My daughter wants some Shoji-style screen partitions made. They would be about the size of a door. But instead of rice paper she wants fabric. So far, so good.
Any thoughts on how to construct the frame? 1×2 wood with a few cross braces, tongue and groove like a door frame? And, any thoughts on how to cover the perimeter where the fabric is mounted?
I am not sure how long this would really be used, so I am trying to be like a little bird (cheep, cheep, cheap!). I am sure you guys can tell me where to go!
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The only thing that I would be worried about with fabric is that you'll have to stretch it to make it look nice and stay that way. This may mean you have to beef up the outer frame to keep it from twisting.
"door size" -
I'd be looking at 1 1/8" frame material rather than 1 inch (meaning 3/4") for that size frame - I let in some short 45* braces at each corner and one horizontal about at about halfway -hem your fabric, tack and cover with a rabbeted molding -
Are these to be sliders or hinged?
My first thought with fabric would be to treat it like screen, use a half-rabbet in th frame, with a spline dado in that rabbet, then vinyl spline into that.
From working with fabric before in casework, starch the fabric first, to make it a little less floppy. (You can use carpet spot cleaner afterwards to get any visible starch out.)
Thanks for the ideas.
These are intended as free-standing, so hinges.
I was hoping to completely cover the framing on both sides, so I didn't have to finish the wood. I honestly hadn't thought about "screen doors" when I was writing this, but it sounds interesting.
And, perhaps rice paper might be nice after all. Has anybody dealt with this stuff? I was doing some looking, and it appears that they typically do smaller frames and build them up--but again I really don't know how long my daughter might be using them, so I don't want to use a lot of fancy woodworking.
Hmmmm!! Speaking of screen doors, anybody know of a place in the Chicago area that will sell the "seconds" without hinges, screens, etc?
My first thought was that if you use fabric or even rice paper over the whole thing, besides being weaker, what happens when it is damaged?--remove all of it and start over. Easier to have little drop in panels that can have the screen material more easily replaced. Inserting panels in a frame would be stronger too.
If you decide you'd rather have one large panel with fake dividers (like on modern windows that look like they have "divided lights" where the dividers are just snap on grids), you could do like Wright and use a stronger material like fiberglass with the narrow grid framework on either side.
Edited 8/31/2008 3:04 pm ET by Danno
I have about two dozen old shoji doors in my house.Normally covered in shoji paper, which come in narrow rolls (to be lapped) or wide rolls (which cover one whole door). There is a plastic product called "Warlon" that is easier and more durable, and you should be able to get it.The paper gets redone ideally once a year, but in practice once every few years. It's a bit of a pain to redo but quite within the capability of the typical homeowner. Small children love to destroy shoji paper, and pets have no respect for it either. This was done by a cat:http://image.blog.livedoor.jp/kat3272/imgs/2/1/21e1c1fb.JPGRepairs can be effected by pasting little paper flowers and decorations over the holes.As for stretching the paper, as you probably know, the glue is put down, then the paper is laid on the glue and patted down onto it. Then you spritz the paper with water. When it dries the paper stretches tight. I suppose the same process would work with the right sort of fabric.
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