Décor Design with Doors

The Europeans have a style of having closed doors instead of our American style of doors left open to dining-rooms bedrooms and such. To the European a closed door adds mystery to a room; it becomes a pleasant surprise and though the American open door policy creates an easy openness, closed doors tend to keep rooms like libraries and bedrooms places of sanctuary with privacy one of our last remaining luxuries and almost as rare as silence.

Beyond this decision to leave a door open or closed there is the aesthetic value of the door in design. When you decorate a door the more imagination the better. You can mirror doors which gives excitement and surprise. Imagine a mirrored hall with mirrored doors. For one thing mirror adds length, width and depth. See also: Decorating with Mirrors.

More ideas for doors:

Panels of a beautiful screen lined with wood make marvelous doors.

You can upholster doors with leather or vinyl bordered with nail heads. Back the leather with felt or flannel upon the door to block sound.

You can panel a door with fabric or wallpaper and decorate with bamboo, upholstered gimp, or fancy moldings.

Painting a door is easy. Be sure to use semi gloss paint with matte walls and high gloss paint with shiny walls. The gloss makes doors much easier to clean. A French way of decorating is to have the door panels the same color as the walls with the moldings done in a contrasting color.

The disappearing door: If you have a long hallway or a room chopped-up by doors, simply paint them out. Do this by painting the doors the same color as the walls of the room. If they are flush doors they will almost completely disappear.

Back to Library  Back to Estate