Door Shutters

From the depths of France, Wilf Milton shows us his solution to chill winds coming through the back door

Wooden door in stone wall passage

The back door is on the north side of my house and the utility room is very cold in the winter. I have already put shutters on the other back door, which have been very effective, so I decided to do the same here.

Wooden door with lace curtain panels
Wooden planks with measuring tape and gate design
1. For this project only a rough sketch to work out the sizes of board is needed – luckily I had some free boards come in from my neighbour. The boards were different sizes so I had to butt joint two of them to give the same size on each I used a long tongue glued together, instead of biscuit joints
Carpentry tools and plans on wooden workbench.
2. Edge plane all of the boards on a router table, to a good fit with each other. With all of my boards now at 25mm thick and some slightly cupped, I had to make do with a bit of hand planing as I do not have a planer/thicknesser
Table saw and timber on woodworking bench
3. Now, saw the top off using a saw guide and then do the bottom. This must be done with more care as the boards are not square, so be sure to mark the planks clearly
Woodworking hinge assembly on workbench.
4. Now to fit the hinges. I decided to do this by hand. The idea is to concertina the shutters, so be very careful to get the orientation right. I hadn’t done this before, but it went quite well – the fact that I used cheap hinges was an advantage as they bedded into my chisel work well. It’s a good idea to do a practice piece, to get the amount of ‘letting in’ right. Placing the doors on a large bench (if possible) will help and using a vice will be a great help too
Wooden table top under construction in workshop.
5. Here are the three folding panels in their finished state. The fourth panel is on the right of them, as a singleton. We now need to decide how to fix the doors to the walls. I decided in the end to modify some traditional French hinges, which allowed the door to sit within the recess, so it cannot be lifted off and making it safer against intruders
Narrow wooden door between stone walls, outdoor setting.
6. Next, apply four coats of wood preserver prior to fixing. My door shutter design includes a bonus for the cats! We can close up the shutters with one panel still folded back, so the moggies can shelter from the weather
Wooden door hinge with visible screws

Further reading

How to Make Bi-Fold Doors

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