Old French Doors and Shutters

Old French doors and shutters

The Old French Door Shop has more than just doors. It has shutters, windows, kitchen sinks, iron railings, terra cotta tiles, and stones. When we built our fountain in our garden we used stones that we bought from the Old French Door Shop.
It is a haven of old patine, rusty hinges and a place that shows you that plastic shutters are taken over France.
The above photo is of interior shutters, French homes use to have shutters on both sides of their windows.

French Doors and shutters

Yesterday French Husband and I went to this shop to see if we could find a pair or small French doors or shutters to build a cupboard in the bathroom. I first thought to have a dresser, but soon realized that only a couple of toothbrushes, a wash cloth, a razor and maybe a few rolls of toilet paper would fit in it. French Husband and children soon convinced me that my lack of storage space was unrealistic, and that they were going to change my first name to: Impractical.

That bugged me.

French doors and shutters 

We went shopping for doors. Our measurements were four feet by six feet (or smaller.)

As I weaved in and out of the narrow alley ways admiring peeling paint, and the varied styles of French doors and shutters, my mind imagined houses and different possibilities I could create with the surplus at hand. Most of my ideas would never work for our house. My second name might be Impractical, but my first name is Imaginative.

French Husband on the other hand talked and talked and talked to the dealer. They chatted about everything under the sun. You might say they became best friends over door jams and window panes.

French doors and shutters 

Old French doors and shutters 

Still talking and not about doors. French have a love affair with politics and wine. Talk on and on they did as I wandered around dreaming up floor plans and kitchens and new ways to use these doors… wainscoting!

French doors and shutters 

French doors and shutters 

French doors and shutters 

Who needs Chanel, or Fifth Avenue, or Tiffany's diamonds… this kind of glamor; old, peeling, rough stuff is what gets my heart a pumping. I dig it don't you?

French doors and shutters 

I am still dreaming of the possibilities.

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Comments

50 responses to “Old French Doors and Shutters”

  1. Debbie Barny

    Fabulous photos, as usual Corey. I am checking in daily to watch your progress! The peeling paint is truly art. I found a pair of shutters in the garbage and begged my builder husband to build an armoire around them. see my living room photos at http://www.vrbo.com/97978

  2. enjoying your bathroom redo as it progresses. i like the idea of incorporating the shutters/doors into the mix.
    have a wonderful afternoon.

  3. I love the Door Shop. It reminds me of The Reclaimers Store in Portlamd. Dave and I go there on dates. We’ve bought old fireplace mantles, crown molding, chalkboard railing…. all kinds of treasures!! I look at it amd “know” that we can do a million wonderful things with it. Heavy sigh, so far all we’ve done is store it! We need to lay it all out in the backyard, see what we have and get creative. Maybe I’ll steal you next summer for a few days and you can help us???!!!!

  4. Did I spy some mahoganey? Looking forward to seeing what you do with all you bought. I’m sure it was more than just two shutters . . .

  5. OH COREY! I would go so crazy in a place like that — I’m with you — there’s nothing like these chippy wonderful shutters and doors, and there definitely is a special place in the heart for them over chanel, fifth avenue and tiffanys. I am sitting here going insane with jealousy LOL!!
    How are the prices on something like those 2 shutters the dealer has his hand on in the 4th photo?
    Oh this is all so delicous, I’m bookmarking this post so I can come back and swoon over it at will.
    Lucky woman! I can’t wait to see what you come up with for the bathroom.
    xo Isa

  6. I totally agree, Chanel, Fifth Avenue and Tiffany can live their own lives as long as we can get vintage charm and mastership like this. The photos reminds me of shops I visit in Venezia.
    There are not many antique shops or brocantes here in Trondheim, but I am a regular visitor at the Salvation Army’s secondhand shop in town and find treasures almost every time I go there.
    My latest treasure – a set of six vintage Norwegian espresso cups shown in my blog yesterday (in the post “some thoughts on food”). I found them a few days before Christmas and was lucky as they had been marked half prize the same morning. During one of our Christmas parties a friend stopped in front of the glass armoire we have in the diningroom, openmouthed. “Where did you buy these cups?” she cried. She had been to the shop a couple of days before me, before the cups were half prized, wanted them dearly but found them a bit too expensive. When we ate she made sure to sit so that she could enjoy the sight of the cups through the meal 🙂

  7. do i dig it? totally! epscially here in sw florida where there is nothing of the sort.french peeling wood,or many great antiques at all.
    patina, dreams, old houses, i have the same brain workings.
    thank you for sharing………….
    i love it all
    ps what DID you end up with?
    xo jody

  8. Love that stuff! Love it, love it, love it!
    Makes me wanna go junque’n. Can’t wait to see what you carried home! Shoppin in France… I would lose myself!

