Old Delhi Door Life
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Is the avalanche over, can I step away from the cliff now?
- If only this would be rugged mountain terrain!
Coming to Old Delhi means discovering a life of ancient times and lots of wild life in the streets!
Tee Haus Delmenhorst
Not far from the Northern city of Bremen is the small town of Delmenhorst. Otherwise rather a dead place, this here entrance to the tea house at least promises a nice time, doesn´t it?
Push My Pecker
…the woodpecker door handle of course! What did you think?
This door was found in Lesum, Bremen. It´s adorable, isn´t it?
German Doors
All these doors I found in Bremen, Northern Germany and most of them are in the old Ostertorviertel, an artsy quarter not far from the city center. Rather romantic, no? I like, I hope you too!
Manhattan Doors
Hands on:Recycle a Door!
For all you handy people out there: I am sure a door can be put to good use other than as a door, right?
Table top comes to my mind, part of a cupboard, back of a shelf, bench bed, what have you.
A cafe chain in Delhi (MOCHA) made a whole wall out of old doors.
This restaurant door wall left room for the kitchen window
This lovely web site by Margo shows you fantastic ideas on how to recycle in style.
http://www.robomargo.com/doors.html
Just as creative are the ideas from 2 ladies in Washington State who have the JUNK SALVATION web site
http://funkyjunksisters.blogspot.com/2009/04/ideas-for-old-doors.html
Now go out there and get yourself a vintage door, or simply unhinge the ones you have in your home. We got too many doors to open and shut anyway.
Sorry about the lousy photo quality this time, but can you see the doors? MOCHA Cafe in Delhi at Saket Mall
Accesorize!
You can find great stuff in some parts of Delhi, the good thing being that if you look for something like paint or wood, there usually is a whole street full of paint or wood shops, or a whole silver road or whatever you need. The disadvantage being if you need a variety of stuff at once, you have to travel wide and far. Should you be needing the oh-so important hinges, door knockers, knobs and drawer handles, you come to Paharganj. This is a bit of a hippy area and besides lots of little coffee shops, bronze and fabric shops, you can delight your interior decorators’s heart and leave contented. What do you think?
knobs for drawers and other things you want to pull on
Can You handle it?
Put a little spunk on those old cabinets
Feeling unhinged lately? Hang it up. Get with it.
Running into Doors!
Did you ever run into a glass door? Come on, admit it? Felt pretty stupid, eh? But no worries, even birds do it. The other day -it was a Sunday shopping day before Christmas- I saw a man walking straight into a store door (too much last minute holiday gifts on his hectic mind, surely) and the whole bloody door fell apart and into a thousand little pieces. It was one of those special car window glass doors, I suppose. It happened right before closing time, and I can tell you, the shop attendant was not amused to call a carpenter who had to build a cover that night. No, no photos of this incident, it all happened too fast. Just a way to start my little blog on stumbling into doors.
No chance running into this glass door telling you that all fun stuff is prohibited here. It was a library!
When I was at an interesing bookshop around the same time of the shattered door incident, I saw this magazine being sold at a bargain price. I think it’s about architecture but by the titles on the cover, it seems to be about everything may be even doors. Perhaps some of you may have heard of it……
And when I was reading the wonderful leftist American news magazine ( I know, sounds like an oxymoron, doesnt it? HAHHA) “In These Times”, I came across a story about a writer’s workshop in Chicago run by a journal called “Journal of Ordinary Thought“, can you believe it? Academia is interested in us ordinary folks! That is a comfort. No serioulsy, I think it is quite wonderful to give underpriviledged citzens a chance to write about their lives. Anyway, darlings, one of their 2003 journals was called “Different Doors” and features stories about growing up in Chicago and all. I have been to Chicago only once for a day, a real cold day, too, but I wasnt into doors back then, so I cant even show you a nice door from that windiest of cities. But may be you like to read this journal, or at least “In These Times“. So much for running into different doors for now. Cheers, mates!
http://www.jot.org/JOTArchive/arc_2003/DifferentDoors.pdf
Doors Blog Now Famous
Hello, doors darlings!
While I was in Berlin I followed a call from a local newspaper for readers to write about their hobbies. I quickly wrote about my door obsession, and emailed it off, never to hear from the newspaper again. A week ago an excited friend showed me that little weekly from the 27th December, and said “Look here, you are on the front page!” I couldn’t believe it! They never told me they were going to publish my little article, but they did, including my photo from the door knobs of the Chinese restaurant (see blog from 16 Oct 2010). Pretty neat, eh?
Anyone can have their 5 minutes of fame, even with a niche blog.
Happy 2011, doors darlings!
Wishing you great doors, lovely entries, and happy openings!!! CHEERS!
