The most beautiful door in Melbourne ?

                      If you ever wondered where is the most beautiful entrance door installed in Melbourne in recent years,  you might as well travel to Malvern. With so many leafy streets and hidden gems concealed within lush gardens, Malvern is a place of past and present wonders.

                    Our featured door is impressive in more ways than just the look.

• Facing North, it was made out of European walnut, a species known for its resilience to sun exposure. 
• Measuring 2.7m in height, and 1.8m in width, weighing approximately 400 kilos all together, this is not a flimsy door ! The frame is 54mm thick, and with the mouldings it goes up to 70mm !
• It's all traditional workmanship, mortice and tenons assembled with pins.
• It's fitted with a recessed, multipoint safety locking mechanism (top / middle / bottom) 
• A full peripheral rubber seal ensures complete air and water tightness.

               I guess when the owner comes home after a tough business day, the silky touch of the walnut timber, the quiet thud of the heavy leaf closing, and the clear click of the brass locks, all contribute to  leaving the worries outside, and feeling the strong sense of well deserved ownership softly rushing in his veins.

   

          All our doors are custom made in France by renown French cabinet making and wood carving company Bruno BERTOLI - Follow this link to their website: http://www.bertoli.fr

Mediterranean roof tiles: Beautiful things always come in small package ...

This is all what feature roofs are about, a cute, intricate, low level piece of roof that seats next to the pool in your backyard, or in a secluded spot in your estate, and gives you that little ting of pride in the chest every time it catches your sight.

Being a small object means you can afford the right materials and craftsmanship, turning a simple building into an outstanding piece of art.




The pool cabana pictured here has a timber structure built entirely from reclaimed Tasmanian bridge timbers complimented by traditional Mediterranean barrel tiles, that have the under side exposed, to add authenticity to the genuine look.

These traditional Roman tiles are found throughout the whole Mediterranean region from Portugal, Spain and South of France, to Italy, Greece and the Middle East. They are said to have followed the Roman conquests, as part of the spreading out of the Roman civilisation.
They are known by quite a few different names: Unders and Overs, curved, barrel, Spanish, Mediterranean or simply Roman tiles.
History has it that the typical shape was being given to a clay pan fashioned around the thigh of the maker.
They are very well suited to hot climate conditions, providing natural ventilation to the roof space, capable of handling sudden and torrential rains. They actually are more of a piece of engineering than you think at first glance, because the drops of rain hitting the top of the Overs are directed to the channels of the Unders where they form little streams that run much faster than drops crawling over a flat tile.

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On the other hand, heritage terracotta shingles are roof tiles designed for the cold and rainy countries of Northern Europe, where they also have to deal with snow falls, hence the steep roof pitch. The Gazebo pictured below exudes serenity in a peaceful Paul Bangay garden surround.





Terracotta shingles are the most expensive type of traditional roof coverings. Their small size makes installation quite labour intensive, with high roof angle requiring tiles to be secured. The need to overlap for water tightness means there is an average 60 to 70 tiles per square meter, which requires the roof frame to be stronger than average.




Feel free to contact us for your next roofing project. Over the last 20 years we have supplied and installed a very significant number of roofs covered with genuine French roof tiles across Australia.

The Cremone bolts: an element of Classic French architecture

A bit of history

Cremone locks first appeared in France during the 18th century. Although a lot of details are missing on its origin, specialists believe the product was imported from the Cremone region in Northern Italy.

At this time two window lock devices were used in homes: the Espagnolette and the Cremone. With increasing urbanisation in the 19th century, Cremone locks became more and more popular in France's large cities.

Nowadays, a lot of Parisian apartments are still equipped with this traditional window lock to protect the building's authenticity.

Gearbox with olive knob (white epoxy / polished brass)

How does it work?

This system is very simple and is composed of three main elements:

- Rods: each Cremone set has two rods, one at the bottom and one at the top. When you turn the knob, they slide up and down on the outside surface of your window or door and lock into sockets that are fixed to the door / window frame or the floor itself.

- Handle: it can be either knob or lever form.

- Cast housing: this cast iron box is where the mechanism is installed. The handle rotation engages a pair of rack gears which then push the rods upward and downward at the same time into the sockets.

A full Cremone set showing upper rod section and gearbox

An heritage product into contemporary projects

This traditional locking system is widely used in France even today. The variety of modern colours and finishes has given this product a second life. Few companies can supply it in the variety of options we have.

The best example is as per above picture, for clients who were looking for a different combination, to match their contemporary interior. We custom-made the Cremone sets with a Satin Nickel finish for both knob and rods.
The result is stunning, giving this piece of art a bright future in contemporary interior design.

Brass olive knob / steel box

Pewter lever and box

Nickel satin rods and olive knob / white epoxy box

ANDUZE GARDEN POTS - A TIMELESS PIECE OF ART

Anduze pots are an ever-popular garden ornament in Australia. Too such extend as it has been widely reproduced, though never really catching the original look and durability of the genuine vases made in Anduze, South of France.

Flamed Weathered finish

At The Good House, we pride ourselves in bringing only the best France has to offer, and our Anduze vases are exactly that. 

With Spring (hopefully) now upon us, it is time to think about re-potting that kumquat or lavender bush to a more suitable, larger container. With their thick, hard terracotta walls, Anduze pots will keep your plants moist for longer, through the sun drenched days we will soon be in.

Flamed Weathered finish

 

And if you want to make sure your garden looks very much like a piece of Provence Down Under, talk to us. Well, I'd rather say listen to us, and you will very soon realise we are from there!!!

Green Glazed

WELCOME

The Good House is a boutique import company based in Melbourne, Australia and Montpellier, South of France, specialising in French building materials and decorative products for architectural projects with a French provincial flair or a Mediterranean influence.

our range of wares includes, but is not limited to:

• Traditional stone fireplaces,
• French oak strip floor, parquet and parquetry panels (solid and engineered),
• French stones: limestone, granite, porphyry, pebbles...
• Custom made internal doors and monumental entrance doors,
• Double glazed casement windows
• Traditional door and window hardware (cremone and espagnolette)
• Anduze pots
• Mediterranean roof tiles

Our intentions with this blog is to keep you updated on our last jobs, and give you some design idea for your home, in the process promoting genuine traditional French style.