Doors around the world mean shelter, home, familiarity; and mystery and intrigue.  They represent possibilities, juxtaposing new adventures—or refuge—once entered. Their framework and design can be bright and modern, or intricate and hundreds of years old; imposing or tiny; handled or smooth; welcoming or intimidating. 

image: Moyan Brenn

1. Barcelona, Spain

image: David Ohmer

2. Alcatraz, San Francisco, California

image: Martin

3. Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Germany

image: Eric Gonzalez

4. Pavia, Italy

image: Meaduva

5. Zanzibar, Tanzania

image: Pauline Mak

6. Morocco

image: Peter Rivera

7. Montmartre, Paris, France

image: Christopher Jensen

8. Location Unknown

image: Denis LcLaughlin

9. Fahan, Ireland

image: Loozrboy

10. Hornepayne, Ontario, Canada

image: Lindy

11. France 

image: Marco Alioli

12. Sardinia, Italy

image: Mark Ehr

13. Bangkok, Thailand

image: Angie Harms

14. Granada, Nicaragua

image: Andrey Upadyshev

15. Suomenlinna Ferry, Helsinki, Finland

image: Miguel Virkkunen Carvalho

16. Saint-Tropez, France

image: Marco Zanferrari

17. Elephanta Island, India

image: vxla

18. Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

image: Anna Fox

19. Anaheim, California, USA

image: Eric Chan

20. Granada, Spain

image: d. fuka

21. Shanghai, China

image: Julia Chapple

22. Fez, Morocco

image: Nick Taylor

23. Baku, Azerbaijan

image: Ethan Hein

24. Krakow, Poland

image: Andrew Turner

25. Beijing, China

image: Chad Kainz

26. Copenhagen, Denmark

image: Andrew Morrell

27. Gandia, Spain

image: Eric Molina

28. Hanoi, Vietnam

image: Phil Whitehouse

29. Buenos Aires, Argentina

image: Martin and Kathy Dady

30. Southern Morocco

image: Peter Rivera

31. Montmarte Cemetery, Paris, France

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The post 31 (More) Photos of Doors From Around The World appeared first on EcoSalon.

In one door and out another.

There’s something about a doorway that is at once welcoming and guarded. It provides an entrance as well as an exit; it beckons you while keeping you out. When you browse through this collection of door photos from around the world, you can’t help but wonder what lies beyond those thresholds. Let your imagination run wild.

(above) Lansing, Michigan, USA

Valletta, Malta

Santa Cruz, California, USA

Vicars Close, Wells, England

Valderrobres, Spain

Budapest, Hungary

Polperro, England

Williamsville, Delaware, USA

Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA

Darap, Sikkim, India

Morin Heights, Quebec, Canada

Lodi, Italy

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Santorini, Greece

Bathurst, Australia

London, England

Busan, South Korea

St. Goar, Germany

Lima, Peru

Taquile, Peru

Banquiao, New Taipei, Taiwan

Portland, Maine, USA

Santorini, Greece

Lincolnshire, England

Vientiane, Laos

Dixon, Illinois, USA

Luc-Sur-Mer, France

New Delhi, India

Chiloè Island, Chile

Tehran, Iran

Hanoi, Vietnam

Weilheim-Schongau, Germany

Zanzibar, Tanzania

Paris, France

Aivali, Turkey

New York, New York, USA

Rising, Illinois, USA

San Mateo, California, USA

Michigan City, Indiana, USA

Montbrió, Spain

SEE ALSO:

40 Gorgeous Photos of Europe

40 Gorgeous Photos of North America

40 Gorgeous Photos of Latin America

40 Gorgeous Photos of Asia

40 Gorgeous Photos of Africa

25 Photos of Islands Threatened by Climate Change

25 Images of Female Adrenaline Seekers

40 Photos from Flea Markets Around the World

30 Gorgeous Photos of Winter Snowscapes

30 Gorgeous Photos of Farming and Agriculture

15 Hilarious Photos of Interspecies Mingling

30 Photos of the World’s Most Uniquely Designed Buildings

20 Photos of Female Activists Throughout History

30 Gorgeous Photos of Spring

30 Gorgeous Photos of Traditional Textiles

25 Photos of Urban Green Spaces

25 Photos of Zen Retreats

25 Photos Celebrating Jazz History

The post 40 Photos of Doors from Around the World appeared first on EcoSalon.

When it comes to abiding by Homeowner’s Association rules, one writer’s penchant for decor needs to be checked at the door.

My husband and I love to play on the brighter end of the color spectrum, or dash into any color at all. When we purchased our first home in 2010, we did just that. The kitchen, we painted yellow, the living room walls a dark sand and the office/guest room (originally our bedroom), a deep scarlet.

But we both wanted even more color. While our clothing colors of choice are most often black or gray, when it comes to our home we like to go polychromatic and wild – at times feral. Take for instance our sofa carved out of one piece of solid teak, a hanging produce “basket” that used to be a scale at a market in Peru. You get it, we like to be different.

When it comes to doors, I’m of the opinion that making a proper entrance matters as much as the colors you’re festooned in. The root of this is rooted in, well, a quest for rootlessness. When I left my hometown and began to travel literal miles instead of the literary ones I explored through travel memoirs, I went from being seen as a confident and outgoing explorer to a timid and shy outsider. It was an unfamiliar cloak and I’ve been trying to find something a bit more harmonious with the dichotomy I am from travel ever since.

Case in point? Our front door. In deciding what kind of entrance we wanted for our home, we set out to dictate the terms. We really wanted the first (and last) image of our home to leave everyone seeing red after having fallen in love with colorful doors while traveling.

Red – the color of passion, of life and death, of warmth, and in many cultures, of prosperity and joy. Red is creation and destruction. Red is not slinking into the background of life. Red means setting ourselves apart from a sea of bland doors and perhaps even bland lives behind those doors so neatly painted in our neighborhood.

Straddling the Wainscoting

As a first-generation American, my husband grew up navigating between Texas and Mexico, two very different worlds. His parents were once told by his school that they were doing an awful thing by raising their children bilingual. (When Kiko and his sisters tested better than their monolingual peers, the issue was finally dropped.)

As for me, the daughter of hippie parents who decided early on not to send their children to school, or even institute bedtimes, I was still, nevertheless, steered towards organized, suburban sports. I too, grew up caught between two worlds within the same culture.

The “Breastfeeding is Best” and “Home’s Cool; Homeschool” stickers that covered the bumper of my mom’s van made me and my siblings stand out amongst the rest of our friends. It’s funny, though, now that Kiko and I are older, how much we appreciate our unique childhoods. I guess what I’m saying is, the “weird” stuff, only serves to make us more interesting adults with a desire for broader color spectrums. To stand out is not a bad thing.

Board Rules

When we inquired about the red door, our homeowner’s association wouldn’t have it. All doors must be white, they said. Potted plants on the porch must not reach heights above the railings. Should we ever want a new screen door, it would have to be approved first.

So what do we do? Do we fight it? With so many battles in life, this one doesn’t seem like a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Plus, fighting this one small battle might bring attention to the fact that some of our plants creep up towards the ceiling, well above the sanctioned porch railing height.

We could just rebel, paint it anyway and retract by whitewashing the red when someone notices. Perhaps we’ll just paint the inside of the door red so that when anyone exits the house, they get a warm, passionate send-off.

In the meantime, I put two more coats of stark-white paint on the door to brighten things up. As I looked around the complex afterwards, I realized that most other doors seem to be painted off-white. I smiled to myself, and gave thanks to the universe for small victories and minor insurrections.

Images: writer’s own

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