Okay, I’m back.  Lots going on, so let’s see how quickly I can whip this puppy out.  I always think I am in the home stretch and it should take me no time at all and then I keep finding other things to include, and a week later, there I am with double the images and a totally different entry than I had in mind.

Fortunately, we have a clear mission with this second part entry – working on the recent smattering of installation pics we have of late.  Let’s begin with these fabulous doors and the photos sent to us by Clutch Design Studio, an architectural firm out of Denver, designers of the home in which the doors, shown above, were installed.

I had been tracking their production in my shop wanderings, not realizing that they were two sets of doors.

I thought the design had been changed mid-stream because at one point you could see through the grate in the door and then you couldn’t.

You can see in the photo below how intricately the grill is fashioned.

I am always amazed at the complex math these guys have to do to make everything work right.

I am hoping you can see the detail in this photo and how thick the grate is (remember you can click on the photos to see them larger).  From a distance it looks delicate and up close it looks very substantial.  I just love the beefy stuff, the solid feel and the sounds they make.  Here are both doors on the dock, with their beautifully carved surrounds being held into place.

And we finish with another installation shot that nicely shows the carved door surround.

If I may digress here a moment, I was reading the Design & Living issue of the Sunday New York Times Style Magazine this weekend and they had a quote featured that said, “Anything that has been made by hand will age better than something that has been manufactured”, and I thought about how very true that is for the items made at La Puerta Originals.  I see mass manufactured furniture, whether modern or finished to look antique – one bump and you get this pale gash that looks like a wound.  Time is not kind to cheap furniture.  But as I see the pieces crafted at LPO, in the showroom or someplace like Scott & Melissa’s house, they only get better.  The swing that an open hasp wears into the wood only adds to the character of the piece, many hands on the cast bronze hardware create a patina that gets richer with time and paths worn into the finish of the flooring tell a story of family living.  And, of course, if you wish to maintain perfection, each piece comes with a touch-up kit…

Speaking of character and patina, I love this kitchen that was done for a cabin up in the Colorado mountains.  The client was kind enough to send us photos and I had a great time picking the items out of the installation photos and matching them up with their dock photos as they came out of the finish shop.  The hand crafted bubble glass looks so great on this cabinet.

And here we see the island on the dock and then with the cooktop installed.

Sink cabinet below.  These two photos really show why I like getting the installation pictures so much.  In the dock photo the piece to the left is just sticking up there, and you see the matte black paint that indicates that area will not show – it just looks so incomplete.

And then voila!  Sink installed and it all makes sense!

Over by the fridge we have the pull-out pantry cabinet, shown here in action.

I keep telling Scott he should tuck some small pantry cabinets in the UPPER cabinets, like for spices and cooking oils, but I have yet to see any come out of the shop.

The closest was in a kitchen we did out in San Miguel County – highly functional and useful swing-out shelving, not so close to the heat of the cooktop that things spoil quickly (yes, I am a cooking nerd).  You can click on the photo to see better detail of the shelves in action.

More cabinets shown below, with the three drawer being my favorite for the patina on the drawer faces, as well as using one of knobs I really like (the dock photo of that cabinet would be another pic to click on to see in more detail, including the special little feet made from inverted carved finials).

Next we have photos of a pairing of doors and gates that Scott took in Malibu a couple of weeks ago.  Like the doors in the beginning of this post, the gate and door are similar, but different.  Unfortunately, the quality of the pics are not that great.  I don’t want to sound all techno-snotty – I am not one of those people who jump on every new gadget – but I get way better pictures from my old Blackberry than I do with my ipad.  But even at a poor quality, it is great to see things installed, and I can feature them here.

The photo above is the gate, fresh out of the finish shop, with hardware newly installed.  The wide double gate has vertical lines, with the grillwork discreetly set flush with the gate.

From a distance, with the shutters closed, the grillwork looks like three vertical panels.

The narrower front entry features the same cross panels, but has additional panes with panels set at 90 degree angles.

So, though the feel of the doors is the same, the designs are different.

And finally, we have a bench that I had previously shown in an entry last fall.

Constructed with a giant antique carved corbel, the bench is set on reclaimed heavy timbers with a smooth metal panel inset at the seat.

It is for a gallery in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the gallery owners were good enough to send us the photo.  The cat looks so perfect and surreal that I had to wonder if it had been creatively added to the photograph, but then noticed a kiddie gate in the background, which I am assuming keeps gallery kitty safe during times of chaos.

I really want to thank all those who have sent installation photos.  They are always interesting, and we love having an ending to the story.

As I have mentioned numerous times, getting installation photos makes me very happy.  Our shots of the items as they come out of the shop are great for showing details and craftsmanship, but seeing things in place in the home or business, with door jambs or kitchen countertops installed, etc. really completes the story for us.

We just had a little flurry of installs come in, so I thought I would share them with you.  The first is a front entry in Bedford, Texas.  The construction of the door began with the selection of two intricately carved antique columns, with the door being designed around them and a medallion carved with the family’s crest, provided by the client.

The columns are actually a part of the door surround.  Below you can see the surround in the shop, with the casing ready for the columns to be fit in place.   Due to the thickness of the door, the columns are sliced in half and placed on either side of the surround, so as to not lose detail.

And below is the door before the medallion was installed, ready to go off to the finish shop.

The door has a grilled centerpiece that is outfitted with textured art glass.

A precise template is cut and sent off to the glassmaker to ensure a perfect fit.

Above is a photo of the front of the door, fresh out of the shop, before being fitted with the glass, and a detail shot of the medallion set in place.  Below is the back.  The door is being held in place inside the surround while the photo is being shot.

And here is the inside installation photo of the back of the door that the client was kind enough to send after installation was complete.

One of the things that I especially like about this door is that the columns are also on the inside of the door, so that the door is equally pleasing from inside and out.  In thinking about my own house, I realized that comparatively speaking, I rarely see the front of my door.  I come in and out of the garage and only see the front of the door when I am greeting visitors or working in the garden in the courtyard.  I walk past the inside of the door numerous times a day, so I would want the inside to be equally as interesting, if not more interesting than the front.  And this door definitely fits that bill.

Back here in Santa Fe, we have some installation pictures that Craig, our Senior Project Manager took of a gate and front entry project.  Our bright and glorious sun is vexing as usual, giving sharp shadows.  The entry gate photos, shown above and below, came out pretty well in spite of the shadows.

