Renovating Your Closet Doors with Glass Door Knobs

Closet doors are often treated like a nondescript part of a restored home and seldom get the attention they deserve. An attractive closet door with a beautiful glass door knob can be a work of art in itself; it's the small details that make an old home elegant and memorable.

Glass Door Knob Installation

Glass door knobs come in a dazzling array of styles and colors. The higher end antique glass door knobs are rare and expensive if they can be found at all at your local architectural salvage dealer. Most home restoration projects use quality reproductions.

Simple closet door knobs are easily installed with a drill and screwdriver. The only real problem is that the doorknob shaft might be an odd length for the thickness of the door. Modern closet doors, particularly louvered ones, aren't as thick as the original closet doors in your home may have been. Many glass door knobs are designed to be installed on thicker, era-specific doors.

Fully functioning doors require a little do-it-yourself skill and might take a wood carving tool to shim out a hole for the strike plate and a screwdriver for the screws.

Problems with Glass Door Knobs

If the shaft is too long it can be cut off while maintaining the screw threads. If it is too short you might have to hollow out a spot on the inside of the door so that the anchoring part of the unit can screw onto enough of the shaft to secure the knob.

One particularly annoying problem is that the tiny screws that tighten to hold the knobs in place on the shaft sometimes work loose and disappear. This allows the knobs to slip off the shaft. Re-tighten the retaining screws. It doesn't hurt to have a few extra screws available.

Simple Closet Door Fixes

The closet doors themselves might need a little repair now and then. Original hinges eventually need to be replaced and dings and dents on the door itself require patching. A settling house can create problems by causing the door to stick against the floor or the frame, and you'll need to have the door removed to shave off enough wood to restore it to functionality. You might consider replacing all of your closet doors and upgrading to styles that visually flow more easily into existing wainscoting and trim.

A little care is all it takes to enjoy the elegance of glass door knobs on your closet doors and to keep those doors in working order.