I have been lurking on this site so long I feel I know you all so well, but here goes... it's the ceiling. It bugs me. I'm a CPA but I have three A+ designers as clients and as one would say, "Oh honey, it's so 80's." More than that, it's a distraction. Take your photo, turn it into a B&W, then turn it upsaide down, or do one or the other, then you'll see. The ceiling s/b 10% lighter than the walls, maybe 20%. And add some nice 3-4" crown molding, maybe 5". Go on Facebook or Google Mrs. Phoebe Howard; if I ever won the Lottery, man, she is one heck of a designer. Maybe she is too calm, I mean not enough jazz, for you, but her son's company, Max & Co. is more cutting edge. I too am having drapery problems, that's why I am looking to you all for help, even with the three clients who all of a sudden don't have time for me. So I went to IKEA for the bedroom, not bad. $14 for two panels including the Stitch-Witchery. and I don't ever plan to wash them, cheaper to replace. I remodeled for 15 months just moved back in, hubby says it's like living in a fishbowl w/o any windowcoverings at all on all new Marvin windows and French doors. (Contractor said it would take 4-6 months, we've all heard those 'stories', like I'm 6' tall, etc.) Wish I had my old beautiful custom shutters back but they wouldn't fit. Thanks for letting me contribute my 2cents, I didn't mean to offend if I did. This is what my clients told me. grin. And thank you for letting grump a little, Sandy

Hi Danieleise, My wife and I are redoing our kitchen right this moment so I don't have pics to show but we are doing something similar to you. We also have a 5ft closet and like you wanted something different. We've bought double french doors in natural cherry from Home Depot that we will apply a rich deep cherry stain. Each door has 15 beveled clear glass lites. On the door's interior we are hanging patterned fabric. What I like most is because fabric is so cheap we can change the look as we please, could be based on the season and the choices are endless! The bevels add an interesting level of distortion and catch the light. good luck with your decision jd

Well, you might remember I have 15 of them. I've been taking down the standard, unfinished 6-panel doors STBX hung and replacing them with 5 horizontal panel, antique doors. They're between 1.5 - 2" thick. I am also using 4, French exterior, antique French doors I'm hanging in kitchen/den, den/kitchen, kitchen/mudroom, hallway/mbr, and 2 closet pockets. The thicker, the more sound barrier. Two of the things I notices that definitely changes the noise level is how close to the floor you hang them. I make mine just skim the floor (wood) by 1/16 if I can. There are little wrenches that help you adjust, if you buy the great Johnson hardware. The 2nd thing is how tight your pocket is. The framing around the door, into which it slides. If there's a gap, sound is going to travel and your door can bang back and forth. Again, I get mine as tight as I possibly can. This is a trim or finish carpenter's job, but don't leave it to chance. On my pocket door between my mudroom and garage, I actually used extra 2x4s and stapled insulation in that 2" space (remember, the 2x4s are sideways. I had to peel some back, but it makes an usual difference in heat loss, too. It is surprisingly easy to retrofit a pocket door. If it's not load bearing, just take down the drywall and move the studs sideways! I had the space in my mudroom/garage area to actually build out the wall on the garage side, too. Another method. WELL worth it. You can make one door stationary. Not a big deal. Just address your pocket carefully.

Not that it really matters but you describe a little house (and include a picture of one), talk about an overhead door (and the picture doesn't show one) and then switch and say "The garage is not attached to the house, and will become my art studio." It just doesn't make a lot of sense. What I gather is that you have an existing detached single car gargae that you want to convert to and art studio and make it look like a little house. Anyway it's all irrelevant as I believe your question is simply "what's involved with replacing an overhead garage door with french doors?" The garage door is easily removed leaving a rough opening in the wall. the new door configuration needs to fill that opening. If you want to use slab doors then the frame/casing to mount the doors needs to be custom made. Any space between the door frame and the rough opening from the garage needs to be filled and finished like a contiuation of the existing walls with finishes to match both the exterior (be it shingles, clapboards, vinyl siding, etc.) and the interior (if you want your studio to have finished walls then then the it would be sheetrock, plaster, etc.) Conversely, the space between the doors and the rough opeing could simply be framed, sheathed with wood and painted to look like a really wide trim/extension the door frame. I guess the short answer is that it would be a custom installation and the level of effort for a carpenter to finish it, would totally depend on the what you want the end product to look like...and no it really isn't a difficult job but it is finished carpentry wrk and IMHO would require the skills of a good finish carpenter. Hope that helps.