Flush jib doors in oak veneer set into full height wall panelling, on concealed hinges and push latches so nothing breaks the face.

Set out with the panelling

Panel widths were set out first so each door landed on a panel rather than cutting across one. The wall reads as a single designed surface that happens to contain two doors, instead of two doors that happen to sit in a wall.

That decision has to be made before anything is ordered. Once panel widths are fixed and the sheeting is up, a door in the wrong place either cuts a panel in half or forces an asymmetry that everybody notices and nobody can name.

Frames before sheeting

Concealed frames were set, plumbed and packed to the finished wall line before the plasterer started, and the sheeting was run up to the frame rather than cut back to it afterwards. There is no architrave to cover an error on this detail, so the frame is the entire job.

Each frame was checked in both directions and braced until the wall was closed. A jib door in a frame that is a millimetre out of plumb will show a gap that opens from top to bottom, and by the time it is visible the wall is painted.

Grain across the set

Veneer was ordered from a single batch and laid out so the grain runs continuously across the panelling and through both leaves. Anything less and the doors announce themselves the moment light crosses the wall at an angle.

Leaf faces were balanced front and back so the doors stay flat. An unbalanced veneered leaf will cup over a season, and on a flush detail a cupped door is immediately obvious because the gap changes along its height.

Hardware you cannot see

Concealed hinges, push latches, and no visible pull anywhere on the wall. The only reliable way to find the doors is to already know they are there.

Door and wall were finished in the same product and the same sheen, agreed with the painter rather than assumed. Matching the colour and missing the sheen produces a door that disappears in one light and reappears in another.

Similar work: jib doors, flush wall panelling and concealed service cupboards for apartments, hotels and high end residential.