DIY Dutch Door?
 

Anyone ever take a regular door and convert it to a dutch door?

We've got a 2-year old girl at home who just figured out how to escape her crib. We don't want her leaping out and getting hurt, so the other night, I converted the crib to a "toddler bed". Basically the crib minus the front - sort of a daybed look to it.

The trouble now is that she can now leave her room at anytime easily enough.

I don't like any of those "baby-gates". They never really work well, and just end up being a hastle.

So, I wondered about a "Dutch-Door". If I cut the door in half, we could use the bottom as a very solid and simple baby-gate, while leaving the top half open.

Besides cutting the door, I'd also have to add an extra hinge, some trim on the back bottom of the top door, and add a flat top plate to the cut of the bottom half. It would also need a bolt or latch to connect or disconnect the two halves.

It could look rather nice AND be very functional. I've just never done something like this before.

Has anyone else? Any suggestions?

if it's a solid door then it's straightforward. If it's a hollow interior door you'll need to insert a board on each side of the cut to stiffen things up again.

It's solid-core, but a four-panel style.

There's enough room between the upper and lower panels, yet above the knob to do a straight cut all the way across.

It should be easy enough then. The only thing I'll add is going from escaping the crib to defeating any child lock invented took both of mine about 5 months. Now the only defence is making it too high to reach...

I plan on spinning the knob around so that the locking side is on the OUTSIDE. With the top of the dutch door open, it should serve as an effictive baby gate. If I put the latch that combines both halves of the door on the inside, nobody of a decent height should fear getting locked inside.

I'm kinda making a home version of the child-locks found on the back doors of a car! The top of the dutch door would act like an open car window, allowing you to reach out and unlock from the outside if needed.

Chances are if you make it a half door your child will drag over something to stand on and escape at will.
Maybe a 3/4 door with a 1/4 at the top ? or is that too much like prison.
Speaking of which, when me and my siblings were young my mother would drop us off at the bowling alley day care while she bowled. In that prison set up the door knob was moved near the top of the door preventing the hoard of unhappy children from escaping.
Kids hate to be locked as much as most adults, most but not my brother, the jail bird who did not mind bowling alley lock down as much as me..
Might be best if children do not get used to being locked behind doors, not that you want to do that, just saying we don't want our kids to get too settled with that situation:)

They also sell plastic door knob covers that 'slip' when you turn the knob and require you to squeeze harder than a toddler can squeeze to get them open. Also if you have a hulk baby, then you'd need them to have an adult sized hand too. This type of door knob 'child lock' is used in child care facilities(although I haven't seen this particular one) and they are successful.

Buy Safety 1st Grip n' Twist Door Knob Cover & More | drugstore.com

This is what we used to our basement door.

We didn't have much issues with the kids running around the house. We had a bungalow at the time so it wasn't a really big deal. On the kitchen cupboards we put these clips that would wrap around both cupboard handles so they couldn't get in. The drawers we couldn't do much for.

When both our kids were 2 we put them both into single beds with the side protectors so they wouldn't fall out. My oldest barely EVER left his room...solid sleeper. The other one would leave his room and come into our room. Never had a fear of them walking around the house other then to in our room (again we had a bungalow and the basement door had one of those slippy handles on them). Depends on how adventurous your kids are and how much trouble they'll get into. :)

The doors that I want the kids to stay inside don't have knobs, they are all those lever handles. We've tried those squeeze child locks on the knobs. Two hands, some coordination and a bit of strength is enough to turn them. My four year old opens them as quickly as I do and my 2.5 year old only takes 10 seconds or so.

For the cupboards I gave up and used a thick bungy cord wrapped betweed the handles and tied tight. My son then 2 years old at the time simply ripped the handles off of the cupboard. Anything important is now kept 5 feet or higher up.

My nephews were similar and their mom wanted to keep them in their room at night. In the end she removed the handle from the inside of the door. She kept a screw driver up high to turn the latch if she got locked in.

Hmmm. Lots of comments on "child-proofing" and none on building a Dutch Door.

I've always disliked all the various plastic knobs and other anti-child devices.

Since the little girl is now in a bed, instead of a crib, we just want her to stay in her room.

I spent the better part of today building a Dutch Door for the Little Girl's room. It's still not totally done, but it's there and functional. Hopefully, if she wakes up tonight, she'll stay in the room instead of coming and hunting us down like the last couple of nights.

That comment about the bowling alley was funny. My wife and her brother both spent lots of time at the bowling alley daycare when she was a kid!

