What began as a personal expedition to satisfy Shanahan’s curiosity and remodel his family’s new Spanish home soon unfolded into a business idea.
“We did up our own place and found how difficult it was to get a hold of this stuff. We said, ‘How do you get a hold of this? Well, let’s find out,’” he says. “It just grew. We realized people want this stuff, we’re stumbling on it – hang on a second, we could make a living on it!”
And so the stockbroker became the door broker. He found loads of talent, although only a handful was commercially viable. One man, for instance, crafted beautiful hope chests with drawers, but he could only make one per year.
The couple debuted their fledgling business, The Spanish Door, at a trade show in England with six doors. They had no idea what to expect, but “the crowd went wild,” Shanahan says.
British architects “flipped out” over the intricacy of those doors, because they not only looked like they had been painstakingly crafted in a Spanish village – they had been. One reminded them of Mediterranean leaves and the great Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s style. Word spread, and designers flocked to the booth. That’s when Siobhán, who had been busy raising the couple’s young son and teaching English, officially entered the business.