Homemade screen door on our homestead
Posted by: TammyThe old screen door was a scraped, dented, hard to open, hard to close, metal monster. We never found the screen portion to the door and so it either was all glass or letting in mosquitoes and flies. I would have bought a new screen door in a heartbeat but like everything in our little cabin, nothing is a standard size. So I began to research and then Eighth Acre Homestead posted up about their homemade screen door and I was sold! Homemade and better made than the box store flimsy thing, I made our screen door!
Our design uses oak instead of pine (hubby felt it would look good after the poly was on). I used 1″X4″ on the sides and 1″X6″ for the top, middle and bottom cross members. I realized I had two pieces of 1X4’s left and added the little bottom pieces for extra rigidity and design. I did use corner supports and also added heavy-duty “L” and “T” supports at the corners and in the middle . I used a roll of heavy-duty screen mesh and carefully rolled the edges and tacked those down with flat-topped “U” tacks. I decided to screw down a small, simple piece of trim wood over the rolled edge to hide it but like I said, it was screwed in because I anticipate having to replace the screen someday. I could conceivably make it a “storm” door by sandwiching plexiglass under the trim pieces, too. Something to consider if we want to use it more in the winter and need to keep the place a little tighter.
Besides the door, the front entrance needed an entrance light and repairs to the supports. We moved the supports down a bit to accommodate a rustic looking motion-activated light and centered them properly so we’ll be able to add the trim around the windows in the front.
Cracked support and no outside light (yep, that’s how the cabin came).
New supports in place with the new light!
I have to tell you that this past weekend was VERY hot up north and I loved having that full-sized screen door letting the breeze in! This was one of my more enjoyable DIY projects on the homestead. I get to visibly enjoy it everyday unlike some jobs that are hidden behind a wall. Once again, I can’t thank Eighth Acre Homestead enough!
