Door Styles from around the world

By Juliette Guilbert

Perhaps more than any other design element, a door tells the story of a structure's past and present. Entryways can be welcoming or forbidding, rustic or formal, and frequently express essential features of the culture that has created them, the people they enclose, and even the natural environment they keep at bay.

A weathered Irish garden gate, embedded in an ancient stone wall, intimates that the space within has kept its secrets for a long, long time -- but that those who gain entry will find a landscape of enchantment inside.

A plainspoken Connecticut red barn door, though designed with pure function in mind, evokes a rich regional history of cornhuskings, barn dances, hay rides.


Cuban shutters and Greek door curtains close out fierce sun glancing off blue water, but also tell a story of color, song and family.

And the carefully tended flower baskets that fringe a carved Swedish door suggest delight in a brief, blooming summer -- as well as long winters devoted to handicrafts.

Door styles can express individual personality as well.
	A colonial doorway-- simple and unadorned -- offers a genuine but somewhat austere welcome.
A large, arched stone entryway with imposing steps and formal plantings creates a grand feeling, but the small windows keep the huge doors light and proportionally interesting.
	An English door in the Arts and Crafts style offers natural wood, a hand-fitted frame, wrought iron hardware, and a blown glass window: an artisanal design aesthetic as well as a cozy but sophisticated feeling.

Door details:
Door details can be regal or quirky. Knockers with animal and face motifs. Hand-fitted hinges, bolts in weathered iron or gleaming brass. Paneling, both recessed and raised.


Rich carvings or bas-relief in gleaming solid oak. Even plain pine boards are evocative when painted an intriguing cobalt or an earthy sage. artSparx Special Doors of Mexico Fine-Art Print BUY NOW

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