The double gates feature custom crafted grillwork over two operable peep doors.  It is fitted with a cast bronze entry set with dead bolt,

and in the photo of the back of the gate you can see the extra security of a foot bolt as well.

Unfortunately, the front of the door did not fare so well, the photo getting pretty blown out, so I will go into a little more detail about its features.

It began with the selection of a rustic antique door and a set of antique carved panels.

The antique door was set into a frame of reclaimed Douglas fir that was distressed and finished to match the weathered wood of the antique door.  The door surround was created with sidelites, and the carved antique panels were set into the front and back of the door, below the sidelites.  The top halves of the two panels, with floral carving, were set into the front of the door, and the bottom halves of the panels, with geometric carving were set into the back of the door.  Above you saw the installation photo of the front of the door (ugh, but context is context), and below is the installation of the back, or inside of the door, which came out a bit better.

To show a little more detail, below is the front of the door when it came out of the shop, before the glass was installed in the sidelites.

It is outfitted with custom grillwork that was forged here on-site,

matching the grillwork on the gate, and large clavos as accents.

And here is the back.  This again wins my approval for interest on the inside of the door.  Not only are there the carved panels adorning the inside of the door, but while the front of the door is rustic and stately, perfect to face the outside world, I find the back of the door to be so much more intriguing.

The gnarls and texture of the antique door are so appealing and the hardware that was chosen is unique but simple enough to not compete with the details of the wood.

All of these details combine to make a very interesting focal point within the home.

The next project I want to feature is also here in Santa Fe, also with photos taken by Craig.  As you will see in the photographs, the project is not yet complete, but I think they show enough to be of interest.

I have written about the trellis before.

I originally thought the curving portion was going to be a giant beam for a living room or great room.

It hung around forever.  The thing is massive and it was always there – not really the kind of thing you can just stash in the corner.  And then one day I happened upon the trellis as it had been assembled in a back room for photography.  Wow!  I love surprises like that!

Here are the antique timbers that were selected for the top of the the trellis,

and here it is on-site.

I am hoping that we will be able to photograph it in a year or two with foliage on it.  Particularly with that curve, it will look amazing!

The window that you see off to the right of the trellis was one of those land of the giants moments.  When I processed the finished product photo, I thought it was like a little porthole window.  So imagine my surprise when I was wandering around the dock and saw that it was almost as tall as I am.  That is one cool window.

And the doors I have also written about in previous blog postings.  I called them the transformer doors because there are so many configurations for them!  There are louvered shutters on the door and the sidelites, all of which are operational.

The door and finish was based around these two antique mesquite panels.

They were set into reclaimed woods and fitted with a carved astragal.  The astragal, while being decorative also helps to reduce drafts – very important here in Santa Fe, where, as I write this, winds are howling outside my window and dust devils & tumbleweeds are swirling up my driveway.

In this picture of the door before the sidelites and hardware were installed, notice the astragal – it is barely notched at the top and bottom (remember, you can click on the photos to see them in larger detail).

In this later photo you can see that the center was narrowed a bit to emphasize the top and bottom.  I am assuming that this was done based on client input, and that is just one aspect of what is so fabulous about being able to custom create each piece that we make – the ability to have a say in what the finished product will look like, from the selection of the antique material, to the proportion and design, to the smallest detail of the width of an astragal.  Each piece is truly unique and built specifically for each client.

And here is a detail shot of the hardware that I think works so well with the doors.

And finally, for this, part one of our latest installations (I do have other work I have to do, you know), we have a really great set of driveway gates in Westwood, California. I love this picture of the gates as they were taken on the dock after they came out of the finish shop.

If you look at the detail shot below, while it is grainy, you can see how thick the gates are and you can see the metal framing for the custom grillwork.

These gates are extremely heavy.  It takes help from ALL the guys to move these massive pieces, and they drop what they are doing to move them around so Antonio can take the photographs when they come out of the finish shop.  You can see that Santiago, there in the mask, stopped sanding to come out and help with the moving.  I love seeing these guys do their work, seeing their pride in their work, and I love it when they come together to accomplish something.  And then here we have the results of all that labor – a very elegant automatic entry gate that is both functional and beautiful.

I ended part one with a sneak peak, the interior installation photo of a wine cellar door, and I begin this second part with the exterior shot. The photographs, by Eric Swanson, evoke much of what La Puerta Originals is all about.  Using antique material we are able to produce a stable product that features modern, working hardware – really, a fully functional antique.  The look and the feel of the product is truly unique.

This door is constructed with an antique Mexican mesquite door discretely adorned with fine clavos.

It is made into an arched entry set into a heavy jamb and once installed into the stone wall gives the feel of an aged European wine cellar – in a newly constructed house north of Los Angeles!

Also in Southern California, we have these heavy, double wine cellar doors.

They too are made with antique Mexican doors, although I am not sure if they were mesquite.

My favorite part is on the left side, the jagged cross piece, between the two panels.

This door is of a similar scale and feel, but it has a very unusual detail.

At first glance it is apparent that there is an operable inner door that opens into the room.  But if you look again (clicking on the photo to see it larger), you will see that there are pull rings on either side of that inner door, and that these are double doors that open out, presumably with the inner door swinging out with the door on the left.  That would have been a good one to show in action, but this was made some time ago and this is the only photo we have.  The novelty of operation is not the only thing that makes this door magnificent.  It is crafted with reclaimed heavy timbers, making it very substantial.  The details in the wood, the heft of the door, its unique functionality – it really is one of a kind.

Here is another bad picture of a fabulous door:

This, to me, also has a rather European feel to it.  This would be a good one to click to see the details, because it has some great ones:  original antique iron strapping, pull rings set into cast escutcheons and really nice raised carving.  It kills me when the quality of the photo is this bad.  Those escutcheons are probably cast in the shape of a lion or something, but we will never know…

Staying with the unfortunate old photographs, this is one of my favorite doors.  I can imagine it in a Hungarian monastery (I guess The Historian – that was a fun read – stuck with me), but it is a wine cellar door.  Unfortunately, I don’t have photos of the raw material used to create the door, but it looks to me as though it is created with a pair of antique doors with an astragal, that the crosses were not original to the doors, and that these are set into a frame of reclaimed woods.  Don’t quote me on that, it is just my guess.

