The Curtained Door

Doors have special significance.... hold a certain magic... an entry... threshold... moving through from one space to another... a welcome or a slam...

behind the closed door... a barrier... a portal... a surprise or danger... an entry into the known or unknown... most always a mystery until you pass through..... familiar doors offer us safety & sanctuary...



...we can have many emotions attached to the mere act of passing through doors...

Before we built our home, one of the things we gathered were old wooden doors... many different sizes, shapes, designs... about 40 to be exact.... it took a few years. We wanted a lot of flow, so most rooms have more than one door so you can wander in & out...... & pace if you have the desire to. This is one of the bathroom doors that leads to the studio on the second floor. We could not find the kind of door we wanted for this space.... We wanted it to be tall & special.... Not easy to find or afford... so we decided to make one from some of our salvaged materials.




We used one of our six, 6' tall Gothic arched windows from 1850 or there abouts that we got off a old fellow in Mercer Settlement, NB, who had saved them in a little old half fallen down shed since 1963. He said he had always wanted to build a place & use them in it, but had never gotten around to it, he now was in his mid '70s. We made him an offer but he refused... said he'd have to think about it.

Three months later we called him again & he said he had decided he would sell them to us, since he probably wouldn't ever get around to building another house now anyway, and that he'd be glad that someone was going to use them 'cause he thought they were too special to go to waste.. Yea!




So the top is an old church window & the bottom is part of an old farmhouse door, attached securely & all painted the same color. The tricky part was building the threshold & casing. Took us a while to figure that part out. But with many kerf cuts in the casing the wood was able to carefully bend into the desired shape. There is no traditional knob... just a little lock for privacy, that is usually used on a boat... I came across some beautiful red heavy jacquard fabric and made a large drape.

The first 3 shots are taken from the bath side looking out to the jewelry/art studio & the forth is from the studio side with the door shut...

I love walking through it.