The door would be at least a little more complicated: I think you'd have to trim the front edge of the jamb back by the thickness of the panelling, and then hang the unit so that the trimmed jamb was flush with the wall surface. The wall panelling would cover the edges of the jamb. The panelling applied to the door would go under the hinge leaves. Having drywall under the panelling will make the whole installation more difficult, because drwyall isn't flat. The key to making this go well would be making the framing/supporting surfaces flat, plumb and true.

All the vertical lines in the beadboard make this a tricky project to do well. Trim around doors and windows forgives a lot of imprecision, and you don't have that luxury here. A good finish carpenter might be a better choice than a cabinetmaker, since much of this will have to be built on site. It sounds like you're fairly new to this DIY woodworking; I'm reluctant to tell you to try this yourself unless you get some more experienced help.

Hi again jon1270,
Ok, you're right! I'm completely lost on this one. Let me see if I can pose a couple more questions to help clarify things a bit.

1. you'd have to trim the front edge of the jamb back by the thickness of the panelling

I'm not sure I understand this. If I trim the front edge of the jamb, I'm going to be cutting into where the hinges are, plus the jamb will no longer be flush with the face of the closet door. Currently, the pair of closet doors are prehung so that when looking at the front side, the doors are flush with the jamb. They are hung with exposed hinges like in the photo, but not with the decorative iron strap.

2. hang the unit so that the trimmed jamb was flush with the wall surface

Right now I only have a framed opening, no sheetrock (but they're coming tomorrow morning!). Is this another case where maybe I should not sheetrock the wall around the doors and just apply the paneling directly to the framing studs?

3. The panelling applied to the door would go under the hinge leaves

Not sure I understand this. Since I don't have the decorative strap part that goes across the face of the door, would the paneling applied to the door just butt up against the hinge and line up with the edges of the door?

4. Having drywall under the panelling will make the whole installation more difficult, because drwyall isn't flat.

It isn't??? What about freshly installed drywall that doesn't have a final texture coat??

5. The key to making this go well would be making the framing/supporting surfaces flat, plumb and true.

So another reason not to sheetrock and just apply paneling directly to flat, plumbed and trued framing studs? If I did this, I would need to modify the jamb width, since I ordered the door with 4 9/16 jamb width, standard width if you're planning on sheetrocking both sides of the door opening.

Thanks for sticking with me this far and hope I've made some sense.

...hinges like in the photo, but not with the decorative iron strap.

Ahh, that's the part you left out in the original post. In that case you wouldn't need to trim the front of the jambs. If your hinges had the decorative leaf on the face of the door instead of the edge, then you'd be putting the door panelling under the hinge straps, which would throw things out of flush if the jamb hadn't been trimmed. As it is, you should be fine without trimming.

...would the paneling applied to the door just butt up against the hinge and line up with the edges of the door?

I can't see any other way to do it. A router and a flush-trimming bit would come in very handy here.

It isn't??? What about freshly installed drywall...

Sheets of drywall are (or at least should be) flat. It's the non-factory-edge seams between them that make them lumpy. The long edges of the sheets are formed with recessed areas so that the tape and mud can end up flush with the larger surface, but at joints where the sheets have been cut to size, at vertical or wall/ceiling inside corners, and on outside vertical corners which get a plastic or metal corner bead, there's always a buildup of material that sticks up. It's generally feathered out over several inches so you don't notice it, but the variations are there.

There is that whole code thing again, with the question of whether it's permissible to panel directly over the studs. Perhaps Brickeyee or Handymac will have something to say about this. From a woodworking perspective I'd certaily prefer to skip the drywall.

Now that we're finishing up our big remodel, I'm trying to go back and post follow-ups to many of my old posts.
We ended up putting drywall on the framing so that it became flush with the Masonite doors. Then we nailed the tongue and groove paneling directly to the drywall and doors.
Thanks again jon1270 for your help!

Here is a link that might be useful: