Stylish ledge and brace door design

[RogerS]

SWMBO came across this picture in a magazine of a rather stylish ledge and brace door of unknown provenance.

I rather like it and have aspirations to make something similar but have several questions as to how.

From the photo it looks like the ledge is a very thin 'laminate' overlaid as a decorative feature. Which suggests that on the other side of the door there is maybe a more traditional chunky ledge and brace arrangement to hold it all together?

Hinges? One picture they look wooden but in picture two they are metal??

Looking more closely here

you can see that it looks as if the thin laminates are symmetrical and are inlaid into the main panels. This suggests to me that the door is actually held together by these thin laminates.

Strong enough?

See the screws are fixed into the cross-grain? Again in practice would this be strong enough?

If the laminates are inlaid then how is this done? With great care and a router?

 

[Anonymous]

Looks like total fake to me. Perhaps it's MFC with a stuck on piece of laminate for the fake ledges. This would account for the excessive number of hinges - heavy door with poor screw holding material.
It vaguely resembles an interesting variety of (real) ledged and battened door which I haven't seen often in Britain but is more common in France in the construction of window shutters. The ledges are tapered and fit into a dovetailed housing in the battens. Fiddly to make but a number of advantages - thinner section overall so good for shutters, needs no brace, probably weathers well.

cheers
Jacob

 

[George_N]

I thought that this was going to be the first in the "How to Make" series :lol:
I'm not sure I care for the look of the door. As you point out it looks like some sort of cosmetic overlay, probably more difficult and expensive to make than a traditional ledged and braced door.

 

[RogerS]

Looks like total fake to me. Perhaps it's MFC with a stuck on piece of laminate for the fake ledges.

I don't think so as if you look closely at the hinge photo you can see that the ledge is inserted into the wood by about the same depth as it stands proud. I appreciate that the photo isn't that brilliant.

The other reason why I don't think it's fake is the type of magazine that the photo came from/other design elements out of shot. OK - OK - I know, I know - it could still be fake ...plenty of folks out in the world who couldn't tell the difference and will pay an arm and a leg for nowt :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Looks like total fake to me. Perhaps it's MFC with a stuck on piece of laminate for the fake ledges.

I don't think so as if you look closely at the hinge photo you can see that the ledge is inserted into the wood by about the same depth as it stands proud. I appreciate that the photo isn't that brilliant.

The other reason why I don't think it's fake is the type of magazine that the photo came from/other design elements out of shot. OK - OK - I know, I know - it could still be fake ...plenty of folks out in the world who couldn't tell the difference and will pay an arm and a leg for nowt :lol:

I see vaguely what you mean :shock: I also see vaguely the appearance of a dovetail housing the "ledge" so perhaps it is a shop fitters version of the trad french shutter type. Also see (vaguely) identical ledges on both sides - you can just see another dovetail above the top edge of the hinge. Still look cosmetic and false.
I'll try and dig out a snap. You might find one if you google images for "Dinan" where I first saw the trad version in the renovated high street.

cheers
Jacob

 

[Keith Smith]

You've got better eyesight than me, I can't see a thing 8) where's me stick??

Although I have seen similar doors and they had tapered sliding dovetails.

Keith

 

[OJ]

Hard to say, but I would think that this is cosmetic. Sorry for being Mr pedantic but it's not a ledge and brace door. The ledges don't look to me like they'll support this door without braces (maybe not even with) OJ