Doors inside a Door

When building front doors for customers, an unusual request came up from two different orders.  They both wanted a way to ventilate the door without opening it.  Of course a screen door would allow the front door to be open and keep out insects and other uninvited guests.  These two individuals did not want to use a screen door which would hide the design of the front door.  I had to agree with them so it was my problem to solve.  The photo below shows my solution on one of the doors.

This photo shows the inside of one of the front doors. In the center are eight panels in two rows made of  cholla sections mounted in frames and filled with clear resin.  They let the light through and in addition the four panels in the middle are hinged so they can be opened.  They are held closed with a friction catch.  Looking through the opened doors you can see saguaro ribs on the front surface of the door over screen wire.  My solution was to make doors inside a door to open on the inside of the front door and be concealed by the front design.  Air can pass through the design and on into the home, as the client requested.

The other door had a similar solution for providing fresh air to the home but the design was slightly different.  I will look up information and photos of that project and make it the subject if a future post.  I thought it quite a coincidence that two request would be made for this modification of conventional door design,  My answer was to put doors inside doors to meet these requests.  This isn't a new idea however,  In early times the little door inside a front door was used as a security measure,

This is the outside of the above door.  It is shown here without color but it was finished the same inside and out.  I wanted to show you this photo, regardless of it's lack of color so that you would understand the design.  The small panel doors that open inside are behind the two saguaro rib sections.  Enough space was left between the ribs ti allow a good flow of air when the small inside doors were open.  I apologise for the gray scale photo but it was all I could find of the outside surface of the door.

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>