  9. Ahhhh the power of imagination! I can really understand you….what lack in my life is not imagination, but time and money! Dam!

  10. Oh yes, old doors, shutters, and peeling paint are very enticing. As always I love the directions and adventures you travel.

  11. I love the idea of you adding the texture of the old shutters/doors to your bath. Do know the color for the walls yet? I also like the tub unpainted. Why didn’t I think of that… Morganne’s bath has an antique claw-foot tub and a pedestal sink. We put a medicine chest over the sink for storage. I found an antique,molded french glass pendent light to hang over the tub. Maybe you could make an over the sink cabinet with a mirror using a small antique door and removing the panel and add the mirror. I’m sure you have a million ideas and it will turn out fabulously!

  12. becky up the hill

    Yea for the new bathroom. Please keep posting. So enjoy the journey.

  13. I know just how excited you are…give me glasses (drinking) china and art supplies…keep your diamonds and furs.

  14. While it wasn’t Paris… or Provence… it was a busy Boston suburb… but the home in the town I grew up in had old original chippy everything (the house was built during the Civil War). My father painstakingly preserved each and every original detail as he worked on our home to “make it safe” and up to code. Seeing these photos of yours brought back happy memories of the house my family called home for four generations – thank you Corey! And I can’t wait to see what doors you chose!!!

  15. M-Noëlle

    “You had a dream ….”
    That rings a bell, doesn’t it ?!?

  16. I’ve been enjoying following your blog (brought here from MissChrisC’s). Your bathroom re-do is giving me inspiration. We have a lot of old doors/shutters as well as beadboard and assorted scraps in our house and I’ve been trying to find a use for them. Making cabinets is a great idea.

  17. Oh man, oh man. Of all your posts on antique finds, this one is by far the most alluring. I want one of those shutters so badly I can taste it!!! Those blue and white ones are perfect! I just want some small ones for a project. Beautiful!

  18. Oh yes, I too have a love for old worn things. You make it sound even better!

  19. That kind of shop is heaven to me! I’ve always had a thing for old shutters and peeling doors.

  20. I like to find the door first, too.
    Next time you go, look at the doors/shutters and think of how you could make a table out of one. I love that idea and have seen it done before and that place you were at seems like the perfect place to find one.

  21. The other day, I passed by an old victorian house which was under remodeling, they were throwing away bunch of great items, chipped painted doors, windows, staircases…, I ended up having (only) a white victorian front door with original hardwares! That day, I really wished if I had a pick-up track!! They were trowing away the treasures!!! Good Luck on your project!!

  22. How could people want plastic shutters on their homes when there are such lovely things to be found in a treasure ground such as this….?

  23. Fabulous shop! I would find it hard to leave … peeling paint and all.
    xo,
    Lynda

  24. You must have been in there for hours with so much to look at and choose from. Thank goodness someone had the presence of mind to salvage such objects.

  25. What a fabulous shop! Don’t suppose you would want to share the address of it, would you? We need about 11 ‘new’ doors in our house (need to replace the ghastly hollow 70’s institutional doors some idiot, I mean, person, put in our 1850’s house).
    I imagine I could spend hours in there!
    Just found your smart looking blog, via La Framericaine. Will have to do some reading…

  26. Oh, Corey, dearest Corey, I’ve been with you through thick and thin but really, my dear, this is truly too too much. Dice? A spoonful of dice? To replace the strawberry? Your banner was always my first treat of the day. With happpy anticipation I clicked on your URL. My heart always skipped a beat when I saw it. Maybe I’ll have to tape a copy of your old banner on my screen – oh dear, I don’t have a copy. I thought it would be there forever….

  27. That place looks like NIRVANA….I’m with you! Oh the possibilities to use many of those items for repurposing! There is a blogger named Fifi who is the queen of redoing, repurposing, reviving things, repainting anything….check out her blog at
    http://fabulousfifi.typepad.com/
    I can’t wait to find out what you end up with.
    XOXOXO

  28. Have a look in your emails my friend. I have sent you 2 photographs showing what we did with some old French doors and stained glass windows.
    Di
    xo

  29. Corey, I so dig it! There is a salvage yard near us where my husband and I can spend hours searching and dreaming.

  30. Oooh, French doors. I think you and my sister would get along quite famously, Corey. You both share a love for antique and vintage and the possibilities one can make with both.

