Architectural Salvage, South Wimbledon

I only knew this place existed because I drive past it on my way to Waitrose every week *middle class cliché*.  I'd always wanted to pop in and have a look around but hadn't had a reason to really, until, with the bathroom complete (pictures to come!), I finally turned my attentions to the next thing on my To-Do-In-The-Flat list.

Which is... putting a door on the kitchen. There's no door to my kitchen or my living room (I actually think the living room door was repurposed as the wardrobe door in my bedroom, but I'll never know for sure) and although I quite like the open nature of it, there's one problem. He's ginger and a bit overweight and thinks the absolute BEST thing that anyone, feline or human, can do at 4am is thunder up and down my long hallway chasing shadows. Or silver balls.

While I'm always pleased to see Percy get some exercise, I wish he didn't choose the middle of the night for his marathon training. I feel for my downstairs neighbours, and, more importantly, myself. I therefore have to create an assault course in the hall every night before I go to bed - consisting of two artfully angled chairs and a clothes drying rack - so that his race track is more of a hurdle track and his footfall is quieter.

But it's really annoying when I need the loo in the middle of the night. Or a glass of water or whatever... And so I decided that a door to the kitchen would be the solution, so I can lock him in the kitchen at night, and hopefully encourage him to run around outside instead.

As it's at the back, the kitchen is also the coldest part of the flat, so it makes sense to close it off during the delightful snowy winters that now seem to come as standard.

But obviously, I am in need of a door. Hence my trip to Architectural Salvage last month. It turned out to be a treasure trove of delights and made me wish I was doing up a place from scratch with a bottomless budget. As with all salvage yards, space was tight and things were piled on top of each other. You really would need to have a good rummage around if you were looking for something specific.

But to give you an idea, here are some quick pictures I took - I only had my iPhone so apologies for the quality.

And finally, what I came for - one section of the shop is entirely full of reclaimed DOORS. Of all sizes and descriptions. There were some beautiful front doors on offer too.

In typical blonde fashion, I hadn't, er, measured the exact dimensions for my new door so I couldn't buy anything there and then but the owner told me that most of the internal doors were about £60. I believe this makes them a bargain and so I'll definitely be back once the carpenter is booked in.

The shop doesn't have a website, but the address is 83 Haydon's Road,  London SW19 1HH, in case you fancy popping by yourself.

2015 update: sad times! The shop seems to have shut down - and the site has been converted back into a house... will try to find out if it's moved location or gone for good.