Decorating with Doors

Well, yall know I love me some doors.  Last year, when I moved into the long-term temporary house-sitting apartment, I began to really think through how I would want to decorate once I had my own place...because it would be coming soon.  Pinterest helped alot with ideas.  I saw that people did all kinds of things with doors, suitcases, and trunks.  Little ideas began to swirl in my head and I began looking at brocantes and used stuff stores for old doors, windows, suitcases and trunks.  Then, three months later, I found two doors on the street, which I quickly snatched up to claim as my own.  (You can read that story here.)  Four months after that, I found a door tucked behind a fridge in a back corner of a used-stuff store.  I bought it and set it out on the balcony during the spring.

When moving day(s) came, somehow, the door got left behind in the old apartment and didn't make the trek across town.  But some helpful friends from the states came, and said they had no shame over helping me carry that door across town on a bus and walk it down the street.

Yes, we were the crazy Americans on the bus being silly.  I mean, if you're already making a scene by carrying a door on a bus, why not go all out, and fully entertain the locals?  In the picture below, I think this was right before the guys started skipping with my door down the main street of Marseille.

The door got all set up in the kitchen and just hung out during the summer months.  I knew that one day I would eventually print out some door photos and put them behind the window panes.  Well, I finally had some other photos I needed to print out, and so that lit a fire under me to finally choose which 16 would go into the door.  Here's the final result:

Seven were easy to choose.  The top four are my very favorite doors in the world.  From left to right: the blue door in Honfleur (read about it here), the tree door in Stow-on-the-Wold (read about it here), the #1 favorite on Avenue Rapp in Paris, and the oh-so-famous blue door in Sidi Bou Said in Tunis.  (The other three easy to choose: the third from the left on the second row, which is a door in Venice, because I like the photo; the fourth from the left on the third row, which was an awesome door in Salzburg; and the fourth from the left on the bottom row, a Jewish door on a synagogue in Besançon).  The others were a bit harder...I didn't want to favor any one country, and I wanted a rainbow of colors. I see now that I missed having a red door...oh well.

 While I was in Paris, I went to a brocante with Mrs. Superhero.  Just as I finished saying, "I really don't think I'll buy anything today, because there's nothing I need and whatever I buy, I have to get back to Marseille on the train," I stumbled upon a set of four doors.  I know when I say "doors," people think full sized six foot tall things.  But I suppose I should clarify.  I stumbled a set of four hobbit sized doors.  Or hobbit window-shutters, perhaps.  Anyway, they were black with wrought-iron (a growing theme in my living room), solid wood, slightly medieval, slightly hobbitish, and just lovely.  And all four were only 10 euros total.  I bought them and our whole shopping group of ladies began laughing about how in the world would I get them back to Marseille on the train?  (Obviously I got them back no problem, since here are two of them on my hallway radiator...)

 Just a few minutes later, I stumbled upon another door, and two windows to match.  Oh my!  I was nearly speechless.  SO PRETTY!  Honestly, if I had seen these first, I probably wouldn't have bought the hobbit ones.  But now that I have all of them, I love all of them.  This one is so pretty, I just grin a little bit every single time I look at it.  I love the hinges.  Love them.

Here are the windows.  They will get hung eventually.  Some people have asked if I will put photos in them like I did with the door...I don't think I will.  The windows don't have any glass, so I don't know that a photo would look so good in there.  

The final two hobbit doors are currently sitting on the windowsill in the living room.  I've pondered getting a little creative with them, since I have so many.  Time will tell.

 But one thing is certain: the door theme of decorating has definitely taken off!  I couldn't be more pleased.  Once upon a time, I was a little worried about the various shades of wood in the living room, but now, there are so many, they all just sort of go together.  Now, if I could just find some of those used suitcases and trunks.  Brocante season is upon us, so it's very possible.  :)