Designer doors set the stage for luxury residences

The recently revamped Bel Air estate had everything expected of a grand, multi-million-dollar residence: private theatre, elegant curved staircase, ballroom, marble floors, lush grounds, sparkling fountains.

But even before setting foot inside the 24,000 sq ft home, which sold last year for just over US$46 million, guests can anticipate the air of understated luxury that awaits them by virtue of the main entrance: arched, substantial and inlaid with a hefty walnut doorway stained in espresso.

Doors – both exterior as well as those separating rooms inside upmarket flats and homes – are being given a second look, resulting in designs taller, wider or more seamlessly integrated into their surroundings. Architects and designers are taking a closer look at the portals through which homeowners and their guests enter, looking for increasingly inventive ways to separate outside from in, and one room from another. These might include handle-free doors that seem etched into the wall, or designs that stretch further than the typical eight to 10 feet in height – extending in some cases to as high as 12 feet.

“This doorway is literally the threshold to an extravagant estate,” said Los Angeles-based designer Kirk Nix, founder of KNA Design, which worked on the Bel Air estate. Nix has designed a number of Asian projects including The Park Residence in Taichung, the Conrad Hotel in Macau and the Leela Palace in Delhi. “And as the threshold to such an exquisite space, this doorway had to be impressive in its own right.”

For the project, Nix kept in mind that the entry is the visitor’s first impression: he took the original archway, designed by architect Paul William in 1938, and worked with a special finisher to stain the material dove grey. Within the arch he set the walnut door with customised brass hardware, flanked it with grey/white bricks, and added iron and gilt lighting and limestone steps leading to it. The result is an imposing and memorable entry.

Doors in this league, according to designers, can cost US$15,000. The late Zaha Hadid, in her prestigious One Thousand Museum building in Miami, collaborated with Italian door producer Lualdi to make doors – about US$3,000 each – for the interiors of the flats. In keeping with the modern feel of the space, the doors were in white matte lacquer with hidden pivot hinges, said Kevin Venger, one of the developers of the building. There is no clunky hardware, and the doors seal against the wall magnetically, so a completely smooth effect is created when the door is shut.

At Palazzo Del Sol on the ultra-exclusive Fisher Island in Florida, the interior doors, also by Lualdi, will have a brushed antique bronze frame and a vertical handle wrapped in leather. At the OMA/Rem Koolhaas-designed Park Grove, in Miami, buyers asked for taller doors leading to the terrace – and the developers responded by putting in 12-foot-high floor-to-ceiling sliding doors in glass.