Alluminio Elivia Horizontal Wood Grain 4HS - Wenge - Swing

You read it here first: this interior door model, part of the Elivia collection, was inspired by the bouzouki, a legendary four-string musical instrument imported into Greece by immigrants from the Anatolian region around the year 1900. It was then further perfected by Greek craftsmen, following which it made it all the way to Ireland sixty years later. Somehow, the Irish found it delightful.

It produces sounds resembling those of the traditional mandolin, only finer and more pronounced, and the playing technique is somewhat different.

Wait a minute, you might say. Wasn’t this interior door collection, the Elivia family, inspired by Elizabethan romanticism?

Yes. It would be silly of us to deny it.

That said, each individual model has an additional source (or two) of inspiration. In this case, should you ask the designers, they’ll tell you it was the spirit of the entire history of music, from Roman Anatolia with their major diatonic scale to contemporary Irish tunes. Pretty neat, wouldn’t you say? The instrument – just like this interior door – is quintessence of harmony and elegance.

Oh, and did we mention this? It does come with all the usual Almese interior door amenities, such as the state-of-the-art hardware, including the 3D-adjustable concealed hinges, magnetic locks, automatic sweep, etc., and a dozen highly attractive finishes for you to choose from. It is also warp-resistant and scratch-resistant.

Why horizontal, though? Well, I thought you’d never ask!

Horizontal in this case means the direction, or, to be more precise, longitudinal orientation, of the wood grain.  

Think of the two standard printing paper orientations, portrait and landscape. Indeed, most portraits (and I mean portraits painted – in oil, on canvas – by  experienced artists) … Where was I? Ah, yes: most of them are vertical, whilst the vast majority of landscapes (painted by honest artists, etc), from Old Masters to Impressionists and beyond, tend to be horizontal. Most, not all. But still …

The reason for this is that each honest artist seeks to convey the impression of vastness first and foremost, as if asking the viewer to look to their right, then to their left, and then to their right again, and imagine all that great space continuing past the frame.

Likewise, as it is with this particular interior door model, the horizontal orientation of the wood grain will create for the viewer an impression of superior width of the room in which it (the door, that is) installed. It is a simple and innocent enough concept that nonetheless can greatly improve your decor by adding visual space to it. You can’t have too much visual space.

The space-creating trick was known to the ancient Greek architects, who perfected it. They referred to it as “optical correction.” Indeed, no proper Greek temple, theatre, or palace was constructed without resorting to it. Next time you’re in Athens, take a long good look at the Parthenon. Note that the columns are tilted inward and the bottom of the façade slopes from the center to the sides: all this so that the structure would appear perfectly geometrical to the viewer positioned a hundred yards from the entrance.

Would it look good on your interior door? You decide.

This finish breathes equatorial passion. Modeled on Millettia laurentii, a legume tree commonly known as African rosewood, it will impart to your doors an air of cozy warmth, a feature that so many ultra-modern, deliberately matter-of-fact modern interiors so often lack. As a tropical timber, wenge is dark in color with a distinctive figure and a strong partridge wood pattern. It is known for its quaint (and curious, yes) striations of wavy grain. The wood is dense and quite heavy. When kiln-dried, the surface becomes perfectly smooth, with tight pores and very few variations in the grain.

Suitable for many types of interior door, a good wenge finish can serve as the final touch – the master stroke, if you will – in any type of decor, bringing out or emphasizing, depending on the arrangement, the most striking qualities of each nuance. It invariably conjures up images of the whispering tropical rainforest interrupted here and there by red rock ridges and cliffs rising haughtily out of the jungle; or alpine meadows and swirling mists of the wild slopes leading up to Margherita Peak. The mighty Congo River dissects the landscape, calm and confident, having exerted so much influence on the human imagination over the centuries, mysterious and alluring: so many travelers, adventurers, and explorers from various countries and cultures treated it as the destination of choice.

In certain European traditions, wenge (both the wood and the color) has long been associated with high-end products and has been vastly popular in luxury homes, as well as offices. Small wonder: it is amazingly easy on the eyes. It has that soothing quality one finds oneself coveting after a long day’s work, and it can also work wonders creating a cozy atmosphere when one is hosting a banquet, a conference, or simply has guests over. It should be able to serve as a perfect (and utterly tactful) background for one’s antiques collection; it brings out the best features of, and focuses a viewer’s attention on, paintings and photographs; it accentuates the modern interior door’s convenience and adds to the classic style interior door quiet dignity. One of wenge’s most intriguing qualities as a color is it is almost impossible to compare with anything. Is it anything like Van Dyck brown? Not really. Italian espresso? Hardly. And so forth. Singularly enough, it goes equally well with flat surfaces and raised moldings; unapologetic “functional” simplicity and intricate ornamentation.