The other door - Portiere

I think it's best if I tell you about the origins of the portiere (Ha-I had never heard of them...  

my good friend Whitney, who is part French, very kindly told me of portiere's when I first started my interior design business).

 from wikipedia 

A portière is a hanging placed over a door or over the doorless entrance to a room. Its name is derived from the French word for door, porte . From Asia it came to Europe at a remote date. It is known to have been in use in Europe in the 4th century, and was probably introduced much earlier. Like so many other domestic plenishings, it reached England by way of France, where it appears to have been originally called rideau de Porte (literally, "door curtain")..

In Margaret Mitchell's novel, Gone with the Wind, the protagonist Scarlett O'Hara makes a new dress from her mother's green velvet portieres. Although the term is used incorrectly in the movie. The characters are talking about green velvet window curtains while portieres are so named because they hang in doorways. (the scene was famously parodied on The Carol Burnett Show when Carol Burnett, playing the role of Scarlett, wore not only the fabric but the rod as well).

 Now who knew that green velvet dress was really portieres? 

I didn't know that-and I am from the South.

Go figure!

  

I love to use them in client's homes-

this one for a bathroom.

 

Here I used a portiere where there was no door to separate the kitchen from the dining area

I use them whenever I can in design jobs!

Cote Sud,photo - Gilles Trillard

The three pictures above where taken from a lovely Taschen book by Lisa Lovatt-Smith.

OK- so now we all know about Portieres. Don't you think they are a delicious

 solution? I Do.

Tell me, where you plan to use portieres?

To see your vision come to life, email us about our design services at Peggy Braswell Design. 

You can purchase many of the items found on this blog, according to BRASWELL and much more at  BRASWELL. 

We will work with the trade.