Taos Door And Hardware Company was formed in 1989 by Peter Barlow. Pete is an artist in every sense of the word. He excels at sketching concepts and turning them into reality. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in the showroom, Peter will work with you to come up with the perfect custom design. Pete is good at communicating with people. He can figure out what you want and draw it to scale on paper. He can look at a building and know what works, or interpret an idea from an individual’s words and build it to their expectations.

Peter arrived in Taos, New Mexico in 1977 at the age of 23. He grew up in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. Peter says he learned how to work on his parent’s dairy farm. “I knew I wanted to be a carpenter when I was twelve years old,” he recalls. “It was either that or a dairy farmer. I remember when my parents had an entryway done, and I thought, ‘this is fun’. You can take boards and make anything you want.”

Peter’s innate ability to figure out what his clients want begins and ends with patient listening. He starts by trying to pull from the customer’s tastes and desires, in the end creating a true collaboration between designer and client. “It’s always helpful, but not necessary if the client has a picture from a magazine or the door they are thinking of. I prefer to make heavy old world looking doors, up to 3” thick. I don’t like to copy another door company’s designs, or make the light duty 3/4” thick tongue and groove paneled doors. I prefer to work with original designs.”