Victorian Doors and Door Furniture Guide

In Victorian times, the front door was one of the most important features of the house. It was just as critical as it is today, in making a good first impression for guests – and for yourself! If you are restoring a Victorian style house, we’ll look at how to make your doors and door furniture as authentic as possible, keep your wood, door knobs and handles in good repair, and also at the traditional context and surroundings of the Victorian door.

Surroundings

The front doors of Victorian houses was usually a focal point of the front elevation. The surroundings of the door drew people’s attention: there was often a circular fanlight window cut overhead; decorations and colours used for front doors and furniture were classically splendid; and doors themselves were made of good quality woods, usually hardwood.

Because of the basic quality of these doors, it is almost always better to get out the sandpaper and paint and renovate it yourself, if you have one. To buy one of similar quality would likely not be cost-effective. If you don’t have the  time to do things like sanding, repainting, polishing brass, and repairing or replacing door handles, you may be able to outsource these tasks to a builder.

Be aware that much old paint has a high percentage of lead – work in a well ventilated area, and wear a high-quality dust mask if you are sanding paint off an old door.

At the less wealthy end of the scale, Victorian doors were of the batten-plank design used for centuries, and now used in fencing. Vertical planks of wood are held together on the backside by either horizontal or diagonal planks.

Structure and Materials

Wood

Victorian doors were usually made of hardwood – for example, beech or oak. Pine was also used – while classified as a softwood, it is actually denser and better quality than many true hardwoods.

Many Victorian houses that could not afford hardwood doors had them either painted to disguise this fact, or stained to imitate the colour of a true hardwood door. It was also popular to ebonise doors in Victorian times – painting it with black lacquer to create a dramatic effect.

Panelling

Six-panelled doors were common at the beginning of the Victorian era – doors would usually have three rows of two panels, rather than two rows of three, which would make for a very wide door. However, the simpler four-panel design soon took over, especially in the middle and upper class houses of the time, that could afford to build new doors rather than recycling older ones.

Advice by ArchitecturalClassics.com

Door Furniture