Searching for a Salvage Door

And so it begins. By the time you read this, the scaffolding should be going up and work on converting the loft about to start. Which means that I need to stop dreaming about what it might look like (and, crucially, stop pinning wildly unrealistic and unaffordable images) and start researching for the things we will actually need to buy.

The first of these is a door. Regular readers will know I love a sliding door and when we were planning the space, we both agreed that a sliding door on the bathroom would take up less space and, therefore, be more practical than a conventional one.

And then the quotes came in…£1,400 for a pocket door. IT’S A DOOR. To to a bathroom. Not a bank safe. It won’t even be used that often given that the loft will mostly be my office and if I’m on my own I might not even bother shutting it (TMI? sorry). Anyway, that wasn’t going to happen. So we went back to the original idea, forgotten somewhere along the line, of installing a door that just slides along the wall.

Now to find the door. I think it should be salvage. I need to find it quite soon because if I get the door before the wall is built then the builders can create the doorhole to fit the door rather than me trying to source something the other way round.

It’s got to be interesting. It’s got to be old. It can’t be Georgian or Edwardian as it’s a Victorian house and that would be just wrong. It could be (and may end up being) specially made from old floorboards or something. I’d be happy with either of the ones above for example.

But then I found this; an antique gaol cell door, possibly from an 18th century Norfolk prison. It’s a great door isn’t it. But then I started to worry that it might be karmically wrong. That it might be imbued with the spirit of some poor bloke who stole a chicken to feed his family and got locked up for ever. And also it’s £900. Which, by the time I’ve bought the hanging track doesn’t add up to much of a saving. It’s still a cool door though.

Then I found this: an English pine door removed, one assumes with permission, from Fulham Palace. It’s clad in leatherette and has stud work round the edges. I totally LOVE this. And, on a practical note, while Himself sniffed and said he didn’t think he fancied leatherETTE (that’s how he said it) I reckon it’s probably more practical in a bathroom than leather. And it’s 200 quid! Which is a saving of so many per cent on the original quoted figure – don’t ask me I’m truly appalling at maths but it’s a much, much smaller number.

And I’ll be honest; I fancy a door that came from Fulham Palace, which was, in Tudor times, the country retreat of the Bishops of London and their permanent home until 1939.

Those door are both from Lassco but I also had a wander round English Salvage, which has a whole section devoted to unusual doors. I reckon this four panel pitch pine door could also work well for £200.

Or this would be amazing if it weren’t for the two giant size cat flap gaps at the bottom. Although perhaps they could be glazed. This one is £250. It’s an antique oak and metal barn door.

For anyone who’s thinking of doing something similar, I’m assuming that I will also need something like this to hang it on. This one is from ebay and costs £100 although it’s 6’6″ which will be far too big but at least they don’t seem to be that hard to find.

I shall be back, with updates.