Reclaimed doors - Part 1

Reclaimed Doors - Part 1

One material that is often at salvage yards in abundance is doors. Every building needs them, and there is huge variation in both functionality and aesthetics depending on where they were initially used.

Breadth of Materiality

On the whole, doors tend to be made of timber. This can range from hardwood to pine or oak.

The type of timber used often reflects different eras and fashions; this can be down to aesthetic preferences and styles that were popular, as well as trade patterns at the time.

Bringing Life to the Uninspiring

This example of a door may have come from a school or hospital. It features Georgian wire glass panels, a mahogany hardwood frame and may be considered to be largely uninspiring. However, doors such as these can be incredibly good value from salvage yards; they often sit as part of stock for a long time, and salvage dealers may be up for taking offers and negotiating on prices.

With some creativity, a door like this can be turned into something special.

• You could cover the glass panels with a textile such as leather.
• The timber frame could be sanded back and painted.
• The glass panel could be taken out and replaced with a double-sided mirror.

Resizing Doors

The ideal scenario for using old doors would be that you wouldn't have pre-existing openings; you choose your beautiful old door first and then build the opening around its specifications.

However, if you want to use an old door within an existing opening, you need to think quite carefully about your choices and what is feasible. Certain types of doors are simply not possible to cut down to size; for example, a panelled door, as it already has an established scale that wouldn't work with new dimensions.

In the following lesson, I will offer a brilliant alternative to resizing if you have an existing opening that can't be altered.

Repurposing Doors

There are a huge number of ways that a door can be used, other than its original intended purpose of being a door.

• Doors with an interesting design can be stacked on top of each other to create a room divider.
• They can also be used to panel the walls of a room for a really effective and high-end look.

Checking Out Your Doors

When looking for doors to repurpose, you want to try and find the best quality you can afford.

• An easy, tried and tested way to ascertain the quality of a door is to simply lift it up and gauge the weight. Lighter will often mean a cheaper material such as pine.
• Look at where hinges and fixings have been installed and then removed, as this often gives you a chance to see the untreated material and actual colour of the timber.
• Insulation brushes along the side of a door can be a telltale sign of the door being modern.
• If the hinges still remain and are in good condition, these can be reused to save yourself a bit of money.

Doors with Emotional Connotations

Certain elements of a building can be incredibly emotive and stir up our memories. The beauty of salvage is finding a material that has a positive emotional connotation, and it's wonderful to see that instant reaction from a client when they see something they love.

Of course, this can also swing the other way, and clients may have a negative emotional response to a salvaged material, which is something to be aware of.