When opportunity knocks, not only do we open the door, we build a gate using six recycled doors. This is the third post in our “There is no “Away“ series” and is inspired by the good people at Skagit Salvage in Mount Vernon Washington, who have an abundance of beautiful old salvaged doors. There is no “away”, you will remember, refers to when you throw something away…… away is really somewhere…..landfill, ocean, Nevada desert, China, outer space…… or in this case an Art installation at the Barn Gallery in the San Juan Islands!
I have noticed that opportunity knocks most often when I am solving problems. In this case we were required to build a gate between our neighbors’ and our Barn Gallery guest house property. The metal gate frame we had had fabricated by Superior Systems called out for an artistic cladding! So, thinking like the artists Christo & jeanne-Claude might have thought, we moved forward in the Art installation direction.
After careful planning and layout in the barn workshop the gate was installed in less than a morning!
No Art installation would be environmentally complete without a couple of bird houses made from the workshop scrap wood and painted with outdoor decorative paint from Amazon!
If you want to know who opens the door and takes the opportunity, step up to the gate and look through the window to the other side of the gate! You will be facing the opportunity taker and immediately recognize who they are.
Recycling or up-cycling can be very rewarding. It can be contagious, as barely a month after we installed our gate we saw a fence made out of painted doors….. not two miles from Skagit Salvage – see below
We hope to see lots of examples as this idea goes mainstream!
Need a gate, need a fence, need barn siding, need a fancy chicken coop…… need doors for your remodel? Head over to your local salvage and, when opportunity knocks, open the door. And feel good about using an already available resource and contributing to the focus against global warming.
ART tours: Friends, island visitors and neighbors curious to take peek, text me (8008810448) and if I’m around I’ll give you a preview of our “When Opportunity Knocks” Art installation; otherwise stay tuned for the Lopez Island 2021 Garden Tour… hopefully sometime in June?
If you enjoyed this post you might like the first two “Away” posts in this series and to subscribe to our Sustainable Designer Quarterly Newsletter which will arrive 4 times a year!
ESCAPE TO THE SAFE SAN JUAN ISLANDS
When this post arrived today, I was not feeling the most optimistic. I am thankful for everything I have today and the new doors of opportunity which I will open in the future! However, when I see the lines of people queuing for food in what is supposedly the richest country in the world, I wonder what doors of opportunity can these people hope to be open?
Reading your post, I am inspired to think that opportunities can come from the most unlikely places — in your case salvaged doors became an amazing and useful (to birds) Art installation that will also be useful as a barrier to inquisitive neighbors.
Guests will love this addition to the Barn Gallery Art collection and what it stands for!