Privacy Please: How To Add a Door To a Cased Opening Doorway

What is a cased opening?

When we bought our house there was not an actual door between our primary bedroom and bathroom—only a cased opening. Some folks may not be familiar with this term, so let me explain. A cased opening means there is an open doorway between two rooms that is trimmed out with molding, but there is no door to shut for added privacy.

Inside the bathroom, there is an enclosed toilet room and, of course, our bedroom has a door, but there was nothing but a short hallway to separate our bedroom from that big garden tub right there.  Also, when we moved in, there were no blinds on the double glass doors on the back porch, so every day I lived in fear of unintentionally flashing my termite guy or lawn care dude. Thankfully these blinds for french doors took care of that issue. As any mom of little kids can tell you, bathroom privacy is a Sacred and Holy Experience, so we decided to add a working door with a lock to this cased opening.

Now this type of wide-open living might suit you fine if you’re a nudist, or if you’re a couple without kids who are both on the same schedule in the mornings, but for my family? Nope. I need a door on my bathroom. With a lock.

Because sometimes you just need a minute to hide yourself in there and have a moment of peace. Or to sleep a little later while your husband gets up at the butt-crack of dawn to get ready for work. Or to take a private bubble bath. Or to examine your face in the mirror and scrutinize all of your pores. Whatever your reason, you don’t want to be left naked and defenseless when your 8-year-old son waltzes right in during Mama’s bubble bath and asks for a peanut butter sandwich.

Privacy is the goal here. That’s where this post comes in. Because finally… sweet, sweet privacy has arrived in my bathroom.  Hello, beautiful.

A little extra privacy, a lot of extra style

This post is not going to be a step-by-step tutorial because honestly?  I did not DIY this door myself.  I hired my Uncle Warren to do this job for me since it was a little bit above my expertise and woodworking ability. If you are skilled with table saws and measuring tapes and know the difference between 3/16ths and 5/8ths then you might be just fine DIYing this.  But my sleepless momnesia brain doesn’t allow me to make those types of calculations these days, so I just stood back and took the pictures.

Can you add a door to a cased opening?

The point of this post is to show you that yes. You CAN add a door to a cased opening. For those of you (like me) who assumed that you would have to rip out the trim moldings around the cased opening and replace it with a whole new interior door jamb and frame, I’m here to tell you that is not the case. You can retrofit a new door right inside your existing cased opening!

Step-by-Step instructions of how to add a door to a doorway

• Measure the width of the doorway cased opening at the top and bottom (these number might not match)
• Find a door that fits inside the smaller measurement with room to spare (or be prepared to do some cutting and sanding when it sticks)
• Figure out which way you want your door to swing and which side your handle/ hinges should go on. My door was not pre-drilled so this was not an issue but if you buy a pre-drilled door take that into consideration.
• Paint the door with a few coats of paint, drying full between each second coat. You could do this after it’s hung, but it’s easier to do it lying flat so you won’t have any drips. I prefer Sherwin Williams.
• Add 3 door hinges to the side of the door and mark those with an outline on your cased opening (make sure your door is not touching the ground so it will swing freely once it’s hung)
• Notch out 3 rounded mortises for the hinges using a complete door mortising kit (or something similar) with a router.  You could also use a utility knife, hammer and a chisel to notch out the area for the hinges but it will not look as nice.
• Hang the door. This might be the hardest part since you have to have someone help hold while you screw in the hinges.
• Nail three pieces of 1×1 boards into the cased opening on the opposite side of the door swing to hide your gaps and keep the door from swinging too far inside the frame.
• Add your door handle to the door.  I used this oil rubbed bronze privacy lever door handle.
• Match up and drill out the hole for the door latch on the cased opening.
• Touch up any scuffs in your paint.
• Enjoy your new privacy!

A closer look at the details…

Here is a shot of the 1×1 getting nailed into the top of the door casing to help you visualize this step a little better.  He repeated this step for both of the sides to hide that gap.

And a closer look at this beautiful door handle.  I love the back of it the most.

So there you go! I hope this tutorial helps you to see the installation process of how you might turn an open area of your home into a private retreat by adding a door.

I considering adding a “Do Not Disturb” sign, but only one out of two of my children can read yet, so I’ll just use that push button thumb-latch instead.

If this door looks familiar, it’s because I have been using it in my home as decoration for approximately six years now.  I bought this gorgeous five panel door back in 2010 for $19.95.  Here is a comparable one from Lowes. I’ve been using it in various spots around my house for years to display photos and décor items.  Recognize this? Yep, same door.

But now, after six years of waiting, I FINALLY got it hung! Thanks to my uncle for having the skills and patience to get it done for me! I say patience, because my bathroom opening was 29” wide and this door was like 29 3/4” wide, so he had to do some extra cutting and gluing and sawing to make it fit, but it looks AMAZING!

Every time I walk past it I give it a little love-rub. We’re probably gonna need more touch-up paint soon.