. As you can tell from the below images, they have the appearance of a 7-panel stile and rail door - though each door was made from a single sheet of fiberboard.  

We started with an 4'x8' sheet of MDF (medium density fiberboard), cut each sheet to size, routed out the shape and designs, then added moulding to the face of the door around the routed edges to give each door more dimension (the below image shows an up-close view of an unpainted section). MDF is an engineered wood product, and while is does not work great in all woodworking applications (for example, you cannot stain it), it was perfect for this type of painted door. The interior doors are all 8 feet tall and 1 3/4 inches thick (with various widths), and probably some of the heaviest doors ever built - each one has a set of 4 solid ball-bearing hinges to maintain swinging ability. 

As if the interior and exterior doors were not enough, we now expand beyond into the other woodwork of the Shaker Castle. Since My Door Company understands the true nature of woodworking, we are proud to offer cabinets and other specialty items to maintain the custom nature of any remodel or new construction. The kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities of The Shaker Caster were also made from select Cherry, all made to match to the front door. The images below, of course, do not give the woodwork justice, though one can begin to see some of the intricacies that are present, not just in the kitchen, but throughout the house. (More on cabinets and other specialty items from My Door Company in the coming weeks - enjoy the photos below!)

(If you look real close on the image directly above left, you can see another example of the MDF interior doors.)

For those of us at My Door Company who were able to work on the Shaker Castle projects, the experience was nothing but unforgettable - we extend our many thanks to Mr. Shaker himself, who is now a close friend of all us of here at My Door Company. And as usual, we thank you, the readers, for taking the time to visit the Official Blog of My Door Company - swing back next week for more on the custom handcrafted doors and cabinets from Colorado's Finest Door Company. 

And of course in the meantime, give us a call or visit www.MyDoorCo.com for more info. 

-rh@mdc