the traveling cupcake: Around town: London doors

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Around town: London doors

When you live in a city like London, at least in my neighborhood, all the houses tend to look the same. Sure, you have the occasional tall apartment buildings or apartment blocks that break-up the monotony, but for the most part your neighborhood probably looks a little something like this...

Unless you live in the West End...then your white mansion house totally kicks my row houses butt. But, I digress...

One of the first things we noticed when we moved to London was how little opportunity there was to make your apartment stand out in the crowd...how little of a chance you have to show your neighbors just who you are.

Enter...the front door.

No literally - the front door.

It turns out the front door is the best way to express yourself, show your neighbors what you're like (without having to actually meet or talk to them).

One of our favorite things to do on a nice, warm weekend afternoon is take a stroll around our neighborhood. We always end up by the canal and on our way home we pretend as if we own one of these places and can actually change the door to fit us. What color paint would we chose? What color hardware? Would we play it safe with a black and gold combo or be a little more modern with slate blue and silver? Or would we go really crazy and paint it bright yellow or green?

I like to think that these doors give me a little peak into my neighbors life. What they are like and what kind of life they live. But who knows, maybe they chose the door color themselves or maybe its left over from the previous owners. Or maybe, like us, they just rent the place and their front door is a reflection of the owners and not the occupiers.

So for now, I'll keep picking out my favorite front doors, until I have my own to personalize.