FREE home survey & kitchen design service Doors around the home Howdens on the move Door frames, linings & casings Intumescent & acoustic products Choosing the right type of hardware Oils, stains, varnishes & primers Howdens Solid Wood flooring Howdens Real Wood flooring Flooring care & maintenance guide Your choice of door says a lot about your personality and individual style. Doors are an essential, highly visible aspect of any property, and they offer a great opportunity to express your taste and ideas. The front door needs to create a good first impression. Howdens can help you achieve this through our wide variety of door designs. All the doors can be decorated using various stain or paint finishes and many are also supplied pre-glazed. Double & French doors Invite the Geek to Speak Various theories have been put forth regarding the origins of ’s Bates Mansion. Author James Michener once claimed that it was based on a Victorian-era, reportedly haunted, house in Kent, Ohio.

Another rumor maintains that it was based on the Hotel McCray of Santa Cruz, California. The fact of the matter is that the architecture is more-or-less original.The house and its downscale add-on, the Bates Motel, were co-created as original designs by production designer Robert Clatworthy and art director Joseph Hurley. Clatworthy was an especially inspired choice, as he had worked on the similarly seedy-gothic Orson Welles masterpiece just two years prior. (If you’re looking for a fun double feature, watch these two movies back-to-back and count the similarities.) As Hitchcock told Truffaut,"The mysterious atmosphere is, to some extent, quite accidental. For instance, the actual locale of the events is in northern California, where that type of house is very common. They're either called "California Gothic," or, when they're particularly awful, they're called "California gingerbread."That said, Hitch, as you might recall from my November 23, 2009 post, named Edward Hopper’s 1925 painting as the specific inspiration behind the Bates Mansion.

That is to say, while the architectural details came from any number of sources (even as the house parts themselves were cadged from other sets on the Universal lot), the Hopper painting provided a basis for the of the house, which would be delivered through lighting, editing, framing and other cinematographic techniques.Okay, but where did Hopper get the idea for his painting? That would be the large house (now subdivided into apartments) that sits on Route 9W just north of the entrance to Main Street in the village of Haverstraw, New York. While at one time it was a grand home, the place later went to pot. Vagrants even squatted there for a time until district attorney of Rockland County, Thomas Gagan, purchased it 1919 and (presumably) renovated it. Gagan’s daughter, Amo, occupied a bedroom on the second floor and stayed in the house for over half a century. No doubt she occasionally took visits from Hopper fans and, perhaps, later, Hitchcock fans. You can read about her and the house in this article from the .

There was, however, one particular visitor who remained lodged in her memory for the rest of her life. That encounter occurred one day when she was 13 years old and happened to be alone in her room. Looking out the window, she caught sight of a man across the tracks, seated at his portable easel, creating an American icon, one brushstroke at a time.double glazing doors lancashireit’s hard to picture 80 teenagers gallivanting around the beautiful home of embroidery and textile designer maxine sutton, but that was the scene last weekend for the celebration of her son’s 16th birthday. fire door retainers priceluckily the gorgeous home is still in one piece. windows and doors greenville nc

maxine, her husband and their three kids moved into this c.1840 early victoria townhouse in the seaside town of ramsgate, kent three years ago. after living in london they needed more space to live and work, not to mention a change of scenery. they were quickly attracted to the area by its proximity to london, the sea and beautiful beaches, the pretty harbor, wonderful architecture and great affordable houses. storm door lockset brassclick here for more, full-sized images of this delightful home, and don’t miss more of maxine’s work here, and visit her shop here. installing soft top on 2012 jeep wrangler 4 door [above: It’s a big old solid place built of brick with a smooth stucco front. garage door centre bedford

The outside was painted last autumn and we’ve started work on the garden this summer, so hopefully next year with some growth, the beds and planting will start to take shape. Now that we’ve started on the garden I’ve turned into somewhat of a plant addict so the collection of pots and containers around the front door will no doubt expand.garage door tracks lowes It was very dark everywhere when we first arrived, so we started by ripping up dark carpets and heavy window coverings, sanding back the floors and re-painting everywhere, to brighten and lighten the space. The curved wood handrail is a favorite original feature of the house. The striped stair carpet is by Crucial Trading and is super practical, with kids and dogs! On the first floor landing is the beginning of our collection of round mirrors. The embroidered Brain Shade is from my 2005 MA collection. The charcoal drawing is by my husband Daniel;