I think it is quite fitting for a wine cellar door to be very rustic, and here are a couple with a similar detail.  The first features a lot of original antique iron strapping, much of it vertical, with clavos interspersed.  I have no idea the origin, but to me it has a Mediterranean feel.

The second has similar strapping with clavos, although with the rusted patina, the contrast is not as striking – it probably would have been too much with two doors.

The back of the door features the wrap around ends of the strapping and dozens of nail ends.  Comparing the front to the back, the nails do not correspond to the strapping or the clavos, as is often seen, so I am assuming that the nails are holding the cross pieces of wood onto the foundation door panel.

This door is also rather primitive.  It reminds me of black and white African fabric prints, but the carving is actually Nuristani.

This door was created using the intricately carved header piece of an antique surround, complete with original iron clavos, also from Pakistan, though a different region.  It is set into a frame of antique woods, deftly finished to match the patina of the panel.

The back of the door is really great.  You can see the markings of the hand tools used to create the original antique panel.

And we even have an install shot.  Kind of a difficult angle to photograph, but you get the idea.

Here is another wine cellar door whose back competes with the front of the door.

I can’t decide which I like better.  I like the stripes on the front, and the differing patinas, but I also like the cross pieces in the back.  This must be an incredibly heavy door.  There is overlay on the front, overlay on the back and a hefty jamb.  It’s one of those things where the more you look at it, the more you like it.  Well, I do anyway.

The next door was created using an antique mesquite Mexican door.

It was carved into an arched panel and set into a frame of reclaimed woods.  The original green finish was enhanced with other colors, a peep was cut and set with custom grillwork, and the resulting door is just spectacular.

It is a celebration of the original door in all its weathered glory.  It is fun to look at the raw material photo and find the details of the original door, like the knothole on the left, in the finished work.

This wine tasting room entry is created with an arching inlay of antique carved fragments and custom carving on the center panels.

This wine cellar door was crafted using an antique door en todo, framed in reclaimed woods.  As the styles of the doors vary, so too do the uses for wine cellars.  Some are strictly wine storage, some are for storage and tasting, and others, as we see,

peeking into this room, are places for social gatherings, with comfortable seating and entertainment.

I love this wine cellar door.  It is in keeping with the with the aged wineries.  A beautifully seasoned door, with its original flat clavos and weathered frame is set into base created with reclaimed woods.  This is finished in a contrasting color to frame and feature the antique door.  A peep was cut and fitted with custom grillwork.

The door is finished with clavos adorning the frame – on the front, finished in a rusted patina to match the original antique clavos, and on the back in natural iron finish.

Grillwork seems to be a common theme with the wine cellar doors, though again, the style of grillwork varies considerably.

Above is a wine cellar door with one of my favorite grillworks – from a jail.  LPO bought the whole cell from a Northern New Mexico jail.  It has graffiti etched into it, counting days, making comments, names, dates, etc. – very wild west.

This one has an operable shutter, while the wine room door below has a grilled window.

The third door makes the jail grillwork the focal point, which, of course I think it deserves.

Below are all of the raw material pieces that went into the creation of a really great wine room door.

Carved antique material with iron star clavos from an antique surround:

An intricately carved antique panel:

Carved antique column, one of two:

 Carved antique column two of two:

Add some grillwork, artisan bubble glass and a teardrop door pull with diamond escutcheon, and viola!

 You have a truly unique and interesting wine room entry.

This wine cellar door has one of my favorite escutcheons, made from an antique hinge.

The pics of this wine cellar door are a bit blown out (damn that New Mexico sunshine!), but the details are interesting.

It is constructed with an antique Mexican door with clavos and the original oval metal pull ring, the functionality of which is replaced by an iron pull ring with domed escutcheon.  It also has a lock plate, which, if you look at the back of the door, you will see is merely ornamental.

It has grillwork from an antique window frame.  (in a previous post, Grillin’, I discussed the mechanics of these windows) and I find the unclipped grillwork to be so interesting, if a little forbidding.

And then inside the wine cellar there is this closet door.  Yummy.

This is another of my favorite grillwork styles.  Again, it is antique window grillwork – very beefy, with a nice patina.  This is set above an antique carved panel, while the rest of the door is made from reclaimed Douglas fir.

Interestingly, the above door is also a wine cellar door.  It was created much earlier than the door above it, as you might guess from the quality of the photograph.

This grilled wine closet door is made with two wonderful antique carved panels that are framed in simply finished reclaimed woods.

Both of these doors, shown above and below, feature cast grillwork set into doors made with reclaimed Douglas fir.  The one above is a wine storage door, made with antique woods.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo with the glass installed, or maybe it wasn’t meant to have glass.  The door shown below is one of my favorites.  The cast grillwork is outstanding and it is so nicely framed by the simply finished wood, but then you put the artisan bubble glass behind it and it sparkles.

The following two doors have grillwork with a similar pattern, but a very different feel.

The first uses antique grillwork that is delicate, almost like a filigree,

while the second uses substantial custom grillwork crafted on-site at LPO.

I might even venture to guess that the first inspired the second.

 These wine gates are built simply to frame and feature the grillwork.

While not using metal grilling, I include these wine gates (one of a set of two) in the grillwork section because they have the feel of a door with grillwork by incorporating carved planks of wood.

And finally, we have double wine cellar doors made from antique Mexican doors.

They feature a carved astragal and, of course, grillwork.  After the doors were completed, the grillwork was changed to very different effect.  Should I tell you which was the final version?  I think not.  I loaded them at random, so that I wouldn’t necessarily place them in order.  I will let you decide which version you think is the best.

Visiting Northern California recently put me in mind of wine. I was lucky enough to share an incredible Zinfandel from Mazzocco Vineyards with a friend whose husband works at Korbel, and we visited several wineries in the area. There is something so special about vineyards.  Of course the landscapes are stunning, no matter the season, but the architectural details of wineries are so unique and individual to that craft. Much contributes to the romantic notion of wineries: the rich smells, the vats, the rock, the oak. We saw some newer wineries, but the clean lines did not impress. It is the old and the weathered that I find intriguing. I carried these notions and impressions back home to New Mexico with me and decided to do my next posting on all things wine. In the last several years the wine-related categories at La Puerta Originals have grown. From wine cellar and wine room doors to wine storage and accessories, we have produced quite a bit. And, as usual (I know, yawn), the variety is astounding. I will start with a piece that we did a number of years ago for the Cuba Libre nightclub in Atlantic City.