  31. Rositta – that would be opHthaLmologist.
    I’m not trying to be pedantic but it is a word I have never forgotten. Once I won a spelling bee with the word and then actually worked for one!
    A strange word that appears to defies all the spelling ‘rules’

  32. And Corey – Yes, yes…YES!! Old doors, old windows, old architecture – can’t get enough of it. Here in Oz the ‘oldest’ stuff is barely 200 years old and very hard to source. We just can’t get enough of old Europe.
    When we did get a chance to visit your shores I spent most of my time taking photos of all the doors. So beautiful – and what lay beyond was so intriguing. They fired my imagination, too.

  33. Heaven!!!! Why can’t everything be that lovely? Love all the pictures and your idea of using them for wainscoting. Some of them would also make an amazing table.

  34. Tiffany who????
    Love the photos AND the variety of doors.
    Happy shopping.

  35. Oh, the possibilities,
    thank you, Madame Imaginative! 🙂
    Window shutters evoke memories of lunchtime in Rome on a hot summer day. Double wooden shutters in my apartment, the interior ones open into the room, the exterior louvered ones closed, keeping the hot midday sun out. From the courtyard windows fragrance of tomato sauce simmering on someone’s stove, later the clicking of cutlery, the one or other conversation floating in.

  36. I found two 6 ft. tall, about 18 in. wide louvered shutter/doors in the alley up the street. They were finished with a brown stain. I placed one on either side of the kitchen window and they frame it beautifully. Now…should I paint them? What color? The kitchen is marigold in color with white trim. Suggestions please!

  37. Lovely soft, deep real colors. I love old doors and shutters.

  38. I’m in love. What a great place. I would buy the doors in the 4th photo and then make a dreamboard to manifest the perfect house to go with it
    Hopefully it works 🙂

  39. Oh Corey…DON’T PAINT THE BATHTUB. It’s perfect the way it is now. Why cover up all of that hard work. Also it seems that by not painting it, you will give French Husband more to talk about regarding his crazy American Wife!
    Still reading in Chico, Nan
    Hello Nan ( Nan is a friend in Chico. She and her husband Rick have an amazing design, furniture shop in Chico California http://www.nantuckethomeinc.com/index.html)
    We are not going to paint the bath tub. Thanks for your affirmation!

  40. Ellen Cassilly

    Great doors. I’m certain that you will come up with something wonderful but if you want I could sketch something. 4′ by 6 foot is the space? hugs,E

  41. Ellen Cassilly

    Are you going to have one sink or two? E
    Hi Ellen,
    One sink, it is free standing a reproduction of an old one. Has brackets on the side to hold it in place. It is One meter x 60 cm.
    C

  42. Corey, that shop is to die for! OHHHH the many possibilities…I could see awesome pieces waiting to be discovered and made.

  43. Elaine L.

    I agree with you Corey. I’d rather visit a salvage yard than a jewelry shop. I’m really not a diamonds type of girl.
    ~elaine~

  44. Well Corey,
    I think the old doors and shutters are appealing (not “a’ peeling”) because they say “I’ve lived, I’ve endured.”
    For storage in bathrooms, I have seen people use commode bombes or Louis XVI chest of drawers that are missing their marble tops. You can center the sink on top – have a new marble cut or use wood. Just a thought…
    Sorry for the bad pun above.

  45. Hi Corey
    I have really enjoyed your blog for over a year now. It’s my daily treat to read your stories and admire the wonderful photos! We have a holiday house in Languedoc and I’m always looking for “bits and pieces”.I found it difficult to find a “local” demo yard. This one looks amazing. We are going to be passing through Provence on our way to Languedoc in June and was just wondering whether you could give me the address of this shop please.
    Many thanks – and I can’t wait to see the finished bathroom!
    °°°°°°°°°
    Hi Deb,
    Sure the Demo Yard is called:
    Casassa
    Gemenos it is opened M-F / 9am -11:30 am
    Ventrons rte St Jean de Garguier 13420 GEMENOS

  46. Plastic shutters?? Why on earth…?
    I love the metal gate. This stuff gets my heart pumping too. How fab.
    Can’t wait to see the finished bathroom! x

  47. i find them ripe with possibilities.

  48. Beautiful! Me too, the more chipped and worn, the better! I remember your story where you said if there were two urns at a brocante, one with a crack in it, you’d choose the one with the crack. Me too. Looking forward to seeing more from your bathroom too.
    ___________
    Hi Leigh
    Well it goes to show you that I am still the same. The tub is proof to that.
    🙂

  49. That place is a goldmine! Your wainscoting idea is wonderful.

  50. Please! please! please! When you purchase old shutters and doors, and plan to do any sanding or stripping, please be mindful that they might just have lead paint.
    Jim
    __________________
    Jim
    Unfortunately most of them do. I just assume they all have lead paint. masks are a must.
    Thanks for the reminder.
    C

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