As with many functional items, doors often go unnoticed. There are however some characteristics of a door that would be difficult to miss - size and design are two of them.
A large door can only fit on a large building, and the building has to have high ceilings. High ceilings and large doors are two of the most grandiose features of a building. They represent prestige. A big door can be as basic as solid wood with no colour on it and it would still look impressive. However, there are many grand doors around the world - usually attached to a church or some other significant building that are both big and beautifully decorated. Such doors include, the doorway of St. Mary Magdalene Church in Wroclaw - surrounded in stone; The Baptistery doors in Florence - ornated in gold; Columbus Door - designed by Randolph Roger in Rome, these doors weigh more than 10 tons and stand 17 feet tall; 10 Downing Street - the home of the British Prime Minister. The entry doors are primed and undercoated, then painted with five coats of Pitch Black Full Gloss, to keep the doors shiny. There are also the famous doors of Toledo, Spain which are extremely wide and made of wood with brass detailing. There is a mini door carved out of the large one to allow people in and out easily.
Getting creative with your own doors:
In Sidi Bou Said all the homes are bright white and the doors are all blue and decorated in unique designs. This is not dissimilar to Greece where the homes are typically white with blue doors. In Zanzibar there are a number of famous doors, mostly made of wood with lots of beautiful carvings.
If you live in a warm climate you might just have two pieces of wood that are closed with nothing more than a few pieces of wood, like sliding a hockey stick through two handlebars.
Painting your door a bright colour is a simple way to give your home a lot more character. The area of Notting Hill in London's West end is known for many things including the wide range of pastel coloured homes lined up. While these homes are already colourful enough, they often have bright coloured doorways.
French doors are two doors side by side the open outwards. They are made of glass but often divided into squared pains. French doors are ideal for a section of a house leading to a garden, balcony or terrace.
Doors can add a lot of character to a home or building, you just need to invest some time and thought into them.
Fabric Architecture Limited has been specialising in the design, engineering, manufacture and installation of tensile fabric structures since 1982. For more on door canopy visit http://www.fabricarchitecture.com/entrance-canopy