



This is an entrance door from the Karavodin house in Odesa, Ukraine. A ballistic missile struck behind the building, and the blast wave slightly distorted the frame and both leaves.



The damage did not look dramatic, but for old joinery a few millimeters are enough. The door stopped closing properly, the joints were under stress, and the hardware no longer sat where it should.



At the Thousands of Doors workshop, we stripped the paint layers, repaired the timber, reinforced the structure, and corrected the geometry so the leaves could move properly again.



The capital on the meeting stile had been lost before the restoration. We recreated it so the vertical composition of the door made sense again. The brass handle was selected to match the period, and the lower brass plates were fixed with brass screws.



The door also had to remain practical for daily use. We added a modern closer, installed a narrow electric bolt lock as discreetly as possible, and restored the traditional flush bolts on the inactive leaf.



This is the kind of restoration work we deal with in wartime Odesa: damaged geometry, old paint, weakened joints, missing details, and a door that still has to serve residents every day.



>Thousands of Doors restores historic doors in Odesa during the war. Support for the workshop helps keep this work going.

Restoring an 1890 Odesa entrance door after blast-wave distortion