New Doors for a Beautiful Home

Back in September I wrote 2 blogs (Sept 9th and the 24th ~ see below) about some custom doors for a home being built on the Redwood Coast.  Well the building is closed in now and we're building the exterior doors.  They will have 3 different designs.  Two simpler doors on the lower floor will have a nice design with a 4 lite top half.  The Great Room doors will have a bit more of a "flowing" design with arched top panels and 9 lites of Seedy Reamy insulated glass.  The grand entry will have another elegant door with arched top panels, nine lites, a dentil shelf, and beveled glue chip glass.  The entry will also have two sidelights and an arched transom with a strained glass Coastal scene by Zoleta Lee Designs.  Below are some progress pictures of the house.  Work on it has been stopped for the winter but work has been ongoing with the doors.  More to come soon!

 

 

 

 

Walking around the property, looking at all the preparations, walking through the rough framed home, and imagining just where the doors will hang for decades to come........ pretty cool.  Years of planning, earth moving, layout, milling logs, drying that lumber, and starting construction shows the love and care that is going into this gentleman's future dream home.

The garage and generator buildings are used to store building materials.  All of the site-sawn lumber was graded on site and air dried in a custom drying shed, pre-sealed and oiled on site, then stored under reflective tarps until it time to be used on the home.

Click on Any Image to Enlarge

The home will over look the meadow below, a forest to the East, and the Pacific Ocean is less then a mile to the West.  On a clear day the blue Pacific gleams on the horizon, inviting the viewer to hours of staring into the “future” with an afternoon of peaceful thoughts.

Months ago the owner started sorting out different designs for his doors.  Taking what he already had on the structures he had on his property, he added little details and varied designs.  I think I drew 3 or 4 different designs for the lower doors and his Great Room doors.  We changed some of the sizes, due to framing changes, and settled on the final designs.  Custom really means custom.

The owner has decide on Ribbon Grain VG Mahogany with figured Old Growth Redwood panels.  Some of the glass will be clear and some will be a textured art glass, called Seedy Reamy.  All of the glass will be tempered and insulated.


For more unique custom doors please visit our Website.

 

Your Dutch Door ....... why not !

The Dutch Door (a pair of half doors) was common in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century and appears in Dutch paintings of the period. They were also commonly found in the Dutch cultural areas of New York and New Jersey before the American Revolution.  The initial purpose of this door was to keep animals out of farmhouses, or keep children inside, while allowing light and air to filter through the open top. They were also an intregal part of trains, for the conductors and passengers safety

Woman at a Dutch Door, 1645,

 by Samuel van Hoogstraten

Woman at a Mendocino Dutch Door

CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE

The Dutch Door offers a certain freedom to a room or home.  It lets the outside in and keeps the outside out.  Most Dutch Doors open inward and are almost a secure as a single door if they are connected together mechanicaly.  My clients love the beauty of wood and the beauty of their surroundings.  I believe they want to bring the environs into their home, kitchen, or studio, as much as possible.

Here is a view from the inside
what a nice view

Here is a close-up of the styles of hardware
 we used.  Both halves lock with keys.

The "excitement" at Mendocino Doors is that the client gets to design his or her Dutch Door.  Some folk wish to have multi-light panes or single lite arched-top.  It is your door and you get to help me design it.  You can design simple panels, art glass, or even a dentil shelf. The Dentil Shelf is attached to the Dentil Posts with stainless steel screws and covered with rosewood pins.  How would you want your Dutch Door?

The Dentil Shelf

The panels are Curly and
Burl Redwood

The "half-lap" joint has
weatherstripping

                      















Soooooo ..........if you might ever want a Dutch Door, just give me a call or drop me a note and we'll design your door together, and you can make your dreams come true.

Here is a Dutch Door we
just finished

You can go to MendocinoDoors.com and go to The Magnolia Hill Dutch Door to see some more pictures of the construction and completion of this beautiful door.

Thanks for taking your time to listen to me ramble !
                                              

One doormakers solution ........

Here is One doormakers solution to the everlasting question.......

"How do you hang a wreath
on a Craftsman Door with no nails?"

A client asked me this very question so I laid awake a few nights before 

I came up with this solution.

