Making a Grand Entrance

“Firmitas, Utilitas, Venustas”

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, the Roman architect, engineer and author stated that a structure should exhibit those three qualities, solidity, utility, and beauty respectively.

Nothing conveys the significance of your home quite like a custom-made door. Custom designed doors act as an anchor, articulating your vision for the world to see. Whether your door needs to withstand hurricane-force winds or is within the interior of your home, custom doors can give more dimensions to a home than we tend to think.

The significance of a door cannot be dismissed. Doors have been long heralded as a symbolic gateway between worlds. In one of the most basic interpretations, a door separates “your world” with the outside one, defining private vs public, me & mine vs other. However, doors are representative of a variety of different meanings, such as:

New Beginnings: A door wide open can mean a new beginning. Similarly, a closed door can indicate a dead end or a feeling of entrapment.

Transitions: A door can symbolize the transition from one place to another. In mythology, a door or passage is considered as a transition between worlds. Even when you walk through a door in the physical world, you are walking from one defined space to another.

Thresholds: A door can represent a threshold, or a boundary where two places meet. This boundary can double as symbolic threshold of “leaving the past behind,” or “rebirth”.

Endings: Doors can also serve as an exit. This symbolic exit is referenced in the familiar cliché, “the light at the end of the tunnel.” Referencing the new beginning or sense of hope on the other side.

Though doors can symbolize dozens of meanings, the most important theme to convey is what you want your home to represent for your personal interests and sense of style. What kind of materials do you want to use? What color, design and accessories do you want? These are all important considerations in determining how your door is presented.

Though it may be easy to assume that “any ol’ door will do”, mass-produced doors are easily identifiable, making your attempts to customize your home fall more into generic design than a piece that expresses your unique taste.