It is a wine storage station for the restaurant, with space for the wine cooler in the bottom. It was crafted using an antique carved column and antique Mexican doors.

The grillwork provides security, while allowing the display of the wine collection and the crown moulding at top adds an elegance to the piece that elevates to more of an architectural element.

To see more of the work we did for the Cuba Libre project, check out the Commercial Projects section of the website. There I have juxtaposed installation photos with more detailed photos of the pieces on our shipping dock.

Next up we have several wine storage pieces that are part of custom kitchen cabinetry packages we have done. Here we have an upper wine storage rack above a kitchen bar cabinet, with sliding wine glass storage below.

This custom bar cabinetry features a simple under the counter wine rack and hanging wine glass storage.

The under counter wine storage cabinet shown below is part of a bar section within a large kitchen.

It is made using the legs from an antique dowry chest and reclaimed Douglas fir. It is shown above without a top, and below with the countertop that was installed on-site.

The wine storage cabinet below has a number of details that make it special:

It has a top constructed with antique tin,

the drawer face from an antique panel,

legs from an antique dowry chest,

it is trimmed at the base with an antique carved fragment,

and, my favorite touch is the carved finial that was split in half to adorn either side of the drawer. All these little details come together to form a really charming cabinet.

If I may digress here for a moment, since I brought up the dowry chest a couple of times, I thought I would explore them a little.

In past entries I have talked about what a rich source of raw material the intricately carved antique door surrounds are for so many of the pieces La Puerta Originals builds.

The 19th century dowry chests are another.  As their name implies, they are chests built to store the household items – clothing, bedding, household utensils, etc. that the bride brings with her when married.

They vary greatly in dimension and style – some with plain panels and elaborately carved legs or cross pieces, others with carved panels and a plain frame.

They very often feature flower bursts and leaf designs, with some incorporating geometric carving.

And the legs, whether they are carved or plain, are nearly always finished with finials of varying styles.

As with everything at LPO we use all parts – every single piece – the carved panels become panes in a kitchen cabinet or the panel in a front entry, the legs become cabinet corners, or the finials becoming bed post tops or feet for kitchen cabinets or, as we saw above, used simply for adornment. So with these examples, in the future when I mention that something was created with parts from a dowry chest, you will understand exactly what I am talking about.

Getting back to wine storage, on a larger scale, here we have wine storage in the corner of a kitchen, with shelving in the middle for cookbooks, and, as you can see in the installation photo below, a wine cooler.

Wine storage in the kitchen is not limited to racks. As I blathered on in the The Dream posting about customized kitchen cabinetry, drawer inserts are a HOT trend in today’s kitchen design.

These inserts are custom built to hold two layers of wine bottles in a single drawer.

We have also customized wine storage with magnum cradles, such as these.

And now we move into the more elaborate wine storage pieces. Here we have cabinets for a wine cellar, shown photographed outdoors after they came out of the shop,

and we are lucky enough to have some beautiful professional installation shots by Eric Swanson as well.

In the last installation photo above, you can see the magnum cradles at work in the shelving.

The configurations for storage of large quantities of wine vary.

From racks with individual slots, diamond dividers for storage of groups of bottles,

to rick rack style shelving holding bottle necks, to enclosed cabinetry

and also wine coolers, large and small.  The large cabinet below was built to house a very large wine cooler and also has storage shelving built into the side.

While the cabinet below was built as a hutch that includes space for a below the counter wine cooler.

The nice thing about LPO customization in the case of the wine coolers is that the frames we build, such as the one shown below, created with carved antique material, can soften the chrome and steel aspect of a wine cooler, keeping the feel of an aged wine cellar.

Wine storage is not just for the kitchen or cellar though. Here we have two built-in living room cabinets. The first is a bar cabinet constructed from an antique door surround and antique barn doors:

The doors for the lower interior cabinet are made from an antique cabinet door:

The result is a cabinet whose look is very much informed by the raw material used.

The companion piece is a wine storage cabinet constructed with an antique carved panel and an antique window frame:

Behind the door we have individual slots for bottles, and a drawer below.  I guess the wine glasses are stored in the neighboring bar cabinet.

Both cabinets are built into the walls, so the profile for each is no more than something like a closet door.

I will finish this section with a cabinet whose progress I have been stalking in the wood shop, as you see in the pics shown above and below.  I love that the rick-rack design holding the necks is repeated in a decorative fashion at the top.

The shop photos above were shot before the lower cabinet doors were installed. Love that old wood!

Here it is fresh out of the finish shop, complete with cabinet doors and hardware.

And here is a detail shot of the sliding wine glass storage at the top of the cabinet.

Part Two will be all about doors involved with wine: wine cellar doors, wine room doors, wine storage doors, tasting room doors…if it’s a door anywhere near wine, it will be there.  Here’s a preview, another fabulous Eric Swanson photo you may have seen in our ads:

This week I got two sets of installation photos.  One set, by professional photographer Bob Brazell, were used in a Colorado publication (see the “Press” posting from last January).  One of the reasons I was happy to get the photos is because now we finally have a great photo of the double pantry doors shown above.   And this dramatic family room entry:

And this amazing hallway door featuring an antique carved Nuristani panel as an operable shutter:

If you click on the photo you can get a peek at the front entry in the background.

We also got some photos from PDF Designs of the chapel door shown in two previous postings from May and June.  The chapel itself is above, and then we have two detail shots below.

It is so great to get installation pictures – for the clients the installation is the beginning, but for us it is getting to see the end of the story.

This next piece is something I would like to see installed.  I walked into the back and saw this:

I thought it was a door standing in front of a crated door that must be HUGE.  Then I turn the corner and I see that the door is actually attached to this:

It amazes me that after 10 years there are still things that come out of the shop that make me say “WOW!” out loud, before I can stop myself, but this piece is stunning and that is exactly what I did.  It is a theater vestibule and stepping inside it felt magical.  And it’s not even done yet.  I am guessing that the part I thought was a crate will soon be painted the matte black that indicates that that part will be built into something, not to be seen.  Or maybe it will be paneled – yesterday I processed some finished product pictures of paneling for the same client.  We will have to wait and see.

