Door Help!

[Miss Golightly]

Hello everyone!

From my previous posts you may know that we are in the process of refurbishing a house from the late 1940's - it's a huge job and we have some big decisions to make in the next week or so. We love Art Deco - and we're lucky that the original tiled fireplaces are in good condition -

and have lot of Art Deco furniture too and would like to have that kind of theme running through a lot of the house. The one thing that we are undecided about is internal doors.

I've been looking online and in movies to see what kind doors were in Deco homes - I saw a lot of plain panelled doors like this:

And also panelled doors similar to this:

The style that I liked (in white as the dark wood would be too dark in the house) are the following - plain and panelled - I personally leaned more towards the plain Shaker style as I felt that was closest to what I saw in Art Deco homes and I like the fact that it is quite plain:

It's a little like this (without the beautiful original detailing unfortunately!)

So, my question is would the plain or panelled door work better? Am I right in saying the Shaker door would be more in keeping with Art Deco or not? Someone also said that they felt the Shaker door would date quickly whereas I don't think it would as it's a plain and quite timeless style.

Any thoughts or opinions would be most welcome - thank you!

 

[MikePotts]

I'd go with the plain door and add that detailing, should be quite simple. [huh]

MP

 

[Flicka]

All the 30s doors I've seen here (I used to live in a house from '35 and I have tons of friends who lives in 30s houses too) are completely smooth (as in no panels at all) and almost always painted white. The upper door would be what I'd expect in houses built in the 20s and before. If you look at Bertie Wooster's apartment in the '90s series, which I absolutely love as an example of gorgeous art deco, I'm pretty sure it has doors something like that. But at least here, by the 30s, functionalism was taking over as an ideal and everything became sleeker and starker. So I suppose it's a little to do with which sort of deco you prefer.

However, if you ask for my personal preferences... I like the plainer door a lot more. I think the simply geometrical lines fit better with the deco aestetic and goes much better with your fireplace. As for getting tired of things, I always think that the simpler the more versatile (but then I'm Scandinavian and you know what designs we prefer).

My 2 cents.

 

[Miss Golightly]

Mike & Flicka - thank you both for your thoughts - much appreciated! Yes, I still lean more towards the plain Shaker door as I agree that the plainer something is the less dated it will become - that pretty much my thoughts on interiors and style in general.

I never saw Jeeves & Wooster but found this excellent article on the interiors used in the series - I want every stick of furniture!!!!!!:

http://bijoukaleidoscope.blogspot.com/2009/08/art-deco-1920s-decor-jeeves-wooster.html

 

[rue]

Miss G,

All the doors in my house that was built in 1930 look like this one:

I hope that helps

 

[Miss Golightly]

Thanks Rue - that's extremely helpful! Regardless of whether it has a deco vibe or not I really like the style - typical that I would have to pick the most expensive door in the shop though!

 

[rue]

Of course it would be the most expensive! lol

I would say that they have a deco vibe. This is the door knob that is on all those doors:

The only door that's different is the front door:

and here is the knob on it:

 

[Miss Golightly]

Those are the doors in your house Rue? They are beyond fabulous! What a joy to walk up your path and see that door in front of you. It looks like we are going to have to get a bespoke hall door as they don't have what we want on the shop floor - we want a kind of 30's door with a square glass panel on the top (maybe with stained glass in it) with wooden panels and glass on each side of the main door.

The door knobs are gorgeous - just what I would like for our internal doors - in fact I have seen some very lovely repro ones online that we could look at once we have got the house in order. Some are very reasonable - some not so much (particularly the ones with the glass knob).

 

[Flicka]

I don't think we have that sort of 'art architecture'. I stole some snaps from ads for apartments for sale and this is a typical 20s apartment, including the doors (and I do think the handles are original):

And then we immediately went into what we call 'funkis' or functionalism which is more stark. These doors are typical for that era (I think they exchanged the handles, but the originals would have looked very close - you can see there's no panelling whatsoever) :

The strange small kitchen and sliding glass doors to a small dining room exists in practically all houses built in the 30s here. My old kitchen had that exact same layout:

All in all, I guess my point is that art deco never really happened here. We went straight from art noveau (or jugend as we call it) to modernism. I'm really envious of you people with art deco houses!

