Do you carry a piece of coal on New Year’s Day?

I recently wrote about wedding traditions and the carrying of the bride over the threshold. This time, I’m thinking about superstitions related to doors and I believe there are a few. One that springs to mind is a Scottish or Irish one which many people still honour on New Year’s Day. The first person to call at your door on New Year’s Day should carry a piece of coal. Apparently this should mean that your home will be warm all year and you will have enough fuel for heating. Another superstition states that the first person to pass through you doorway on New Year’s Day should be dark haired. A red-headed person supposedly carries bad luck so you should avoid them being first to enter your doorway on the first day of the year.

There are a few superstitions associated with new homes and one that springs to mind is when you first enter your new home. Apparently it is unlucky to enter your new home by the back door. To avoid bad luck you need to enter by your front door. Entering and leaving by different doors is another superstition to cause bad luck as you should always enter and leave by the same door.

After a few relating to external doors, the following superstitious belief relates to internal doors… Some people believe that you should never sleep with your feet facing the bedroom door. The idea behind this one supposedly relates to when we die and the fact that you will be carried out the door feet first.

Buying a new Front Door is one way to make you happy as there is something special about a lovely door that you can be proud of and every time you come home you will be pleased with your decision to update that shabby old door. Check out the Kershaws Doors collection for a great range of internal and external doors.

A modern property styled to recreate the 1960′s look, displayed on themodernhouse.net

Trends in house design and decoration come and go. It seems as if we just get used to a particular style, colour or furniture idea, embrace it, and before we know its yesterday’s news. Or is it? Interior design ideas do have a tendency to be revived and return, with a twist, on a regular basis, sometimes within 20 years or so.

For example considering the fashion in clothes, I have seen similar styles to those I wore during my teenage years, revamped on numerous occasions. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve said to my daughter “I had a dress just like that” while looking in trendy boutiques (there’s an historical term for you). It’s true, though the fabrics and construction techniques used may be contemporary the styling, patterns and influences are retro.

As a child of the 1950′s my first recollections of interior trends are generally that of the 1960′s. I lived in a house built during the Victorian Era with Gothic detailing on the external timber fascias. The exterior doors were a chunky 4 panelled style, constructed from Pitch Pine, which were originally painted. I remember the main front door was made to look modern in the 60’s by covering it with a sheet of hardboard, to give it a flush appearance Yuck!  When I think of that lovely 4 panelled door, with raised beading surrounding the panels, underneath a piece of flimsy hardboard, I cringe. The kitchen door, which was of a similar design, was removed and replaced with a modern 4 panel glazed door with Deep Flemish Glass. This was the trend of the moment and although the doors were perfectly ok it was the modern thing to do.

The interiors of the house were also subjected to similar treatments. The existing internal doors were Pitch Pine Timber with 4 flat panels surrounded by Bolection mouldings. They were ultimately flushed with hardboard then painted; some were removed and replaced with glazed 4 panel doors similar to the kitchen door. This process was understandable in some ways as the glazed doors allowed more light into the house, and the trend for brighter interiors after the war years and the previous dark Victorian times was very popular. We can see this demand for light and airy interiors in contemporary styling today such as in Scandinavian influenced interiors.

I was always very inquisitive as a child and I had a wild imagination at times. In the local park there was a long, high wall covered in ivy. It was far too tall for me to see over and the only way to see what was on the other side was to climb the old oak tree nearby or to somehow get through the small door in the middle of the wall. The door was mossy green ancient-looking, but very solid and despite many attempts to open the door, we never managed to pick the lock, even though it always looked so easy in the films.

Secret Garden © Ben O’Bryan

We often wondered what could be on the other side of the door and tried on many occasions to climb the tree but the first branch was out of reach and standing on each other’s shoulders never really seemed to work.

Since we couldn’t see what was over the wall, we had to let our imaginations fill in the gaps. Between us, we created a range of possibilities. Tales of witches and goblins were not uncommon amongst my friends and we thought that maybe there was a lake with a castle in the middle and that strange little people lived there which explained why the door was so small (about two thirds the size of a normal door, but small enough to fuel our imaginations).

The park gardener said he knew what was on the other side of the door and he also knew that we really did want to know. He used to tell us that there was a haunted house in a dark forest and that nobody had seen the family who lived there in many years. He always smiled when he told us this and so we were never frightened.

I don’t remember ever seeing over that wall or seeing that door open even though I visited the park well into my teenage years. I think perhaps the memory of what might have been through that door was too precious to shatter with the view of a vegetable patch or an old greenhouse.

I suspect that if you think hard, maybe not too hard, that there will be a door from your early years that had a big impact on you for one reason or another. Doors protect the mystery of what lies beneath and the appearance of a door can stir a wild imagination.

Door Bell Push Button

I have mentioned once or twice in this blog the statement that you are making with your front door. However once a visitor has taken in the splendour of your new front door, hopefully supplied by Kershaws Doors of course, what is his or her next experience going to be? They will ring the bell! It’s usual that the ensuing audible signal will be heard by both the occupants of the house and by the person pressing your doorbell button. This is so the visitor is aware that your bell actually works and of course so that you know someone is currently admiring your front door.