Above is a pic of the CAD drawing from the work order, so you can see kind of how it will work.  Standing inside the vestibule I could picture it installed, with the hush of carpeting…again, all I can say is, WOW.

When I came back through I was surprised that in my curiosity about the “crated door”, I had passed by and not even seen the louvered shutters for a master bedroom shown below.

How brilliant are these?  Beautiful in and of themselves they are also highly functional.  They can be configured any number of ways as well as allowing the lightest of sleepers to sleep past daybreak.

 And finally, another fabulous work in progress:

To see the scale of these doors, look at the last theater vestibule photo and in the background you will see one of the guys installing the screen on the shutter.  The screens, by the way, are gold and they shimmer in the light.  Check out the cool door handle:

Here is the drawing from the work order, showing how the grillwork will appear:

We will have to see what finish the grillwork gets – distressed, powder coated, natural?  I have to say that Glen has outdone himself here – those curves are beautiful.

I will have to see if he will let me watch him work sometime.  That would be fun in a future posting.  As soon as the door is complete I will put the pictures up here – I am sure it will be a sight to see!

After I re-do a library book, I review the images to see what gems I might want to add to the website portfolio, and add them to my ever-growing TODO list.  But to prepare the images for the portfolio, I have to clean them up, knock out the background, size them, etc.  Here in the blog, we are a little more casual – not only do you get to peek at the behind the scenes of La Puerta Originals and see the loading dock in all its mess and glory, but I can also use images that may not be up to portfolio standards.  We have some lousy photos of some pretty stellar pieces, and I get to share them here!

As I was working on the book, I was amazed at the incredible variety of beds and headboards we have produced here over the years.  The character of the beds, the materials used to create them, the colors and finishes are all so varied, and each is uniquely created for the individual client.  Sometimes there are styles that are popular, but even when similar, each piece is unique.

While I have a number of favorites among the beds I will share here, if I had to choose just one, it would be the headboard shown above.  I like the combination of warm wood with the preservation of the colors used in the carved piece in the headboard and the addition of color to the columns used in the side (don’t forget that you can click on the photos to see them in larger detail).

I love funny little details (note for future entry:  The Whimsy of Scott Coleman) and on this piece we have upside down finials that act as corbels supporting small removable shelves.

Staying with the headboards, here are two that have a similar feel and finish, but the difference is in the details.  The first has crown moulding at the top, and the antique carved doors are preserved as a whole, with pull ring hardware and the carved wooden latch at the top of the doors.  (If built for a remodel or new construction, these could actually be operable, accessing a cabinet recessed into the wall!)

Both have carved antique zig-zagging borders, the first a little more delicate, the second, a little more beefy.  The second headboard incorporates carved finials from antique dowry chests, and the antique carved door panels are reassembled in a horizontal fashion and fleshed out with additional antique woods.

The finishes of both items are similar, incorporating reds and greens in a subtle wash.

I love the way this shot not only shows the details of the finial and the two pieces of wood on which it sits, but also the way the greens and reds are highlighted on different pieces, a distinction lost in the long shots.

This headboard also incorporates antique carved doors with pull ring hardware, but is much more intricate. The doors are set into more carved panels and topped with an slightly arching carved fragment. The panel section is set into carved column sides that are capped with carved finials.  One of the phrases that we have used in promotional pieces is “functional works of art” and it really is true – so many of these pieces are like works of art, and yet they serve a purpose, so it is the best of both worlds!

The photo above is very old, so I am not sure exactly what is going on here, but I thought it was interesting enough to include.  Since the piece is in an unfinished state, it could be a progress photo, or it could be that the item was to be painted on-site.  Either way, this is a pretty impressive headboard.

Another old pic here, but I like the simplicity of this piece.  It incorporates antique carving from Honduras – probably a door, set into heavy timbers with nicely carved tops.

Here we have two styles of twin headboards we built for the same client.  The first, shown above, framing beautifully carved antique panels, the second, incorporating panels from antique Mexican doors.

And here is where the step stools come in.  Because these beds will be high, we made matching step stools.  Call me a sap, but I can just imagine the childhood memories being made of climbing into the bed at Grandma’s.

It’s a great idea, not only for getting up onto the bed, but they can double as storage chests.

There are some pieces that I would really like to see how they are installed in the home.  The headboard above is a king headboard, and, being long and narrow, I imagine it to be mounted on the wall, more to define the space, than as something to actually rest the head upon, but I don’t know for sure…

And then the bed above is another I would like to see set up in the home.  When I first saw it, I thought it was a Murphy bed, but it isn’t.  The base is a platform for the bed, and the headboard is wall mounted.  It is beautifully constructed with more of the intricately carved antique surround material, framed in the zig-zagging antique fragments.  If I remember correctly, there was recessed lighting tucked up under the carved pieces, but don’t quote me on that.

Above is another king bed, this one crafted from reclaimed Douglas fir. It has a rustic style, but the arched overlay on the headboard and the crown moulding supported by corbels at the head, add a touch of elegance.

More creative little touches on this bed.  Antique carved panels are incorporated in the headboard, the feet are custom forged here at LPO, and the corners are constructed with antique lock plates.

I think the little details are one of the things that really sets LPO apart.

Not only is this a cool platform bed, but I also have an install pic of it.  Well, sort of.  The bed is not dressed, but it’s just cool to see the bed in place.

Here is another piece that shines in the details:

The size in the photograph is a little deceptive.  It is a very substantial piece of furniture.  It is king-sized and created with heavy reclaimed Douglas fir.  The arch is nicely capped at top, with a little flair at the edges, and the antique grillwork panels are inset, almost like a window.

We have done a number of headboards that have been padded.  Some with fabric, others with rich leather, or suede.  The headboard shown above is crafted with nice heavy mesquite pieces, and in contrast, is finished off with the soft suede padding.  Click on the photo to see the detail of the mesquite timber topping the headboard.  The twist of the wood is gorgeous.

More whimsy from the mind of Scott Coleman:  the above is a king headboard constructed with reclaimed mesquite ranch fencing and other pieces of reclaimed mesquite.

Mesquite is a very interesting wood with a lot of character.  It is very dense and heavy, and it weathers well, developing a really beautiful silvery patina.  Many of the antique Mexican doors are mesquite.  We have done a number of headboards using antique mesquite wood.  The one shown above is a great rustic patchwork of pieces.  At the center is an antique Mexican door which is set upon reclaimed heavy timbers and framed in antique mesquite posts.  The effect is really marvelous, and it is a piece that will age very nicely.

