The discreet elegance of custom classic doors for Bucharest's interwar houses

The most beautiful houses in Bucharest are hidden away on the side streets. They sit sheltered from prying eyes — deliberately discreet. Their fascinating interiors reveal themselves only by special invitation.

In 2012, we received one such invitation. Daniel Băjenaru chose Kulttur for the bespoke doors in an unusual renovation project — an interwar villa in Bucharest, built between 1920 and 1930, which he had bought in the 1990s and was ready, after 15 years, to bring back to life. The project took 2 years, weekends included.

Daniel wanted tall, classic doors that would echo the house's original style. We love projects with unusual requirements — and the idea of designing doors 2.7 m tall with decorative routing for an interwar building under renovation set all our working systems in motion.

The house: an 800 sq m interwar villa, reclaimed through the courts

"The building is not a listed monument, but it was built in the interwar period (1920–1930), and I realised as far back as 25 years ago that it had a beautiful story in its day. The house had been nationalised and reclaimed through the courts by the owner along the line of inheritance. The property comprises 2 buildings — the main house and the secondary block that served the staff quarters. The floor area of the large house is nearly 800 metres. It has an inner courtyard set behind the house, a green space hidden from view, with parking spaces too. Seen from the front, it has only a single side facing the street and the house appears small. We like this level of discretion." — Daniel Băjenaru

Daniel's mission was twofold: to pay tribute to the building's classic style, while integrating all the benefits of modern technology. The house was to become an office space with a residential feel — a domestic environment of high professionalism, in the spirit of elegant classic European offices.

Structurally, the house had not a single crack. Good brickwork, a solid foundation — the kind of house with strong bones, as they say. The works began with resizing the electrical installation (additional sockets, professional lighting), redoing the plumbing and recreating the decorative plasterwork from scratch, inspired by the profiling of the exterior windows.

What impresses you as you enter the house is the skylight — a glass ceiling that receives direct light through a secondary pane fitted to the attic ceiling.

The art of classic doors: 25 bespoke doors, up to 2.7 m

Daniel wanted to preserve the house's style, but with modern features. Classic white doors with bespoke routing were essential elements — we are talking about heights of 2.7 m and openings up to 1.5 m wide for certain doors.

The original stained glass, recovered and reintegrated

At the entrance to the house, from the antechamber hall, you can see a set of double doors with stained glass. That stained glass is original, from the old house. We sent the old doors to the Wippro factory to extract the stained glass and integrate it into the new doors — a gesture of continuity that keeps the house's authenticity intact.

Daniel oversaw the concept for all 25 doors, starting from the bespoke panel-routing design and the thickness of the frames for that solid old-house look, paired with the ornamental cornices of the walls.

Gold-plated Linea Kali handles — our first project with the Italian manufacturer

An essential element for the doors' personality was the choice of handles. Daniel opted for classic Italian handles from Linea Kali, with a geometry similar to the doors' decorative routing and gold-plated for a noble accent.

The custom handles for Daniel's doors were our first project with Linea Kali. Since then, we have developed a close relationship with the Italian manufacturer, thanks to the quality of their products and services.

"Even though it sounds odd when I say the handles are gold-plated, the contrast between pure white and the colour of the handles is superb. To avoid straying into kitsch, we combined this style with complementary elements — take the wallpaper motifs: we have the fleur-de-lis, a regal element for the upper part, and beneath the decorative cornice we brought in a classic baroque pattern. That way we created a lofty style of aristocratic inspiration. I can say we combined expensive things, but also economical elements that look expensive — and the whole became greater than the sum of its parts." — Daniel Băjenaru

Technical specifications of the project

A room with roots: the fresco mural

In one of the rooms you can see a church-style fresco mural — a tree that grows and spreads across all the walls, with hollows and branches.

"For us it is both a working philosophy and a decorative element. We wanted to create a room entirely different from the rest of the house — and these are the roots we grow in this house. The mural was made by students from the faculty of arts, and the pieces were cast from plaster and painted." — Daniel Băjenaru

About Daniel Băjenaru

Daniel is a lawyer and a property entrepreneur — a discreet person, the man behind the scenes who makes things happen. He works daily at the firm's headquarters because he managed to turn the office space into one with a residential feel, comfortable and welcoming. Alongside him work another 20 people in individual law practices and related services — a network of professionals who collaborate on joint projects.

"The technical work was in the tall doors, including in preparing the site and in the fitting. To this day, the doors are still airtight, even though the project is more than 10 years old. I was lucky to work with the right people — I had all the support I needed, and that counts for a great deal. In the years since the first doors, we have reached our 7th project alongside Kulttur, and we will continue to turn to them for bespoke doors, flooring and windows." — Daniel Băjenaru