Arched Doorway
An arch doorway is a great way to bring variety into the space you’re remodeling. There are a few reasons why I went with an arched doorway to separate the closet from our girl’s bedroom. Firstly, I wanted to make their closet flush with the wall so that the closet would be bigger to fit some built-in storage. Secondly, I wanted to build a built-in bunkbed on the outside wall of the closet. In the girl’s bedroom blog post, you can see a picture of the red closet doors. After some thought about what type of door I should use to separate the closet from the bedroom, I decided to not have a door altogether and make a little arched doorway. It was a lot easier than I thought, so hopefully this helps you if you are trying to build one. Just go for it!
Supplies
2X4s
drywall
drywall screws
MDF board
utility knife
brad nailer and nails (or nails and hammer will work)
drywall tape
joint compound
vinly corner bead
jigsaw
Step 1
My first step was watching a ton of Youtube videos on how to create an arch doorway. The tricky part about building an arch doorway in this case is that I am also building the wall where the arch doorway will be. Building a new wall and a doorway is different than just making an arched doorway out of an existing doorway. There are a few extra steps for that, and I would search YouTube for those additional steps.
Step 2
Okay, this might seem funny, but I took some 2X4s and cut them down to 2X3s. The reason for this, is because we are putting 1/2 inch Medium Density Fiberboard(MDF) on both sides of the 2X3s so it will be flush with the drywall. I cut them the length of how tall my arch would be. I did not get a picture of this, however, you just nail or screw them to the existing 2X4s right under the header.
Step 3
After that, I then cut an MDF board to fit my archway using a jigsaw. I did two of these to put on both sides, one on the closet side and one on the bedroom side. I attached this to the 2X3s that we put up in the earlier step.
Step 4
Next, I cut a piece of wood to fit in between the MDF boards. It should be 3 inches long to match with your 2X3s that you cut. You are going to cut a at least 10 pieces and place them right at the arch. I just brad nailed them to both sides. You are doing this so you can attached the drywall to something.
Step 5
Now it is drywall time! You are going to put up the drywall on the outside of the arch first. You will just need to cut around the arch and place it up.
Step 6
After step 5, you need to drywall the archway by scoring the back of your arch drywall piece in a few places so it bends. If you don’t know what scoring means, it means to take a utility knife and cut into the drywall (about 1/3 of the way through). Now you can hang that up! I also needed to put drywall up because I made a complete new doorway, so in between my framed doorway.
Step 7
After screwing in all the drywall, put the corner pieces up (vinyl corner bead) and use joint compound. I actually cut the corner bead to fit around the arch, like scoring the drywall (you can see in the picture). I put the first coat on, let it dry, sanded it and then put another coat on. The key to drywall work is patience! Light coats and a lot of patience. It took three coats in all. For the non-corner pieces you are going to just use drywall tape.
Step 8
Lastly, after layering the joint compound, sand down the wall and the arched doorway so it is smooth and paint ready. After sanding, make sure to wipe off any and all dust before painting. Once that is done, you are ready to paint it! It is done!! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments.
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