
50 Different Doors
Doors, doors everywhere with even some to spare!
Hello Everyone
Another week has flown by, the strange weather continues with thunder, rain, cool days and warmer days. Nothing like last summer. Some great skies though with stunning clouds:

Did you enjoy the vegan cherry clafoutis recipe (see post: Seasonal Food and Recipes: July)? Do try the chocolate version – it is delicious!
The front hall continues, not finished yet but I do now have the paint I need for the hinges.
I think I am a would-be architect, as I may have mentioned before. I am fascinated by buildings and love different styles of houses and décor. When we were looking for a house to buy in France I had my heart set on a maison de maître – generally quite rectangular and symmetrical in style, perhaps rather formal. They were built from the 17th century until the beginning of the 20th century, but the height of their popularity was between 1850 and 1880. I don’t really know why this style appealed to me, but it did and still does. Instead, however, we have ended up being captivated by a petit château of very mixed style! In the coming months I will be exploring the different French architectural and design styles, and their history, and hope to learn more about the local architecture, including our house.

This week I am looking at doors. I love doors and can often be found taking photographs of doors when we are out and about. Have a look around when you are next out walking along streets. Doors are such a statement and so interesting – new and old, a real architectural feature. They can be a reflection of the owners of a house, the building they are in, the state of repair of a place, as well as the locality. Fascinating.





We have 50 doors (at the moment) to paint in this house, from bedroom doors to bathroom doors, room doors, French doors, balcony doors, front doors, a cellar door and a tower door. Some of them are double doors – 15 in fact, some are hidden doors and one is a secret door, up until now a sealed pair of doors backing onto each other, leading from salon to billiard room and vice-versa. A lot of doors to repair and paint.




All the double doors out onto the East terrace look as though they haven’t seen a lick of paint in decades, some of the balcony doors are the same. Max has been busy filling holes, repairing and sanding them down as well as puttying those that have glass panes, so that we can start painting them when we have a few dry days. Actually as they all open inwards we could also paint them on wet days and just close the shutters. Most of the glass panes in the doors need the putty touching up or replacing. Against the ideal insulation scenario, we are aiming to keep as much of the old glass as possible. It is amazing looking at the imperfections in glass that must be at least a hundred years old in places, hand blown with lines, bubbles and distortions. Just lovely – impractical but beautiful!
One of the things that attracted me to this house were the French doors on to the terrace. A row of 6 sets of double doors, which, aside from the two in the kitchen, are all different. The stories they must be able to tell!

One thing we do know is that most of them will be painted white (to go with the windows) apart from the front door which will be blue, so less paint brush washing between jobs! Some of them, particularly the hidden doors, will be decorated to blend in with their surroundings.
We have a door that has reinforcements on it along with lots of evidence of bolts and locks. Another is hung upside down, why we have no idea, but we have decided it will stay that way. Some doors will go when we take out the bathrooms on the first floor landing, others will appear as we create ensuite facilities for rooms. There are blocked up doorways, now recessed bookcases. There are even some spare doors, one of which Max is in the process of turning into a table for the attic studio space. Max has also repurposed an old door we found in the attic to make a door to the tower, belvedere and pigeonnier including reusing the old lock mechanism. I shouldn’t forget the stunning old door, found in the attic, that will eventually become the studio space door, complete with key – needs a bit of work though!
A hugely impressive door is this one that leads out onto the second floor terrace. It measures 2.7m in height and is 1.1 metres wide – our biggest internal door.

Many of the doors have beautifully old latch mechanisms – we are not sure what they are called in French. Do any of you know? Some of them have decorative hinges. There are a variety of handles and some of the doors have old keys stuck in their keyholes. One or two of these actually work. Another job on the long list – refurbishing all of these!
Doors, doors, doors – I suspect we will be living, breathing and dreaming doors for a while to come.






Let me know if you have a favourite door – I’d love to see your photos.
Have a great week
A bientôt
Ali xx