 

[Miss Golightly]

That's very interesting Flicka - that Deco seems to have just been skipped past in your neck of the woods! We looked at buying a true Deco house from the 30's with all original features (it was in a dreadful state - filthy and run down - the worst thing was that an old person had been living there up to three years before the house went on the market - one day though we found a photo resting on the window sill that showed what the back garden was like in it's heyday - a beautiful lawn with a little dog on it - it was really very sad) but we lost out on it at the last minute - to say I was devastated is an understatement but it wasn't meant to be - however the house we ended up buying is perfect for us - it may lack a lot of vintage features that the other house had but our house has a really lovely vibe and of course the vintage touches can be added along the way!

 

[esteban68]

I'd go with the plain door and add that detailing, should be quite simple. [huh]

MP

Ditto, it shouldn't be that hard to add simple detailing like that beautiful original door....simple and elegant, go for it as it will lift the whole house IMHO.

 

[esteban68]

Of course it would be the most expensive! lol

I would say that they have a deco vibe. This is the door knob that is on all those doors:

The only door that's different is the front door:

and here is the knob on it:

I've seen similar handles recently on a car boot but in dark brown bakelite for £5 a pair like a fool I passed them by....doh!!!

 

[esteban68]

Mike & Flicka - thank you both for your thoughts - much appreciated! Yes, I still lean more towards the plain Shaker door as I agree that the plainer something is the less dated it will become - that pretty much my thoughts on interiors and style in general.

I never saw Jeeves & Wooster but found this excellent article on the interiors used in the series - I want every stick of furniture!!!!!!:

http://bijoukaleidoscope.blogspot.com/2009/08/art-deco-1920s-decor-jeeves-wooster.html

Never seen Jeeves & Wooster? buy it borrow it see it....it's a deco lovers dream show!

 

[rue]

Those are the doors in your house Rue? They are beyond fabulous! What a joy to walk up your path and see that door in front of you. It looks like we are going to have to get a bespoke hall door as they don't have what we want on the shop floor - we want a kind of 30's door with a square glass panel on the top (maybe with stained glass in it) with wooden panels and glass on each side of the main door.

The door knobs are gorgeous - just what I would like for our internal doors - in fact I have seen some very lovely repro ones online that we could look at once we have got the house in order. Some are very reasonable - some not so much (particularly the ones with the glass knob).

Yes they are, thank you

Have you tried looking in antique shops or online for old knobs? If you can find someone that knows how to install them, they're usually cheaper than repros.

 

[Flicka]

We did sort of have art deco - you can find lots of china and lamps etc in typical deco style, but in terms if architecture (and whole interiors) was stricter and more classical and less deco-ish - the slight transition between jugend and functionalism is often referred to as Nordic classicism or Swedish grace (although we call it '20s Classicism' in Swedish). It's interesting because often when I see, for example, American art deco interiors they don't look quite in period for me, because I'm used a different sort of look, much lighter and sparer. But Wooster's flat looks just right to me!

 

[Miss Golightly]

Yes they are, thank you

Have you tried looking in antique shops or online for old knobs? If you can find someone that knows how to install them, they're usually cheaper than repros.

Vintage doorknobs are so hard to find here and cost a small fortune - I was thinking that changing the doorknobs could be done over time - I saw some reasonably priced ones online that were just chrome - I quite liked them - but do love the glass ones *sigh*.....

 

[Chaps]

Never seen Jeeves & Wooster? buy it borrow it see it....it's a deco lovers dream show!

Ditto.

 

[Miss Golightly]

Thank you all again for your opinions/thoughts/tips - we've decided the plain Shaker is what we are going to go for and have signed off on them - yay!

And Jeeves and Wooster is now on my wishlist - thank you!

 

[1930artdeco]

If for some reason you are ever in the states, hook up with a lounger and hit the antique and reuse stores for a shopping spree. It might be a tad expensive, but you get to go shopping, finish off your house and take a vacation all at once. What could be better?

Mike

 

[W-D Forties]

http://www.periodhouseshops.com/catalogue.php

This company have some nice repro door furniture and other bits and bobs, not cheap but very nice quality. They have a couple of shops and I have had good poke around the one is Shrewsbury.