It is important therefore to get the right bell tone, or tune, for the more adventurous, to maintain the impression you first set out to achieve when you purchased your door. Don’t for example have a grand front door with a bell chime that sounds like a cheap buzzer from a child’s Christmas stocking.

There are many door bells on the market ranging from simple one tone bells to wireless “bells” that play tunes or even recorded messages and for the hard of hearing there are visual “bells” which both light up and emit sound, so do some research just as you did when looking for a door and get one that suits your door, suits you and your personality. Remember that by the time your door has been eyed up and the bell tone heard, your visitor has already got a firm opinion about you, the person behind the greeting.

I think it is only fair at this point to pay tribute to the inventor of the electric door bell, Mr Joseph Henry who came up with the idea as far back as 1831! His invention soon took over from the first door bells which had a pull cord. His invention has of course developed over the years, but it is him that we have to thank for the humble electric door bell.

There are numerous famous sayings relating to doors, which just  goes to show how important they are as a milestone in our lives as well as an important security and thermal product.

Confucius said: “The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential…… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence”  an ageless adage and so true.

One saying I particularly like (probably as I trained as a teacher) is by Victor Hugo the French poet and novelist who wrote Les Misérables while in exile in Guernsey, he says ……

” he who opens a school door, closes a prison”

On a more light hearted note is the old quotation ” I’ve got the key of the door, never been 21 before“. Many young people will not relate to this as they usually have the key of the door well before the age of 21. Nowadays, 18 is the age of majority, when you are considered to be an adult and therefore allowed to come and go as you please, rather than abide by your parents wishes. How things have changed, whether we agree with it or not, many young people have the key to the door due to necessity, as parents are often out working when they return from school.

Well, keys, doors, locks, latches and all the related paraphernalia are very close to our hearts at Kershaws Doors Ltd. A door may not always require a key but it usually requires hinges and latches in order for it to stay shut. We are able supply and give advice on the most appropriate hardware for the type of door you are purchasing.  Of course exterior doors will need latches to hold the door and locks to secure it. Interior doors generally just need a latch but bathroom doors benefit from a turn and release lock which are also available with an indicator, these are referred to as privacy locks. Do give us a ring if you need advice on what is available.

The subject of doors will continue (watch this space). Gentlemen don’t forget to carry your brides over the threshold, but maybe that’s another blog.

I was lucky enough recently to spend some time with a group of 6 and 7 year olds and I decided from a creative and learning perspective, to ask them what’s your favourite door and why?

Here are just a few of the things they wrote.

My favourite door is:-

My Grandma’s door because she always makes lovely cakes for us. Emma, age 6
A locked one in our house, I wonder what’s behind it. George, age 7
I don’t like doors, I trapped my fingers once, silly door! Thomas, age 6
The one on my toy castle, it’s really big and keeps the baddies out. Toby, age 6
The one in the tree in my garden because fairies live there and I play with them sometimes. Elizabeth, age 6
My dolls’ house door because it opens the whole house up. Gemma, age 7
The cupboard under the stairs because I keep all my toys and secrets in there, please don’t tell my mum about the secrets. Christopher, age 6

We had many conversations about the different doors in our lives, but there was one thing that was apparent and constant in every discussion – doors are an emotional subject. They conjure up thoughts of adventure, safety, danger and family and by the age of 6 they already play a big part in our lives without us even knowing it.

Doors give a clue as to what’s behind them. We don’t always realise but our minds see a door and make quick judgements and opinions about what and who is behind them. First opinions are hard to change and often our first opinion of a place or person is formed just by seeing the front door. What does a shabby front door in a dull colour say about the people inside? And how about a grand black door with a bright golden letterbox? This may be an unfair snap judgment and yet from a very early age we are already programmed to have an opinion based on looks alone.

Does your front door give the right first impression? If not, check out the great range of doors in the Kershaws Doors collection.

Whilst thinking about doors, yes, it’s a regular thing in this business, I realised that it is quite difficult to actually define what a door is! Clearly it is a big lump of wood that sits neatly in a hole of the same size and shape but what is it really? I was disappointed when I looked in the dictionary to find the following definition.

“A hinged, sliding, or revolving barrier at the entrance to a building, room, or vehicle, or in the framework of a cupboard:”

In particular I was offended by the word “barrier”! In this day and age when we are all so security conscious (with good reason, to be fair) it is a shame that we have forgotten what else a door can be – besides a barrier. A door is an opportunity to see and or do something we have never done before or it can be a gateway to a new experience.

A door is not a blockade with the sole purpose of keeping things in or out, be that people or the elements. A door is so much more, it’s a portal into our lives, our homes, into who we are and how we live and love.

Riverside Glazed – Beading and glass detail

Our front door is a guardian holding back those things we do not want in our lives and yet allowing safe and welcoming passage to those people we wish to share our homes and hospitality with.

Doors play a huge part in our lives and yet we frequently just take them for granted, we almost forget them completely and often only think to update or replace them when they have long since ceased to function as either a keeper of our home or a welcome party to our friends and family. If you really try hard, how many of us can actually describe accurately our own front door, handles, letter box and all and yet we enter and exit several times a day and thousands of times a year.

Take time and put thought into choosing your next front door it is so much more than just a barrier (Oxford English!)

Have a look at the Kershaws Doors collection of wooden doors. With a wide range of doors including internal and external doors, grand door sets and glazed or solid timber doors.