I'm really excited because we should be getting our new front door soon. It's sad to even think of replacing it but the poor door is so warped you can hardly close it and it has huge gaps everywhere you look. The carpenter who's custom making the new door (it's so fun to say that--custom made) came by to take the measurements and take out the forged iron bits we're keeping. He's starting work on it this week and it should be ready by the end of the month.
At first we were going to get a pvc door because the quote for a wood door was 6,000 euros! Yes that was the sound of my mouth dropping on the floor. So we relented and chose a really cool fake wood pvc plastic door in bordeaux red that looked like real wood but was about a third of the price. Honestly it fooled me so it wasn't such a bad choice and I loved the idea of having a red door, but our heart just wasn't in it. Then last month just before signing our window and door contract we called a local carpenter for a bid on redoing ours. His bid was in oak and he was even cheaper than the pvc people! So see you never know until you ask around.
I'll have to admit though that I was pretty excited about having my lucky red door even if it was going to be in pvc. Oh well, another house another time maybe.Red doors always make me want to come inside for a cup of tea.
6 comments:
That red door is cute, but if I understand, not yours. Will you be able to paint your new one?
No not ours. Since ours will be made locally by an artisan and it's going to be in oak (local trees :) it would be a shame to paint it.
i love your entryway! how wonderful to have a new wooden door made. :^) we had ours made from wood, too -- such a bold move these days. ;^)
Thanks! The entryway is part of the charm of these old late 19th early 20th century French homes. At least we think so. The trend is to rip them out and open up the space but there's something mysterious and charming about a hallway and doors leading off into different rooms. At least that what we think. We're pretty excited to see what Mr. Door looks like when he's finished. A door is such an important part of a home isn't it.
I think that you have stumbled onto the key for creating a beautiful home as far as the artisan thing goes. As we've been renovating and decorating our apartment, I've also found that it ends up being cheaper and better to have things custom made by artisans. At this point, probably half of our furniture is custom. Just a few months ago, when i was trying to convert our office into a nursery, I scoured Paris for a dresser to fit in where the desk had been (between built in shelving the last owners had left us). Couldn't find a thing that would fit the space and plus, I was getting frustrated at the bad quality of the things I was looking at (ie pressboard and veneers on furniture costing thousands of euros). One day, while in the country visitng family, we bumped into the old man who had built our dining room table and told him our problem. He got us in touch with a kid who was doing his apprenticeship in carpentry. We faxed him a drawing with the dimensions and a month later he delivered a gorgeous, solid oak dresser to slot into place. It is perfect and it cost half of what I was thinking I would have to spend (and is probably worth 4 or 5 times what we paid)
Yes! And it's so much more personal. My dad is a custom carpenter and he always made the bookshelves and things in our house so you think I'd have that drilled into me by now. I just assumed that it would be really expensive in France.
Finding an apprentice is a great idea. We did that on our old house and found the guys who cut and placed the stones around our windows and doors. They were amazing workers. Tailleur de pierre is a dying art in Europe.
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