I still need to add a bolt that connects the top and bottom halves, some sanding, another piece of trim on the front, and then paint the whole thing.
Here's a couple of photos.

http://ecoprojecteer.net/wp-content/...0/IMG_0739.jpg

http://ecoprojecteer.net/wp-content/...0/IMG_0738.jpg

http://ecoprojecteer.net/wp-content/...0/IMG_0765.jpg

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PS. So far, all materials on this project are %100 recycled!

Looks pretty good Ben!

That is nifty, good job. Now for some sleep !

(Now the next morning....)

Success! The child did not wander off in the night. She woke up once. My wife took her to the living room for ten minutes to let her fall asleep on the sofa, and then put her back in bed.

Seems like the Dutch Door is off to a good start in terms of serving as an effective baby gate!

one quick suggestion. Since the top half is in the kids room, I would put a hook in the wall to hold that half open. Don't want any pinched fingers.

Yeah, my wife and I talked about that.

So far the Little Girl hasn't been playing with the top half of the door. I was a little concerned about finger pinching, but it's really about the same risk as her just opening and closing a normal door. (Except perhaps for novelty?)

I think if she is fiddling with it, we'll add a hook and eye.

I'd consider it somewhat worse risk, as the vertical edge of the door there is no leverage, but closer to the hinges there is. I've seen kids do this with cabinates but those doors were much lighter.

I've seen the damage these types of scissor pinching actions can do to little fingers. An eye hook is cheap safety.

Did a little more work on the Dutch Door today.

I dug through my garage and found the box of misc cabinet hardware. In it was a little brass knob latch device. I used it as the thing to connect and disconnect the top and bottom of the door to each other.

http://ecoprojecteer.net/wp-content/...0/IMG_0784.jpg

I also installed a standard door stop on the bottom (the original door never had a door-stop with it.)

For the top half of the door, I designed a magnetic catch. When the top is open all the way, it sticks to the wall and won't accidentally swing back. It's kept totally out of the way, and allows you to just use the lower part of the door as a baby gate.

I built the magnetic catch from a wine cork, drywall screw, magnet, washer, and wood screw.

I ran the long drywall screw through the cork, and then into the top corner of the door. The head of the screw is counter-sunk, and the magnet stuck to the head of the screw. I then put the head of the OTHER screw on the magnet and swung the door against the wall to mark where the washer would go.

I put the screw into the wall through the washer.

When the top of the door is open all the way, the magnet pulls against the washer mounted to the wall, and holds the door open. The extra bit of cork sticking up around the magnet cushions the door striking against the washer.

From outside the room, an adult can pull on the top half of the door and quietly shut it.

A hook and eye would hold the door top open securely, but couldn't be easily undone from outside the room. Nor would it "automatically" grab and stop the door top.

I also used some wood filler to cover my less-than-masterful joinery on the top cross piece of the lower half of the door, and over the minor hole pressed into the door from when I was transporting it. Hopefully, with a coat of white paint, nobody will even notice all the myriad of small imperfections!

http://ecoprojecteer.net/wp-content/...0/IMG_0778.jpg
http://ecoprojecteer.net/wp-content/...0/IMG_0785.jpg
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When I do the painting, I'll paint that washer to match the wall color. Don't think I'll paint the cork though! ;)

Now that is slick

And like you said free.

Good job on that!

Here's a couple photos of the finished project.

Might still get a little more paint, but otherwise it is finished an works well.

http://ecoprojecteer.net/wp-content/...0/IMG_0817.jpg

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That has got to make life better.
I assume the little dark circle on the bottom of the top half is a latch for joining the two halves, stealth if so or is it just a knob?

The little dark knob on the bottom of the top half is one the OUTSIDE (hallway side) of the door.

It's a pull knob so that adults can pull the door shut from the outside when the bottom half is already closed.

On the INSIDE of the door is the latch that ties both halves together. I took a look at adding it to the outside of the door, but the latch was only designed to work one direction, and would have been difficult to reverse.

So far, at night, we leave the bottom half of the door completely closed. It locks from the outside, but that hasn't been a big deal, as she's not very good at turning door knobs yet anyways. We leave the top half unlatched, but closed most of the way. That can let in a little light from the hallway, and it's very quite and easy to peek in by opening the top a bit and looking.

Here's a photo of the latch that connects the two halves of the door.

When I remounted both door halves, I shimmed-up the top half to make sure I had alignment right on the latch before tightening everything down.

It works well.

http://ecoprojecteer.net/wp-content/...0/IMG_0815.jpg

On this photo the top half of the door still needs a second coat of paint.