Custom Mahogany Door Project — The Gritty Artisan

A friend of mine, Chris, asked me to build him a custom entry door for his home. He wanted a shaker style three-panel door made out of African Mahogany.

Chris wanted a perfect fit for his door frame so he measured his current door and sent me the dimensions. Once he did that, I came up with a set of plans and hand-picked the material from Fine Lumber & Plywood here in Austin, TX.

I decided to go with proven traditional mortis & tenon joinery for the stiles & rails (main vertical and horizontal) parts. The three panels were going to be made out of solid wood and they were going to float (non glued) in grooves that will also be milled into the stiles & rails. By not glueing the panels and allowing them to float within the grooves, this allows for natural wood movement. Specifically pertaining to expansion and contraction that happens during climate changes. Allowing for expansion and contraction relieves stress on the wood and adds longevity to the door overall.

Once Chris approved of the design, I began the building process starting with the panels. I milled several pieces of lumber to approximately 3/4” and glued them together to create a panel. Then they were cut to final size and sanded. Since I would lose access to the outer edges of the panels once the door was completely assembled (the edges will be buried in the grooves), I pre-finished the panels with varnish. This would ensure protection on the entire panel including the areas that won’t be exposed after assembly.

Then I moved on to milling the stiles & rails. I cut 2” thick parts to rough width and length and then milled them to 1 3/4” thick. Once they were cut to final dimension, I began working on the joinery. First cutting the 3/4” grooves for the three floating panels; then the deeper mortises for the rails (horizontal parts); and then the tenons on the rails themselves. The mortises were bored out using a forstner bit and hand chiseled the rest of the way to ensure a perfect fit for the tenons. Every part/joint was dry-fit prior to glue up.

Before glueing/assembling the door, I added a final touch to the rail pieces by adding a slight angle profile to the edges. This not only added a little bit of detail to the door but would also provide runoff for any moisture that might get on the door; as opposed to a flat surface where water can stand. It’s the small details….

After a pretty stressful glue-up, we finally had a complete door!

All that was left to do was A LOT of sanding, and the final finishing. I also added a very slight chamfer on all of the door edges to break up the sharp corners. For the top coat, I applied several coats of exterior-grade spar urethane varnish for superior protection against the outdoor elements.

After a few days of allowing the top coat to cure, I packaged and delivered the door to Chris’s house.

I brought my buddy, Patrick, from Moab Construction with me to help install the door. He installed all of the hardware, and hung the door in place.

Chris, Patrick, and I sat back with a couple adult beverages and admired the door for a bit and then called it a day and officially wrapped up this project!

Chris and his wife, Mary, were in love with their new door.

These are the type of reactions that I strive for from my clients and fuel the grit that I put into every project. Thank you, Chris and Mary for trusting me with your custom door!