The carved door frame in this New Jersey home had been a gift to previous homeowners by Madame Chiang Kai-shek. Not just any old door, but one with provenance.
Then there was Ruthie Sommer's door, a Pagoda and fretwork topped affair. Love it.
Going back in time to the early 20th c.- Henry Sleeper's Gloucester, Massachusetts home Beauport featured the China Trade Room with, yes, a fabulous door frame. Simple, but fabulous.
And my love affair with Chinoiserie style doors continues. Just look at this door in the dining room of the English House in Atlanta. Philip Shutze was the architect responsible for this glorious example; both door and frame are richly detailed with Chinese Chippendale style carving. Do you think a door like this would look out of place in a 1968 condo...like my 1968 condo??
(Image 1: House Beautiful, Feb 2005; #2, In Style Home, Spring 2007; #3 via Emily Evans Eerdmans; #4 from American Classicist: The Architecture of Philip Trammell Shutze
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the beauty of the building you live in is that the architect allows you to do anything...i think that door would be perfect.
ReplyDeleteYou can make it work Jennifer! Especially since Ruthie made it work in a small California cottage. Loved seeing her bedroom in the same post with these other iconic rooms.
ReplyDeleteThanks Clint and Courtney! Now I'll just have to see if the decorating budget will allow for it!
ReplyDeleteStunning doors! I think you can make it work...especially if you love it. You're the one living in it - go for it. I'm sure it will look fantastic in your condo too.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! - Why don't we embelish doorways more? it's an invitaation to step into another experience!
ReplyDeleteI think it could be stunning. Hummm, with an artistic sister, a willing dad, a week-end, the promise of a truly peak of chic party afterwards, perhaps the door could be a family affair. Break down the elements involved. Many sources online for mouldings, etc.
ReplyDeleteDo you think a door like this would look out of place in a 1968 condo...like my 1968 condo??
ReplyDeleteNo more than in MY 1968 condo - of course, I'll have to raise the ceilings in mine to accommodate it. I'm not sure what the condo owners upstairs will think of it.
But with such a fabulous doorway in the discussion, I suppose I could do something about the neighbors.
Jennifer-Absolutely gorgeous ideas. Why not have your sister paint a faux pagoda door?
ReplyDeleteYou only live once... go for it. Love the images!
ReplyDeleteLure your sister in for another "party." She could whip that up in no time. (You are welcome to give her my email address if she wants to give me what's for.)
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful idea. I hope you can make it work.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it could be a new product line for you, some sort of fabulous premade door adornment, which could be custom painted.
ReplyDeleteThey really look so great!!
It would look great in your apt. These doors need a feeling of height to look right. I wouldn't recommend it in most 1968 high-rise rooms; they're usually low and horizontal, like ranch houses, and the door would look stubby. But your ceiling is high and your rooms have the proportions to pull this off.
ReplyDeleteThanks all for the advice. I think I'm going to do it!
ReplyDeleteThat door- amazing!
ReplyDeleteHi Jennifer-
ReplyDeleteGlorious photos of rooms-and doors.
It's the ensemble of the room that makes these superb examples work--the rest of the decor should support and augment the idea of the Chinese door.
Yes, as Stephen said, height is essential...
Make it work! (maybe with paint).
cheers, www.thestylesaloniste.com
I just sent you a bit on info on more Pagoda style over door things but I sent it to your Cox mural post by mistake- whoops!
ReplyDeleteThose are all wonderful doors. The Art Institute of Chicago used to have--they sold it at Sotheby's in 1997, and it was later installed at 1016 Madison, where it may still be in residence--a wonderful 18th Century Gothick/Chinoiserie style doorcase from a house in London. Back in the days when the fashion was to strip historic woodwork down to the bare wood--knot, putty & all--the doorway, with its pagoda top & dripping wooden icicles, had lost its old paint, but it was it was no less handsome for that. Inauthentic, yes, but it was still a knockout piece.
ReplyDeleteThe AIC had already disassembled its collection of period rooms where this was first displayed, so for a while this piece was presented out-of-context, in a no-account modern elevator vestibule with plain gray walls, track lighting & industrial-style carpeting, but none of that mattered, because it (as well as its Robert Adam-designed cousin on a stairway landing) was still beautiful, even displayed as an isolated artifact. In fact, spotlit as it was, in this small dark, out-of-the way corner, it reminded me of a shrine, and the room that contained it was like a side chapel in a great cathedral, like the focus of a religious pilgrimage, which, for me, it almost was, as one of the few surviving fragments of the Art Institute's old period rooms, which were what triggered my interest in the historic styles back when I was a kid. Then it went away completely. Now it's out--or it was--your way. Anyway, even there in that tiny hall-- unseen by the crowds that hurried by all day long--the thing was incredibly beautiful, so there's no reason a similar doorway couldn't look just as handsome in a plain-walled building of 1968 as in one of 1768. That's one thing. The other thing is this: if anybody can make it work, you can.
Please do the door (or doorway). Thanks for showing the amazing English House dining room. When I think I can't stand fussy, overdone, too-muchness, I see something like that room and gasp: When it's great, I can love any style. (For those with "the book" it's on page 152.)
ReplyDeleteMagnaverde- I'm leading this discussion in a bit of a diff't direction, but why do so few museums have period rooms anymore? You mention that these rooms deeply influenced you, as I know they did others. So that's my rant. I've got to find a photo of the door you describe- a door like that deserves a shrine.
ReplyDeleteTerry- In the hands of any one other than Shutze (or someone of his ilk), a room like this would be fussy, overdone, and just plain wrong. But, he knew the way it needed to be done. Such finesse. And yes, "the book" is amazing; lucky for me I'm borrowing my parents' copy!
ReplyDeleteI too remember those period rooms at AIC and also remember those doors traveling around the halls! I like POC's question about the removal of period rooms from todays museums. Real-estate must be the big factor and possibly they appeal to a smaller audience?
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that they've been disappearing from our museums... there are plenty at the MET in NYC.
While I love the doors, I clipped the article on that first NJ house because of the wall color and the Asian art. Look at the figures on those wonderful wall stands to the right of the door. Much of the beauty of these doors is the context of the rooms.
ReplyDeleteOut of place? Delightfully so.
ReplyDeleteMrs. E. and I have a friend who had the inside of her elevator lacquered Chinese red and had a huge golden dragon painted over three of the walls. It's fantastic!
I was thinking about your Chinoiserie door idea. Friedman Brothers (Friedmanmirrors.com) makes Chinoiserie cornices for windows. See #5259, 5260, 5261. They could make one for you the width of your door frame and only a 1-2" return and you could install it over the door and if you have one of those slab doors so typical of the 60's you could apply 1/2 round molding in a fretwork design to the door face, paint it and you are done.
ReplyDeleteEdward- Fantastic! This is so very helpful, and it seems quite doable too. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteEdward beat me to it. I was just viewing the Trouvais blog and saw a beautiful painted cornice and thought: pagoda door. Good luck with your project.
ReplyDeleteWooow! After viewing this post I have no doubt that there is not door like door. Some of them can be described as piece of art! Even I like more simple straight lines and minimalistic style, everything depends on overall impression, so when door seems like inherent part of a house. Great work!
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