Palladio Due Solid - Ivory Gold Patina - Swing

This classically designed interior door is part of the Palladio interior door collection, which means it is made of natural solid wood (not to be confused with solid core). The raised moldings is reminiscent of the Neoclassical period in architecture, when construction of attractive residential buildings were all the rage, completely changing the face of numerous major cities around the globe.

The beautiful two-panel arrangement is in keeping with Andrea Palladio’s principles of emphasizing the harmony of the decor through the simple elegance of its repeating elements – such as interior doors. It is a reminder that utility does not have to come at the expense of beauty.

This entire line of traditional style interior doors comes with all the usual wonderful features available here at Almes, such as the state-of-the-art hardware, including the Italian-made 3D-adjustable self-lubricating concealed hinges that make the installation a walk in the park and ensure long-term comfortable operation (this door will never creak), as well as the soundless magnetic lock – and, I hasten to add, the automatic sweep that is activated whenever the door is closed which, apart from the sense of privacy it provides, is part of the system that gives this interior door sound-proofing and thermal insulation qualities that are well above industry standards.

A number of finishes is available for this interior door (you’re hereby encouraged to explore every option). In addition to all standard configurations and sizes, custom orders are happily accepted.

Some historians claim, with good reason, that Palladian architecture appeared as a reaction to the proliferation of Renaissance themes everywhere, and while it was generally agreed that the tend was a huge improvement on formerly ubiquitous Gothic architecture, some purists longed for at least a partial return to truly classical, i.e. Greek and Roman, forms. Andrea Palladio was only too happy to oblige and designed villa after villa for the folks who could afford his services. Most of his works are concentrated in the Veneto region, whose prosperity in those days rivaled that of Florence.

Some other historians theorize that he was the precursor of Neoclassicism, which is not entirely accurate. The world had to wait two full centuries before neoclassical buildings started to spring up in France and Italy, and another two decades before they became a world-wide trend. It was only during the Industrial Revolution, when the middle class finally came into its own and turned into a force to be reckoned with that Palladio’s followers began to have a serious cultural influence, shouldering the aristocracy aside. One of the staunch proponents of the new architectural trend was, ironically, the third President of the United States, who, during his extensive travels in Europe, became a Palladian – so to speak. As luck would have it, he was also a capable and gifted architect who turned his own ideas into actual construction projects. Not too many leaders in history actually created any architecture themselves. Apart from this fellow, Emperor Hadrian comes naturally to mind, and … well, that’s it, really.

In light of the above, this line of interior doors is also a reaction to a number of today’s trends; a return to the basic classical themes that have made so many comebacks over the centuries they truly deserved to be called timeless.

When it comes to picking a finish for your Palladio interior door model, you might want to consider how well it would complement, blend into, or improve your decor – naturally. There are, to be sure, other considerations as well.

Ivory is one of the large spectrum of off-white colors with a history that goes back to ancient Egypt, but the first recorded use of the word in English was in the Fourteenth Century, with the ivory trade reaching industrial proportions three hundred years later, when Siberia was incorporated into what would later come to be known as the Russian Empire. It really took off a hundred years later, when the demand for ivory products began to grow exponentially throughout the world. Ornamental boxes, billiard balls, false teeth, dominoes, ivory carvings, fans, and, above all, piano keys were made of mammoth tusks. Wooly mammoth remains were found everywhere in that region, well-preserved in the permafrost, and theories proliferated on that particular animal whose existence ceased suddenly, it would seem, sometime during the Holocene epoch. It is worth noting that even today, centuries later, the mammoth is still, to a large degree, a mystery. They were big, robust animals who roamed freely around the tundra, fearless and, it would seem, peaceful – until one day something just happened. The research on what happened, exactly, is still ongoing.

Be that as it may, the vast majority of piano keys dating back to the Nineteenth Century and earlier – you can see these instruments in most museums, in the section dedicated to the late Baroque period, such as the one in the American section of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City – is made of the wooly mammoth tusk. Siberian export, let us hasten to add, may have saved the lives of countless elephants and walruses: no one could compete with the sheer volume of ivory arriving from beyond the Ural Mountains.

Today’s commercially produced ivory is, thankfully, synthetic (including the pigment we use in this interior door finish, of course). The color is wonderful: easy on the eyes, neither too loud nor excessively diffuse; soothing; and blending easily into pretty much any color scheme.

Oh, and did you know? The patination is done by hand. That’s right. Once the finish is ready (as it is with all Almes finishes, it is scratch-resistant and fade-proof), an actual expert craftsman, armed with an assortment of artist brushes, comes to work on the raised moldings. The gold patina, carefully and lovingly applied, gives the finished product character and an air of timelessness, an invaluable asset when it comes to decor changes. Whether your interior design is classic, traditional, or ultra-modern, no matter how many changes you make to it, these interior doors will continue to fit in seamlessly into it: that is one of the great secrets of this interior door collection popularity, as well as a tribute to the great Venetian architect Andrea Palladio, who valued overall harmony above all else. Next time you’re in Northern Italy, you might want to check out some of those palaces and villas.