Reclaimed doors
Good doors are coming back!
Doors have sometimes taken a 'bashing' from architects over the centuries. We have gone from the carpenter made plank doors of the middle ages to the machine made panelled doors of today, although the plank door is still very much favoured in the countryside.
The Georgians produced some nice doors, both for town houses and the bigger country houses. Georgian panelled doors are mostly a pleasure to behold and of course they were hand-made and regarded by Georgians as a 'piece of furniture' and not just for keeping out the draft.
Period doors have really changed little for style over the ages and the Victorians virtually followed the Georgians for the four and six panel styles.
The Edwardians started the imposition of plywood and then it went downhill a little from there. In the 1930s and 1940s, mainly due to the Great depression and WW2 some of the doors were positively ugly ( A friend of mine used to say, that this was because many of the good architects were killed in WW1)
Since the mid 1980s, not only the design of houses but the good design of doors have made improvements in style and in keeping with British taste. We can all remember the awful Kentuckian and the Colonial style doors that graced some of our lovely Georgian houses. It is a pleasure to see that this has been 'gripped' by the system of listing, and traditional doors are imposed by local councils on owners and renovators.
Georgian and Victorian houses
Both periods had really well made doors downstairs, and then the doors were a little less expensive as one went further into the house. The house front door and the rooms considered to be public rooms where visitors; doctors or guests were entertained were mostly six panelled doors with mouldings both sides. The kitchen door and smaller private rooms had mouldings only on the outside of the door. It was the same for all bedrooms except the main bedroom and the main guest rooms. Further into the house and the mouldings were not used at all. On up into the attic and the servants made do with a plank door. It was a further saving of money to have smaller doors to the rooms upstairs than downstairs.It is a particular problem for house owners who wish to replace a Georgian or Victorian door that they were not standardised for size, therefore doors 'off the peg' for those houses is not possible, standardisation came only in the 1930s. However amongst the reclaimed doors at Wells Reclamation you may find a replacement to fit.
We have Georgian and Victorian style, four panel doors and six panel doors made from very good quality European pine. We have had these hand made at affordable prices and keep large stocks.
Plank doors.
These can be made of any timber from pine, elm or oak. Wells Reclamation keeps a new and reclaimed stock available for customer choice, but we can make them on site to customers requirements. We make them traditionally just as they were made two hundred years ago.On site we have in the region of six hundred doors of all types.
- 30th March 2011
