When I was a young child, we lived in a terraced house and I seemed incapable of differentiating our house from the neighbours, so my parents painted the front door red. As an adult, I love red front doors. Could there be a connection? Did I somehow get a feeling of safety from being easily able to identify home? Is this also why I love most other things that are red?
The front door of a house is very important. It’s the gate way to your home and it says something about the people who live behind it.
There are some very famous doors such as the shiny black door at number 10 Downing Street, or the round green door at Frodo Baggins’s under hill home in The Shire. There’s the door to the flat in Friends, purple with the gilt frame around the peep hole or the door to Castle Dracula “Enter freely and of your own will”. The gates to Jurassic Park, the doorway in Notting Hill (the movie), the door to your own house. Each of these creates a very different image in one’s mind. So, what does your door say about you?
The clear glass door – you’re a free spirit. A trusting and trustworthy person who welcomes strangers into their home. You offer to feed the masses and you do charitable acts whenever you have the means or the time. You love to walk, whether in the city or the country with wind blowing in your hair. You prefer causal clothing and would always walk around bare foot if you could.
The painted, solid front door – it could be painted post box red, glossy black or glossy white. Possibly British racing green but no other colours are an option for you. What this country needs is a bit more backbone and progressive conservatism. You know that values are essential to civilisation and that education and a solid upbringing for your children is the future. Tony Blair was right when he preached about education thrice. You don’t need to be rich to value life and education. For you, hard work and dedication is the key to success.
The Notting Hill (the area not the movie) front door – you dress like a mad parrot or Edina Monsoon when you are home alone. You love bright colours and you are a bohemian at heart. You prefer a kitchen with no or few cupboard doors and just love to hang frying pans over your massive range cooker. When you leave the house you elbow the Instagrammers out of the way and style it over to the latte shop before make your way to the nearest We Work to run your new start up. You love pastels too. There you said it.
The 3 Banham locks steel reinforced door – you are a serious person who takes the world on one day at a time. You are winner and you are fiercely protective of your hard-won gains. Family is paramount. You love them more than your collection of rare handwritten Rolling Stones lyrics, but only just.
The bespoke solid wooden doors with high relief carvings – you are well travelled, and you love exotic cultures. You are embarrassed that you only speak English but have no time to learn another language and anyway, how could you choose just one when there is so much to see and do in the world. Your kitchen pantry is packed to the hilt with spices and oils and 20 different grain types of rice. You have been married 3 times but this one is for keeps.
The 3-meter-high double doors to your penthouse – not everyone understand style, but you do. Not for you the hum drum or the run of the mill. Why settle when you know you deserve the very best in life. It’s not like it was dropped in your lap. You worked damn hard to get here and you don’t care if everyone knows it. Style isn’t everything but if everyone had it, you wouldn’t want it.
The solid wooden door with glass panels in the top section - You know that quality is important in life. Just because something is expensive doesn’t mean its good. You don’t buy clothes for the label or the brand, you buy them because they look like they will last and because buying good clothes means they fit well and you look smart wearing them. Your like eating in the pub on Sundays and prefer to stay in on Friday nights with a delicious food and your Netflix account. The kids are in bed and presumably asleep and you and your partner can snuggle up and relax.
The door with the multi coloured bead strings – where did you put that bong? The world needs to just chill out and smell the sweet odour of happiness and wellbeing. Why is everyone in such a rush all the time. Can’t we all just love one another? You have 3 Birkenstocks. Two are a pair and one is has lost its partner. You left it in the park after the picnic or possible threw it away by mistake when tidying up. Letter louts are your one aggravation. Them and locks on doors.
The PVC door – it may not be the most attractive but at least they now come I colours other than white. Looks are not everything after. Energy consumption is on your mind. You have water meters; electric meters and you are considering switching to a green energy provider even though they are bit more expensive. At least your conscious will be clear. Especially after finding out that half the stuff you’ve been recycling for the last decade has not been recyclable and is probably clogging up a turtles innards in the Pacific Ocean as we speak. You think Greta Thunberg is miserable looking and probably slightly insane but you love her and she is spot on.
The electronic smart door - you love a bit of tech. Blade Runner was your favourite mobile growing up followed by Minority Report. Though what is with Tom Cruise these days? You get the latest iPhone every year and sell you old one on ebay. You were one of the very first buyers of the camera doorbell and take great pride in answering the door from the beach in Ibiza and telling the sweet looking chap that you don’t want your driveway pressure washed. You were able to provide the police with footage of the infamous cat killer and to solve the mystery of the missing daffodils in Mrs Brown’s front garden.
The stable door - you are sick to death of London and yearn for the countryside. That weekend you spent at your cousin’s farm was a lesson in what life should be about. Taking the time to talk to your neighbours without them calling the police, and to appreciate the birds and the bees. Make your jam and bake bread, milk fresh from the udder, meat form the slaughterhouse. A kitchen coop with Hens you call by their names before eating their unborn eggs. A local pub where everyone knows everyone. Heavenly. You know stable door is really a back door for a country kitchen, but there’s no law is there?
No doors were hurt in the writing of this blog.
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