Take a thin ribbon of any width and cut it long enough to tie around your bow
 or fasten it to your bow


CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE




My Dentil shelves are about 1/16" off of the door surface for water drainage,
 so slide both ends of the ribbon down behind the shelf



Here I am using a dowel to show you the principle, but......




you can use a much smaller item like a toothpick or the shaft of a Q-tip




mark the toothpick to the width of the ribbon





cut off the excess and pull the ribbon tight





Now just attach the wreath to your ribbon ....... and

Have a Very Merry Christmas !

and please visit Our Site again

Let's build a house .... with custom doors!

Back in early 2004, I received an inquiry, from a gentleman, in the Bay area.  He had recently purchased a piece of property on the Mendocino Coast and he was starting his long term project of build his “dream home”.  He was start by building his Garage and he wanted, of all doors, a Dutch Door on each side of his garage.  Soooo we discussed designs, an estimate was given, and a long friendship had begun.

I built two Dutch Doors for his garage, which is really “control central” for a roof full of solar panels, which will provide all of his future electricity for his garage and home.

                                                                                                 

              



The siding on the building was milled on this land and this is one of the more beautiful garages I’ve seen over the many years I’ve been building and making doors.  It turns out that the garage is also the “headquarters” for future building projects ....... and answering the phone when he’s on his 
property.

Then, moving on to July of 2007 he contacted me regarding another pair of doors to be placed on his Generator out-building he was about to start constructing.  It is a large building up on a knoll between the Garage and future home site. 

getting closer to today ............ Then in June of 2010 I received an email from my friend.  It read ...."We are just about finished with house design here and I would like to meet with you to discuss doors.  Can I come by one of these weekends on a Saturday to discuss?"

We started by going over rough openings, design ideas, drawings, and more drawings.  Some of the doors are now onto version 6 and I think we've got it, the final designs.

  I enjoy the process, but mostly, I strive for three experiences with each door client. 

One, and foremost ..... that the client receives the design and door which makes them happy and fulfilled that they have received the "door of their dream".  

Two, that the client becomes and remains my friend.  It is not pleasurable when working with unhappy folks who do not appreciate the effort and craftsmanship that we put into each door we create.

Three,  I always sleep better when I am remunerated for my efforts.  I'm reminded by a thought, I once read,...."No one can ever pay you for what you love to do, but they can pay for for your time."

More to come soon ........ please visit my Website.

there is more to ... Design-Your-Door ... much more !

This stained glass door panels, designed
by Zoleta Lee, portrays the Pacific Ocean
which is located about 100 yards from this door.

When my client starts making design decisions for their door, they not only consider the design of the door and the wood to be used, they also get to consider and use whichever style and type of glass that they may wish to use in their project.

They may wish to use stained glass to portray a scene they wish in their door. 

This stained glass by

Zoleta Lee of MendocinoStainedGlass.com

It portrays a clients painting of the Carmel Coast

These are Prairie Style stained glass lites.
They enhance a Prairie Style Door and
let in a nice organic light.

Or they may wish to allow lots of light into their home without sacrificing privacy.  If that’s the case there are many interesting styles of clear obscure art glass that can be tempered and insulates and used in doors, sidelights, and transoms

These doors have double satin-etched
frosted glass, to insure privacy and
let in enhanced light.

This art glass is called
Crocodile Hide and is quite
beautiful and interesting to view.

There is also clear glass, that when beveled, adds a degree of character and distinction to their doors and sidelights.  It is very affordable to have beveled glass these days, because it can be done with machines and not all by hand.

Here is beveled glass on an Old Growth Redwood Craftsman door with sidelights

Glass can also ad texture to a theme that is portrayed on a door.  The glass can look like water in motion and enhance a surrounding carving.

This is our new door called The Essex Entrance Door
It has an overlayed, cross-banded Redwood panel.
This panel was carved by Patrick Doyle of Mendocino, CA

Frequently I will create a “self commissioned” door to add to my
 Doors For Sale  section of my website.  I create these doors because I like their design and it is often the case that some visitors to my Site have discovered it late in their building or remodeling project and cannot wait the short time to make their door(s).  When I make a “self- commissioned” door, I often leave the glass loose or none at all so that the client has the opportunity to choose the glass to be used in the door.  I may show a door with a Frank Lloyd Wright style of Prairie Design Glass and the client may wish a different  hue or color to the glass or even a different design, or just a clear or clear art glass in the door.  Isn’t that the point of allowing the client to Design-Their-Door?