I started walking around my local area during the first lockdown to maintain my step count whilst on furlough. I live in Gipsy Hill and after studying trusty Google maps, I devised a few different routes I could do to vary my walks.
After a few weeks I started to notice not only the beautiful houses around Dulwich and the rainbow drawings people placed in their windows, but the incredible doors. I decided that I’d try and find one door for each colour of the rainbow for my personal Instagram account, which my friends really loved! As time went on and I started to work from home, my walking routes broadened and the pretty doors kept coming, I thought I’d experiment with a specific account to showcase doors I’d seen on my walks.
That was October 2020, and since then I’ve take approximately 2000 images of doors around Dulwich, Gipsy Hill, Crystal Palace, Peckham and Herne Hill. I love architecture, interiors and renovation accounts on Instagram so @doorsofdulwich fits into this area quite nicely, gaining 1000 followers to date. One of my followers is a renovation account who help people create their own beautiful bespoke doors, and I often help them with research imagery and moodboards. They know if they have a customer interested in a specific colour door, I’ll have loads of examples to share for inspiration!
I love colour, so my account is usually full of doors that are eye catching and bright. However It’s interesting to see that some of my most popular posts are pastel tones of green!
My absolute favourite door is bright yellow with multicoloured stained glass. It’s got lots of steps leading up to it and a beautiful garden. It’s my profile picture on my account and I still think it’s really special when I walk past!
There is also a really unusual yellow/green door with ornate carvings that is another favourite. I walk past fairly regularly and if the weather is sunny, it’s neon yellow and if it’s cloudy it’s lime green! How fabulous to have a colour changing door!
Pink is my favourite colour, so I’m always most excited when I see a pink door. My favourite is in East Dulwich, and is on a house that’s currently being renovated. It had been a bit neglected in the past, so I was thrilled to see that someone had bought it and it was getting the love it needed. It looks to me that one of the first things the new owners did was paint the door pink - so obviously I love it!
Im currently still working from home and enjoying my walks around Dulwich and beyond, so I’m always gathering content for @doorsofdulwich. I love it when people try and guess the streets or send me messages of where their favourite doors are. To date, I have had two people message me to tell me I’ve featured their door and they felt famous!
So if you see a tall red head (likely to be wearing something leopard!) snapping your door on her phone - it’s likely to be me!
Fave Roads:
Rosendale Rd, West Dulwich
Stradella Rd, Herne Hill
Carver Rd, Herne Hill
Turney Rd, Dulwich
Carson Rd, West Dulwich
Eyenella Rd, East Dulwich
Follow me on Instagram @doorsofdulwich.
