How do you feel about beautiful antique doors?

Towering antique doors with little scrolly metal grills and tiny doors with patina on repeat. When it comes to backdrops for photography, I am all about the unique and the whimsical. And these big old antique doors definitely fit those categories and then some. But, these are a little bit different than I would usually jump on bringing home and I will admit, I questioned myself. Remember when I talked about how ‘crustic’ is a word over here for really rustic, crusty, old things? These are definitely crustic. But I promised a look and the story behind the backdrop I shared last week- and here you go.

Antique Doors 

I don’t know why I find the things I do on marketplace sometimes. It isn’t like I am always looking for something specific and so, it makes sense. Sometimes things are just in my feed and I can’t help but take a look. My husband would probably say to stop scrolling through marketplace and that will solve the unexpected purchase of something you didn’t know you needed. But that just wouldn’t be as fun as finding treasures, right? 

These doors showed up in the feed. I am always looking for unique and beautiful and interesting backdrops for my photography. I have a pair of antique doors in the living room that I pushed together for a lot of the chairs with flowers photos in my book In Bloom- but something you may not realize about those are that they are quite narrow. So, I have to crop a decent amount of photo to get them to frame up nicely and they won’t work for larger pieces than a single chair or stool. So when I find larger doors that could work as a beautiful backdrop- I usually take a closer look.

These particular doors are interesting. On the one side, raw natural wood patina which I love. On the other, old paint in two tones. Which was a bit odd. There was a little door in the center that looked like it opened up to a metal grate but the listing didn’t show that- it only showed the doors on their side and not much else. The seller said there was a little bit of old dry rot at the bottom of one, but that was all. We decided to take a look. We were going to be heading up north for a little getaway and it was another hour further in a place we thought would be fun to explore so why not combine trips. 

First Impressions

Honestly, the dry rot was far more extensive than we thought. But it was old dry rot- already crumbled so not as actively crumbling haha- so that was good. The doors had a lot of odd repairs on them really and they were much heavier than we expected. We were a bit hesitant because of the dry rot and the missing wood being on the center of one of the doors and not being able to see them stood up tall side by side, it was not as easy to get a feeling for their full look and potential. They are actually about 10′ tall but were literally just laying on their sides stacked together. But we decided to give them a go- we did see the potential of them and knew they could work well in a studio setting we were in process with. 

Chunky Chunk

They are about 3” thick. Amazing chunky doors that are also amazingly heavy. It took 3 of us to move them out of the truck for the first look in the driveway. 

I immediately loved the raw wood patina, and thought when the painted side was cleaned up that it would look beautiful too. 

You can see where the wood is dry rotted in the center and where it has been repaired at the bottom- which is the top in the photo above. It looks like it is sticking out- but it actually isn’t- it is a rough sawn wood but it is mitered together and it is the lighting making it look odd.

They were covered in so much dirt and grunge and the paint is odd – Even after spraying them off with a pressure washer- there are areas that will need scrubbing. And those little doors- the seller said she had never tried to open them but she thought they would open. As you can see, there are a ton of little latches and bits here and there on the doors and the one has a large board nailed to it holding it shut. I already pulled that off haha and the doors open perfectly revealing the iron grates. So sweet. These doors were most likely courtyard doors rather than house doors and the small doors are where you would open them to see who was knocking before opening the big old heavy door to let them in. An old fashioned peephole I suppose. 

We brought them indoors, I set up one of my antique chairs and snapped a few photos and suffice it say- though, I questioned myself and my sanity- which is really not unusual, I should have trusted. Even with the dry rot and the interesting bits and issues they have. And something neat to note- that piece I pulled off of the other side that was holding the small door closed fits perfectly where the dry rot is – and is the same rustic raw wood when flipped over so that will be an easy repair to cover it up if want to do that. 

The other issues- like that wonky trim on the other door, I am not sure if I will tackle those or just keep them as a part of the story of the life these beautiful old doors have lived. 

Okay- so what say you? Was I crazy to buy these for a backdrop?

They have since moved to our studio location -they are so darn heavy they are not easy for me to maneuver on my own so they are now living in a much larger more workable location.