This headboard uses an antique mesquite Mexican door that is etched and painted.  I think the cross pieces were carved to expose the unweathered wood with a result reminiscent of straw appliqué.

The above headboards featured the weathered mesquite patina.  The mesquite headboards shown below have had a finish applied to them.  The first features not only an intact antique Mexican door, it includes the jamb, which tops the piece!  This is set onto beefy timbers for a very solid piece.

The second features a traditional antique Mexican mesquite door with clavos, which is set into heavy timbers adorned with single clavos on each side.  The door is stacked on a mix of reclaimed timber that is topped by a yummy heavy mesquite post.  Though there is a finish applied, it does not obscure the remarkable character of the wood.  Again, I have to ask that you click on the photo below to see the detail of the mesquite post (and the rest of the piece, of course).  The wood is so hard that it produces a very unique sheen that cannot be duplicated.

Murphy beds are great when space is at a premium or you just want to use a spare bedroom primarily for other purposes. Stowing the bed up and out of the way frees up a lot of floor space!

We have done a number of them, both built-in, recessed and flush with the wall, as well as those mounted to an existing wall.

The photo below would be one of the unfortunately bad pics of a stellar piece I was talking about earlier.  I would love to have a better photo of this bed.  Dramatic carved columns, intricate antique doors with star clavos, carved heavy timber legs – it has all the makings of portfolio feature, except, of course, for the quality of the photo.

Speaking of bad pics, here are a couple more:

This first one is a rough hewn heavy timber bed.  Even though the photo is bad, I think the character comes through.

The second, another that I wish I had a better photo of, features a heavy mesquite footboard and dramatically framed Nuristani carving in the headboard.

This third one is funky and fun.  It incorporates antique painted door panels, two different styles of slender antique columns and antique carved finials.

And the fourth is a twin bed set.  Bad photo, very cool piece.  It incorporates a lot of fun, intricately carved antique material, and I think the center piece is functional storage.

Moving in to the more unusual beds, here is an install pic of a headboard constructed with, can you guess?

Antique sugar molds.

Stained glass.

Mmmm..comfy, cozy!  Chief’s bed from Africa.

And of course, what entry on beds would be complete without…

an opium bed.

Above is the lattice work that lines the underside of the canopy, and below, some of the detailed carving and gold leaf work.

For drama and excitement though, nothing beats a four poster!  They generally require (at least the way we build them) the grandness of a master suite, and they enhance that grandness.

Let’s see…since I was previously talking about padding a headboard with suede, I will start with the magnificent piece shown above.  Below is the headboard before the padding was done.

I include this pic in case you want to click and see the detail of the carving.  It was shot outside, so the detail is better than the later photos.  It is built with intricately carved material from an antique surround and beautifully carved antique columns.

Speaking of intricately carved antique material, check out the bed below!

Again, it is constructed with antique material from a door surround and intricately carved antique columns serve as the four posts.  These have been topped with rounded caps carved from reclaimed Douglas fir and sanded to very smooth finish.

The bed shown above uses similarly carved antique material with a much more rustic result.  Rather than a high-gloss varnish, a simple sanding celebrates the weathered patina of the antique material.  While you would never guess, both beds were for the same client!

The dreamy queen bed shown above has some adornment, such as turned posts and carvings on the headboard, but it really gets its character from the playful paint job.  Flowers, branches and decorative swirls combine with muted pastels for a very fanciful bed.

This four poster mixes materials to dramatic effect.  We have antique carved columns and an antique carved door panel, reclaimed timber, heavy clavos and custom-forged iron work.

Below, we also have a mix of materials – reclaimed Douglas fir, recycled heavy timbers and grill work.

At the beginning of the post I was talking about how we sometimes have popular styles of things, but that they are all different.

We had this bed in our showroom (again, bad pic, sorry) and it was very popular.  It incorporates some really fabulous antique material – the heavy spiral carved columns and carved panels, etc.  That bed inspired this bed:

which inspired this bed:

which inspired this bed:

The bed below was so huge, we had to assemble it in the parking lot because it wouldn’t fit on the dock.

It is a king bed made with recycled heavy timbers, reclaimed Douglas fir and antique carved finials, finished off with nice heavy iron clavos.  A fabulous monster!

For the next post we will be back in the present.  There’s lots going on, and I will be posting more of the fabulous things coming out of the shop these days!  Like, ta da!  This king headboard – fresh out of the finish shop just yesterday!

Mostly I was taken by the trees.

La Puerta Originals is down there somewhere…

Back on the ground, things at LPO are continuing at a bustling pace.  Some really great stuff is coming out of the shop!

Check out these built-in mudroom cabinets.  The finish stopped me in my tracks.  And the contrast of the cubby color is dramatic.  One thing to keep in mind when looking at a background color in these, or bookshelves, is that there will be things in them and the color will be peeking out.  A bright color really makes a great accent.

In an earlier posting I was talking about custom kitchens and how they have evolved into multi-purpose areas where people gather for a number of different activities.  These next cabinets are an example of a connected kitchen, dining room and entertainment area.  The cabinets below are the built-in dining room cabinets,

and then the next picture is the backside of the cabinets.

The space on the left is for a flat screen television, as illustrated in the mock-up below, and then the drawer below holds the electronics.

The door drops down for use with a remote, and the shelf slides out if further access is needed.

The final piece I want to show is a bench.

Over 9 feet long, the bench is made from an antique carved corbel

and the legs are crafted from reclaimed heavy timber.

That is quite a seat!

Man!  There is nothing like fall in New Mexico!  The air is so crisp and invigorating!  The mountains turn from green to gold and the smell of roasting chiles is in the air.  We almost get ourselves into a state of hyperventilation, snorting the air out the window as we drive past the chile roasters on Cerrillos.  I immediately want to run home and make a big pot of Green Chile Chicken Noodle Soup.  I love checking out the ground under the roasters – the seeds and skins dense as a layer of sand.

And of course, when you make green chile, you have to make some red chile, the leavings of which are so beautiful.

