As found, our building had a 10′ by 10′ rollup bay door. From a functionality perspective, this door was fine. It was a simple and secure door that allowed me to park a hot rod in my office. However, I really wanted to add more light to the space and neither myself or the architect was happy with the look of the old door. As such, we decided that an industrial styled glass bay door would be the ticket.
I researched and researched and finally found a bay door that filled my needs by Amarr. It was simple, modern, and a let a ton of light into the space.
The only thing that concerned me was something I hadn’t really thought about to this point – security. While the door would look absolutely incredible, did I really want that much transparency to my office? Regardless of the fact that I’m out in the country, I just couldn’t convince myself that allowing folks that much visual access to my office was a good idea. And then it happened… Something in my mind tripped… I remembered a visit to the Indianapolis 500 museum. One of the displays featured a restored pit space from Gasoline Alley as it would have appeared from the 1930’s to 1960’s. The crowning glory was a set of swing out barn doors.
The thought of such mystically vintage doors on a modern space such as mine consumed me. I had to have them, but where? Where could I get a set? I started researching again…
One thing you might notice about this build is that I’m not shying away from the high-end. I plan to work from this space forever and I want the materials and craftsmanship of the joint to last right along with me. With that in mind, I contacted **** at Evergreen Carriage Doors. If you do a little research and Google searching, you’ll find that **** builds the finest carriage doors in the country from his Washington state located shop. All of his doors are lovingly hand crafted and simply don’t have an expiration date. I was in.
**** and I worked on a design, came up with something we were both pleased with, and a month or so later a couple of gigantic 5′ by 10′ doors showed up at the shop. My architect, contractor, and all of his staff were absolutely blown away by what we saw. The craftsmanship and detail work was out of this world. This is a bold statement, but I don’t believe I’ve ever been more pleased post purchase than I was after I got my Evergreen Carriage doors. They are INCREDIBLE.
I had originally planned on painting the doors white. However, as soon as I saw the doors in their natural glory I really didn’t want to paint them. I felt like doing so would be covering up so much talent and beauty. These things needed to be left alone… A call to **** changed my mind. The sun beats down on these doors pretty good and they needed to be protected, so I ended up painting them… But not before I got a shot or two of them in their natural state.
Installation was a breeze as well. If you can hang french doors, you can hang these carriage doors. It just takes more hands. As you might imagine, these doors are incredibly heavy. And once installed, the benefits are really amplified. For one, carriage doors eliminate any kind of overhead tracking that might get in the way of lifts or anything else that requires ceiling height. Secondly, these doors can be extremely weather tight using basic french door principles. After having these up and installed, I’ve really begun to wonder why more people don’t use carriage doors more often. The benefits are just so damned glaring.
Anyway, once installed I began to take down the old rollaway door. And then I began to wonder why… The rollaway isn’t in the way of anything and it just acts as extra security when I’m away from the property – it rolls down right behind the carriage doors. So, I gave the old door a stay of execution.
Here’s the photographical proof of what has become kind of the crowning jewel of this build… The Evergreen Carriage Doors:
Note: These pictures were taken before we weather stripped the door…
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....maybe Reggie can move his BBQ to Ryan's garage 