we both studied Fine Art as first degrees and he is now an exhibition designer running his own company, Designmap. The oil landscape is a treasured gift by Daniels dad Sid, also a designer and artist. Like most of the house this room is still evolving. Well used by all of us it has to be practical and I’d rather not feel too precious about furniture and possessions so lots of the furniture is from charity and second-hand shops, like the coffee table that was £5! The ceiling is high and the room quite large so finding an appropriate light fitting was daunting – all the antique chandeliers we liked seemed out of reach! This new one from John Lewis is a great compromise and was a house-warming present from our parents. CLICK HERE for the rest of maxine’s peek (and all the images on one page) after the jump! The cream pouffe and black leather chair are both Ebay buys. The wallpaper is ‘Mimosa’ by Cole & Son. Moses is our 3yr old English Pointer, getting him was part of our big move and new lives by the sea.

We never would have had a dog in London but here he gets lots of running on the beach. The little Victorian chair is again from a local second-hand shop and the cushion is one of my own. The bedroom faces the central gardens and the view of the tall trees is lovely in the mornings and evenings. In the winter the trees are beautiful and bare and we can see the houses opposite and then it’s all lush and green and cool in the summer. We’ve painted the walls with Farrow and Ball, ‘James White’ which is very peaceful and calm. Above the fireplace are two cyanotype prints on fabric that I made. The little armchair in the bedroom is from a fantastic place in nearby Margate called Junk Deluxe, which is run by Ben Scott and housed within an incredible second-hand emporium called R.G. Scotts, it’s a truly amazing hidden away treasure trove though well known by locals. We liked the chair because it’s a bit like a Gio Ponti, though it’s actually English and 1960’s I think?

I recovered it in the blue/grey stripe fabric. We inherited the 1930/40’s tallboy from Daniels family. The main bathroom is also our en-suite, which is a real treat. I spent hours sourcing sanitary ware and fittings online to try and keep costs down and most of it including the glass shower panel, came through Ebay. The bath is a factory second and the taps were salvaged from the existing bath. The polished ceramic floor tiles are from B&Q. The unfinished canvas is a the beginning of a painting I started in 1990 I think? I quite like unfinished, unresolved things – they encapsulate a sense of fluidity and fresh possibilities. The basement kitchen was another job that couldn’t wait much longer as the damp was seeping through and remedial works had to be carried out. Light and more light was our main objective down here, so we’ve opted for, white walls, white gloss units, oak floors and pale grey worktops in an effort to maximize the light. This is the first brand new kitchen we’ve ever had so it’s been a real pleasure and has made us feel quite grown up!

On the blackboard wall is a poster from the Museum Dr. Guislain in Ghent, Belgium, that we visited this summer. Another fantastic feature of the area are the ferries going to Belgium just at the bottom of the hill! The museum is highly recommended if ever visiting Ghent, it has a wonderful collection of Outsider Art. The kitchen dining area is another well used space for the whole family; for gatherings, eating, working and music practice. The chunky reclaimed teak table is from the Danish furniture company Ilva. The vintage print trays display all our ‘little’ things, like all the blue and white china fragments, shells and pebbles with faces, that we pick up on beach walks. We liked the idea of trees growing on the walls down here and started out looking for a tree wallpaper, but then we found the charming Moustache Tree vinyl by French designer Inga Sempe. We had another light fitting dilemma down here as we forgot to specify the two, instead of one, pendant fittings we wanted when the ceiling was re-plastered!

Then we bought a three arm 1950’s chrome light that needed re-wiring and three mis-matched glass shades. Somehow we never got around to re-wiring it and then at Christmas I put up this stripped back frame. To begin with it was just the bare frame and then one day I added all the bits and pieces: buttons, beads, short bits of ribbon, vintage keys and broken jewelery pieces, just all the kinds of things you keep in a jar or drawer. It’s still a work in progress – I’m keeping a look out for a little feathery moth eaten birdy to add to it. In the background is a vintage Thonet chair that’s waiting for some attention as it’s little rickety. Above the hall table, the small green paper cut is a Rob Ryan piece that was a free gift on the front of a magazine called Amelia’s Magazine. The large crucifix was given to me as a baby for my baptism, it’s got quite damaged over the years but is very special to me and I got a small shell crucifix last year to keep it company. The teak side table is one of a pair that my parents had made in the 60’s when we lived Hong Kong and Singapore, my sister has the matching coffee table.