But!  As the title of this posting suggests, this is not about chile, this is about Owen and a couple of doors.  As I mentioned in my last post, I have been anxiously awaiting the completion of a particular pintle-hinged door, and that day has finally arrived!  Way back in June I posted pictures of the beginnings of this door.  I saw the frame of the arched door, which is the exterior door for a family room, and had to go back to ask Owen, who was producing the door, the purpose of the knobby protrusion in the frame.  He explained that it was a pintle-hinged door and the hinge needs a flat surface to operate.  That pivot point was carved out by hand into the thick wooden frame.

And the body of the door was made with mortise and tenon joinery.

It was agony to watch the painstaking creation of this door.  One day I would see it on the table,

the next in the giant clamp frame,

or on the table with clamps, clamps, clamps (I love seeing things in the clamping stage, like the complex circle of clamps used to glue the mesquite veneer to the table in one of my earliest posts, and other photos that I have yet to post, but will).

My  mind boggled at the math and calculations that had to be made.  There was an overlay of the arching piece that was created separately and fit into place like a puzzle piece.  Some days it would be on the table, other days standing off on its own, like a piece of sculpture or a giant piece of Chinese calligraphy.

In August as it came closer to completion, Owen worked scrupulously on the mechanical workings of the door.

And then one day I came in and it was actually in the finish shop, getting a nice warm honey finish.

It seemed unbelievable that it was actually almost done.  But I had gotten my hopes up too soon because then I had to wait, and wait, and wait until the hardware was installed and then wait a little more until glass was installed.  But the time has finally come and the door is complete!

The companion piece, the front entry, is also done.  They were created in tandem, but I seemed to get more photos of the creation of the arched door, probably because it was so much more complicated and spent much more time on the bench.  But here is that door on the work bench,

and then after it was completed and the finish applied, it was on display in the shipping area, with our high tech system of identifying areas for touch-up:  masking tape and sticky notes.

So it is over for now, they are soon to be shipped, and now I will wait, and wait and wait to see if maybe we get some photos of it after it is installed.  And of course, if we do, you know I will post the pictures here!

I asked Owen if it would be okay if I mentioned him in the blog posting and showed him working and he said yes, and even shared his pictures from his iPhone, some of which I used have used here.  He is off onto another project, another fabulous creation.  I will, of course, be watching and photographing, but for now, he gets his fifteen minutes of fame for this project, after months and months of meticulous work.  Couldn’t happen to a nicer, more talented guy.

While I wait for the door I REALLY want to talk about to get hardware, I thought I would share some of the great things that have been coming out of the shop of late.  My favorite is yet another pintle-hinged door!  In Chinese astrology, it may be The Year of the Rabbit, but here at La Puerta Originals, it is The Year of the Pintle-Hinged Door!

I saw these, what I thought were doors, while they were being made in the wood shop.  Then they were finished in the yummy deep red, rustic finish.

Then they just kept hanging around in the finish shop. I kept seeing them in the background of pictures I was taking of other things:

There they are again!

Oop!  In the background of the big door.

Behind the cabinet…

It just seemed like they were always there!

Okay, so we will get back to those in a minute and move on to the pintle-hinged part.  Here is the door while it was being worked on in the wood shop.

Big, wide, open…kind of plain, but I figured more would be happening with it because that would be a huge expanse of glass.  And then, TA-DA! There is more happening with it:  They go together!

Those aren’t doors, they are barn hanging shutters that can be closed over the large glass door!  And then, here is the glass for the door being delivered.  All 210 pounds of it.

It is a massive double-paned affair – each piece weighing over 100 pounds, which is sealed with insulating space between, and this little wire shown below is actually a breathing tube for the inside of the glass sandwich.

Here in Santa Fe, we are at over 7,000 feet in altitude.  If this door didn’t have that breathing tube and were to go anywhere else – BANG! – it would either explode or implode.

And there it is, glass installed, in action.  The best part is that I met the clients and they are going to let me come up to photograph it when it is installed.  YAY!

I took the above pictures of this piece while roaming the woodshop after the guys had gone home, not understanding what it was to be (that is part of the fun – “what will it become?”).  I kind of thought the part with the rungs was going to be a rail of some sort and that it was separate from the broad piece it was laying on, but no, it fits into that space there and is the facia for a bar in a game room.

Love the antique material with the star clavos.  Another piece from one of those wildly intricate surrounds from Pakistan!

Speaking of not knowing what something is going to be, I just can not wait to see what the door shown below becomes!  I will follow the progress of whatever it is to become and post it here!

I was looking over master-finisher Rigo’s shoulder to see what he was working on and he was matching the finish on an incredibly old corbel.

It had several different layers of color that had worn in a really fabulous way and he matched it perfectly.

He then waved me to follow him so he could show me another finish sample he had done, along with the accompanying materials from which to draw inspiration.

I just love all the textures and colors we have here – the aging drawer finish, the colors in the rugs, fabric and tiles, and then there is the carved piece of antique material into which he has masterfully blended all of these colors.

It really amazes me how he can mix colors.

Rigo works with all these solid colors to create these incredibly nuanced finishes that replicate the patinas of decades of wear or deftly combine all the colors in a decorating palate.  Brilliant.

Well, I am hoping the door I am waiting on will get hardware this week and I can feature it in the next posting.  I don’t think it will be a surprise in this, the Year of the Pintle-Hinged Door, if I tell you it is another pintle-hinged door.  Until then, I will leave you with some more pics of the bar facia, along with some of the other cabinets that go with it. The tall cabinet to the left will fit a large wine cooler, and directly behind the bar facia you see the wine storage cabinet which has under-cabinet LED lighting. The foot rail in front of the facia was hand-forged here on site.

At La Puerta Originals, we have a library.  This houses books with pictures of most of the projects that LPO has done.  There is an entire row for doors, from Arched Doors & Arched Front Entries to Doors with Grillwork, Doors with Carving, Two Panel Doors, Doors with 8 Panels and Above, Doors with Sidelites, to Doors with Transoms and Wine Cellar Doors. There is about half a row for gates, from Driveway Gates and Entry Gates to Garden Gates, and then all of the miscellaneous categories, from Kitchen Cabinets, Columns & Corbels, Libraries & Shelving to Wine Storage… it goes on and on.  These are there, of course, for clients to peruse, for inspiration and for dreaming.  Pages are marked and copies are made and annotated: I like the finish on this one, the antique material incorporated in this one, I like the way this piece arches, I want this insert for my kitchen cabinet, etc.  One of my projects is to re-do these books.  The books have images from the time (before my time) when the projects were photographed on film and the pictures taped to printed pages and from the time when we were at our old location on Cerrillos Road, to the time before we produced PDFs of everything and, of course, the present time.  I can’t even imagine the time when dealing with film.  Someone would have had to run to get the film developed and then go pick up the printed pictures and match the photographs with the printed pages. It gives me a headache just thinking about it.  Aside from digital cameras, PDFs are far and away the best technology we have adopted.  Being able to email a PDF to clients for them to see their project is a billion times better than faxing photographs that I am sure were barely discernable on the receiving end. We originally thought it would take me about two years to re-do the library.  Ha, ha, ha…that is SO funny!  We moved to the new location in 2005.

