Historical Door and Hardware Restoration — Lawrence, KS

Sep 1, 2026

This is one of my favorite projects to date. The homeowners own one of the oldest homes in Lawrence, KS, a historic home once lived in by Lawrence mayors back in the late 1800s. Its original doors had rot developing at the bottoms and in the sash bars, and the antique hardware had gone dull and rusted after more than a century of use. I was hired to bring them back. Because the house carries historic preservation requirements, I worked with a historical expert to match the original paint colors before touching a brush. I started by stripping the old paint and cutting out the rot, dings, and damage, rebuilding those sections in oak or cedar depending on the door. From there I custom milled repairs into the sash bars, rebuilt the door bottoms using true wood joinery instead of screws or brackets so they would not warp or bend with the seasons, and sprayed on the finish coats. The hardware came last. I pulled the rust with a vinegar and baking soda soak in the homeowners' own crock pot, then finished each piece with a hand polish until it looked the way it did the day it was hung.

The sash bar milling was the hard part. Wood moves, it shrinks and swells with humidity, and any new piece I spliced into a hundred year old original had to move the same way the surrounding wood did, or the joint would open up and telegraph through the paint within a season. I used a mix of biscuit and dowel joinery to lock the new wood to the old, then sealed and filled every joint with wood filler and epoxy until the repair disappeared into the original piece.

I am proud of how these doors came out. This was my first historic preservation and restoration project, and the homeowners were thrilled with the result, thrilled enough that they brought me back for other work around the house. It took patience through the stripping and repair phase, and a careful, deliberate hand through the carpentry and paint, to hand a piece of the house's original character back to its owners.

Before

Historic door with multiple layers of peeling paint in original in-situ condition
Rotted, peeling paint on a historic door before restoration began.
Primed white door resting on wooden sawhorses inside a plastic paint tent.
Primed door resting on sawhorses inside the paint-stripping tent.
Second primed door on sawhorses inside a plastic paint tent, viewed from the opposite end.
A second primed door staged on sawhorses in the paint tent.
Primed door with visible hardware cutout holes and ten glazed window panes.
Primed door showing hardware holes and newly glazed sash bars.
Close-up of a circular hardware hole and rectangular mortise lock cutout in a primed door.
Close-up of the door's hardware holes before new hardware installation.
Splintered, decayed wood at the bottom edge of a door rail.
Rotted wood at the bottom rail of a door before repair.
Original glass doorknob and backplate hardware before removal
Original glass doorknob and backplate before removal.
Close-up of a teal-painted door bottom meeting a worn wood threshold and door mat.
Close-up of the teal door's bottom edge and threshold before repair.
Close-up of teal paint and worn wood at the bottom corner of a door.
Another close-up of the teal door's worn bottom edge before repair.

The Work

Multiple layers of peeling white and green paint on a door, with blue painter's tape marking a test area.
Peeling paint on the original door, with a section taped off for a paint match test.
Ten glass window panes on a door masked with blue painter's tape, wood frame stripped to bare wood.
Sash bars masked with blue tape while the surrounding wood is stripped.
A second ten-pane door with glass masked in blue tape and frame stripped to bare wood.
A second door with sash bars taped off during stripping.
Close-up of peeling paint and exposed wood grain at a stripped door joint.
Close-up of peeling paint and worn wood at a door joint during stripping.
Close-up of rotted, splintering wood at the corner of a door component.
Rotted wood exposed at the corner of a door component during repair.
Close-up of bare wood grain and paint residue at a stripped door corner.
Bare wood grain exposed at a door corner after paint removal.
Close-up of a stripped wood door panel edge with a visible seam.
Stripped wood panel edge showing grain and old paint residue.
Sanding pad and small cut wood strips on a workbench next to a glazed sash bar.
Sanding pad and cut wood strips staged for sash bar repair.
Close-up of a decayed window sash joint with visible rot damage.
Close-up of a rotted window sash joint before repair.
Close-up of a benchtop thickness planer's depth adjustment dial.
Thickness planer set up to mill replacement wood to match the original stock.
Stripped wood door frame with its glass panel propped against an outdoor cedar fence.
Stripped door with its glass panel resting outdoors during the repair process.
Garage floor covered with drop cloths, paint cans, tool boxes, and a paint sprayer.
Tools and paint supplies staged in the garage during the restoration.
Door on sawhorses in spray tent during paint stripping
Door on sawhorses inside the spray tent during paint stripping.
New bottom rail in bar clamps being glued into place on worktable
New bottom rail glued and clamped into place on the worktable.
New stile clamped to door with corner clamps during glue-up
New stile clamped to the door during glue-up.
Door held vertically in bar clamps while new frame components cure
Door held vertically in bar clamps while the new frame components cure.
Restored panel door with first coat of white paint applied on sawhorses
Restored panel door getting its first coat of white paint.
Original period ball-tip brass hinge held before cleaning and reinstallation
Original period ball-tip brass hinge held up before cleaning and reinstallation.
Outdoor plywood workbench holding a miter saw and a table saw.
Outdoor workbench set up with a miter saw and table saw for milling repairs.
Freshly cut wood stile clamped against the edge of the original door on a workbench.
Newly milled stile piece clamped in place against the original door.

Finished

Restored six-panel entry door painted green with brass hardware in stone surround with sidelights and transom
Restored six-panel entry door painted green with brass hardware in its stone surround.
Restored twelve-light door installed in stone surround painted sage green with white trim
Restored twelve-light door installed in the stone surround, painted sage green with white trim.
Twelve-light door in stone surround with reinstated original period knob hardware
Twelve-light door in the stone surround with the original period doorknob reinstalled.
Restored ten-light transom window in stone surround with fresh paint and re-glazed glass
Restored ten-light transom window in the stone surround with fresh paint and re-glazed glass.
New threshold and sill detail at base of restored door in stone surround
New threshold and sill detail at the base of the restored door.

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