Doors2

Arriving at The French Laundry, guests now begin their experience through a sequence of new garden spaces.

Detail of custom front door in Douglas Fir

Exterior view of main entry

Ian Read wanted the addition to reflect the time in which it was constructed, not the Victorian times in which the house was erected. The industrially styled doors situate the office space squarely in the 21st century.

The front door is made from re-milled old leftover beams. A custom pivot mechanism allows the weight of the massive door to rest on a tiny point, allowing for almost friction-free operation.

Canyon Barn

An H-shaped 1960s Eichler home has bright, lime-green double doors that open out onto the signature Eichler features: floor-to-ceiling glass, patios, gardens, concrete slab floors, tongue-and-groove ceilings, and post-and-beam interiors.

Canyon Barn

The focal point of the home’s modernized exterior is a custom, wood-and-steel entry gate designed by atelier KS and built by DeFauw Design + Fabrication, a local fabricator who also made custom closing hardware for the piece. Franz and Paré-Mayer paired angled cypress slats with an industrial metal frame to create the entryway. A few paces behind the gate, a large glass door provides direct access to the home, fulfilling the owners’ wish for an entry vestibule that would be separate from the street. The angled wood slats offer privacy from the exterior, while selectively allowing light to penetrate through.

The chalkboard wall also acts as a sliding pocket door to the first floor bathroom. To maximize usable space, there are no hinged doors in the home's interior.

Soheil steps into the music and screening room, which is concealed behind a masonry-veneered door. “We were able to hide a lot of the square footage below the main level, but not in a way that would hurt the design,” he says.

Entry vestibule

Reclaimed bricks and a pivoting, weathered steel door speak to the industrial flavor and salvaged materials found throughout this office renovation by architecture studio Linehouse. The result is a design that is both dramatic in form and texture, but subtle in its natural palette.

Aside from the main entrance, there are no doors in the house. Instead, arched thresholds indicate the end of one area and the beginning of another.