In classic literature and mythology, a red door symbolizes warmth, luck, and signals to weary travelers that behind that door they will receive a welcome and hospitality.
When our client came to us with a vision for a special set of barn doors on a Hudson Valley project we were deeply involved in, we knew it would be a tremendous addendum to an already special build.
Josh Savoir our NEWwoodworks designer and engineer, worked closely with the client. He explained, “they were either demo’ing or renovating a church, and the client took these red doors because he like them a lot and was inspired by them. He ended up getting rid of the doors because they were in a state of disrepair, but he rescued the hardware and was inspired to incorporate it in the design for the new doors.”
“The client likes the round top doors on other churches and older buildings. He has a penchant for this era; handmade fixtures, historic hardware, the traditional cathedral style. The addition of a wicket door in one of the barn doors was driven by his fondness for classic buildings.” (A wicket door is a smaller man door inside the larger door structure.)
This door set was a collaboration from the client, Savoir, who led the engineering of function, and fellow New Energy Works designer, Lauren DeVaney who helped bridge the two.
“The client had this vision of big grand church doors and sent me some inspiration pictures,” shared DeVaney. “His directive was ‘big red doors and two black slider doors on the exterior of the red doors to cover them. It’s a real showstopping piece.’ Then he let me run with it.”
“The interior barn space is white with black timbers so it’s very stark and then the red doors are this ‘Wow’ showpiece at the far end of the barn,” continued DeVaney. “There’s a stage there and spotlights set up, so the focus is right on these doors.”
Our NEWwoodworks team refurbished the rescued hardware and with some copesetic additions, made the new red doors a perfect representation of the inspiration that the client had from the original church doors.
The substrate for the new doors is Accoya®, ideal for this particular application as its stable, tough, and takes to paint well. The resulting doors celebrate the spirit of the original church doors in a tangible way but modified to endure.
In addition to the red bespoke barn doors, NEWwoodworks built two sliding barn doors, seven Dutch doors with glass, two swinging doors with double acting doors on the interior, and a wider pair of doors with a wicket door assimilated into it.
As the saying goes, “As one door closes another door opens,” and in the case of this high-craft barn there is a multitude of ingresses and egresses that showcase inspired design and high craft collaboration. We know the warmth and love given to these new doors with inspired history will shine through the new set after they are hung in place for welcoming.