Puke at this door!
This is a door frame that really says ENTER my business! ENTREE, síl vous plait, yes indeed!
Creativity knows no end!
PUKE MUSIC SHOP IN EAST BERLIN
Dreaming and Dying with Doors
There is a cute French movie, called “Saint Jacque..La Mecque”, in German it was called “Taking a pilgramage in French”. Three siblings inherit from the dead mother who made it a condition for her 2 sons and 1 daughter, who hate eachother, to go along the famous pilgram path in Northern Spain together. 800 km in 4 months or so. A better summary find here http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0429052/
Well, see for yourself. After exhausting hikes these travellers have some pretty good dreams. And naturally a door is for many of us part of the dream world. I myself have not yet had the pleasure. What about my door darlinsg out there? And door dreams….entering into new spheres?
Dreaming with doors in a movie scene
Remember the movie GLADIATOR and the final scene of Maximus dying?
What a scene, eh? And here too we find a door in the middle of a field, our general about to open the “gate of heaven”; reuniting with his beloved family who is already dead…. well well. Do watch this moving scene and that door on youtube if you like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qaki5WSPNng&feature=player_embedded
Look and See!
Many times a day we do the robotic thing: going through the motions while day dreaming unaware of what we are doing right here and now. So we end up driving home when we meant to stop by the pharmacy, owake up at 7 when it ´s our day off. And sometimes when we are unwell and a bit unnerved, we suddenly have to take great efforts in order to do all the mundane little tasks we take for granted. Then we realize what it means to pay attention. But there isnt always a “job” that needs to be done. We can simply wander around with our eyes open to look and see. BE AWARE. Life is for us to enjoy. And here are a couple of small door joys which you only get to notice when you pay attention. So LOOK AND SEE, my door darlings!
Impressive welding job. Art school in Schöneberg, Grunewaldstr.
A Chinese restaurant took the trouble to have customers be greeted by 2 bronze peacocks.
A mighty cast iron handle and hinge of a church door
Berlin KREUZBERG- where else. One heck of a door bell! READ the notice below!
DELIGHTful DOORS
Door darlings, please, do check out this site of old doors in terra galleria. The images of the photograher QT LUONG are too delightful. He must be a real door darling. You can buy them on istock, too. Would make for a lovely wall poster.
http://www.terragalleria.com/photos/?keyword=old-doors
BIO of the photographer http://www.terragalleria.com/statement.html
Jaipur
The beautiful capital of Rajasthan was beautiful once upon a time. It was founded in 1727 and 200 years later the deterioration must have began. Though it is called the PINK CITY, it is really orange, or tera cotta to be exact . The old part is surrpounded by a wall and mostly Muslim. It has a palace and many lovely, ornamental buildings. I found these 2 huge old doors which had a small door in the door, just a window really. If you want this sort of old Indian door made for your house now, you can simply order one. Check out this site:
http://www.artofrajasthan.com/doors.htm Beautiful wood carvings. Perhaps a bit airy for our Western climate, but can work like a room divider too.
Strong enough to keep out an elephant!
Must be 5 meters tall
A Door is a Door is a DoorisaDoorisaDoor
Though this may seem banal, let us, look at the different words for DOOR in other languages
PORTE – French
PORTELLO- Italian
PUERTA- Spanish
TUER- German
DVAR- Hindi
дверь- Russian
KAPI- Turkish
VRATA- Serbian
DRZWI- Polish (dont ask me how to pronounce this)
OVEN- Finnish (yeah, I know)
Ajtó-Hungarian
MLANGO- Swahili
USA- Romanian
PINTU- malay/ indonesian
DURYS- Lithuanian
derë- Albanian
Doors with Historic Memories
http://asi.nic.in/asi_monu_whs_fatehpursikri.asp for more info.
The man who tends the shoes you have to take off before going into this Muslim shrine
Entering a majestic place
Sufi Shrine, straight out of 1000 Arabian Nights, Indian style
Honey, Where Are the Keys?
All of us, door darlings or not, have faced the struggle of keeping the house, car, or safety deposit box KEYS in the same place every time. But life doesnt work like this. We misplace them , and nothing is worse than standing in front of your apartment door fumbling like Hudini and getting that goshdangit-feeling with a hysteric scream on one’s lips “HONEY, WHERE ARE THE KEYS?” (men usually scream “What have YOU done with the keys, honey?” ) And so the nightmare begins, a locksmith is called for a thousand bucks a visit, and you swear from now on you will get to know the neighbors and give all of them a spare one. Yeah, right. This old man here has heard all the stories and he is prepared to give you what you need: an extra key for your lover, or that special lock to keep the ex away.