I enjoy working on the library books because I see all the variety within a particular category, I revisit pieces I liked and see ones I have forgotten or have never seen before, sometimes I see employees in the background who have moved away or moved on (or thinner versions of those of us who are still here), I see the pigeons that used to live in the building on Cerrillos Road (which is funny now, not so much then), I see how beautiful the yard looks with snow on the ground or the dappled sunlight from all of the trees at our old location…let’s just say, I rarely get bored.  Working with the older digital images is sometimes gratifying because when I adjust the photos the image is much improved – the details of the finish become clearer, the color improves and they look less washed out in the glare from our bright New Mexico sun.  Sometimes working with the old film images is heartbreaking because I can tell that the piece was exceptional, but the photograph is awful, as you can see in the picture below.

That is such an amazing door – the front is set into a little arched recess and it has great carving.  Here you can click on the photo to see more of the detail, but you still have to use your imagination to fully see it.  The photos were taken indoors, with the glare of the flash usually obliterating any detail in the center of the photo, and either the camera or the film/printing of the photos was not exceptional, resulting in rather muddy details that even scanning at high resolution cannot improve.

Like the door shown above – you can see the great surround, with diamonds carved into it, the door has custom iron strapping and clavos at the intersection of the lattice design, but again, you have to look so closely to see the beauty in the door.  It is frustrating because there are some amazing pieces that just will not end up being in the library.

Anyway, that was a very long and wordy way to get to my point in this posting, which is that I thought I would share some of the things I run across in the course of re-doing a library book – things that are not current work, in fact in some cases they are quite old, but just interesting things I find.

The inspiration for this topic was this dining room cabinet.  It is one of my favorite pieces and I have dealt with it a number of times – I originally processed it for the client, I masked it and knocked out the background to put it on the website, I processed the installation pictures for the library and also put those pictures on the website, but it wasn’t until I was working on the Cabinets library book last week that I realized how it functions.

In this picture of the side of the cabinet, when it had just come out of the shop, you can see the part that is painted black.  That part will be built into a wall.  Any time you see that in our photographs, know that if it is painted plain, matte black, that part will be built into a wall in some way, or meets some other piece, as in two kitchen cabinets that will abut – it basically means that that part of the item will not be seen.  If you look at the installation photograph at the top of the paragraph, you will see what a narrow profile the cabinet has, and if you look at the picture below, of the interior of the cabinet, you will see that the pull-out shelves are quite deep, and that is possible because of that whole section that was built into the wall.

I just think that is so cool!  And, even though this was well before I was prowling around the wood shop with my camera, it is also possible to see some of the evolution of the piece.  When I was gathering the photos I was trying to determine the difference between two photos of the front of the piece, and I realized that more carved antique material was added to enhance the corners of the cabinet.  The result is really lovely.

As I was working with photographs of the front of the cabinet, I had this nagging feeling that it reminded me of something.  I scrolled through the website and realized that it reminded me of the piece shown below, that I really like, which is actually a headboard.  Bizarre, the connections the mind makes…

Below is an oldie but goodie – a medicine chest.

Open the doors and there is the mirror, open the whole panel and there is the medicine chest.

Took me a minute to figure that one out.  And then this is the vanity that went with it, which is really nicely done.

And again, as I mentioned in an earlier post, when I was talking about the rolling coffee table/step stool, what La Puerta Originals excels at is creative use of space.  Here, for the same client as the above vanity and medicine chest, is an under-eave built-in cabinet.  How cool is that?

These are two interesting cabinets that pre-date me at LPO.  The first one is a bench cabinet, intended to have a cushion atop.

The other one Scott tells me (after saying, “Whoa!  You are digging deep in the archives!”) is a bedside table.  I said, “you mean at the foot of the bed or something?”  And he said “no, a bedside table”.

It actually looks more like an altar to me, but I love the sheen of the wood and the piece in general.

Another oldie here shown above – a vanity cabinet with sliding mirrors that presumably reveal the medicine cabinet.  It caught my eye because it is colorful and rather whimsical.  Unfortunately, it does not have the countertop installed.  I would have been interested to know the color and material that was ultimately used.

In the installation picture above, you can see the buffet by La Puerta Originals (as well as the saloon doors).  But I like the detail shot of the side, shown below.  It is before the top or hardware were installed, but I think it  shows off the details nicely.

I had worked with the photo shown below several times, but it wasn’t until I was putting it into the Cabinets library book that I realized that the decorative scrollwork in the crown is an upside down antique corbel.  Very clever!

LOVE this kitchen island cabinet!

This is from a piece that again pre-dates me, but it is a wall-mounted cabinet and this is the detail of the shelf below the cabinet.

I really liked the entertainment cabinet shown below – the panels chosen and the panel placement, the finish…the whole deal.

Here is another that I think is interesting.  This is a corner cabinet built back in ’08.

Originally it came out of the shop in September with the bottom doors having inset panels with cutouts in them, and the upper doors solid.  Apparently it went back into the shop for some modification and came out in mid-October with the upper doors having matching inset panels with cutouts.

It looks like a completely different cabinet!  I think it would have worked and looked balanced in its original incarnation if the solid panels had been on the bottom.  Let’s photoshop it and see how that would look!

While I think it is a more balanced look, I still like the last version, with cutouts in the top and the bottom the best.  Interestingly, the top and bottom doors are the same size.  I thought I was going to have to compress the solid panel doors and stretch the cutout panel doors, but they just popped into the place of the other with barely an adjustment.

Well, it was fun strolling through the past, but I have tons of new pics of what’s been coming out of the shop recently, so I will try to post again soon!