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by Rachel Lyon, Editorial Director for The House Designers®
Are you still looking for the front door of your dreams? Do you want to set the tone for your façade, but perhaps you’re worried about complementing it well or maintaining your desired level of privacy? Check out these chic new entry options that broaden the possibilities as they simplify the process! You’ll love checking out fresh takes on doors for popular architectural styles, and you may just find the perfect solution for your home.
The Perfect Door Style
Doors aren’t just simple doors anymore—you’ll find so many beautiful and unique options to suit different architectural styles and personal tastes. So, tailor your front entry like an extension of your design! The possibilities expanded again this year with the introduction of Therma-Tru® Doors’ Elevate 2019 products, which fall into three main trend categories—Humble Roots, Confident Focus, and Timeless Twist—to serve a wide variety of homes.
Each trend category offers plenty of opportunities to customize, and they focus on complementing the most popular residential styles. Humble Roots, with its relaxed, Shaker-style options, works well for Craftsman homes, farmhouses, and other designs on the more rustic side. For modern homes that require a bold touch, the range of striking Confident Focus looks allow you to impart just the right amount of contemporary flair. If you’re shopping for any kind of traditional house—including colonial, European, and neat cottage styles—you’ll love the Timeless Twist category with its emphasis on chic, clean elegance. Whether you want to keep it subtle or make the entry the clear focal point of your façade, you’ll find a door build that delivers. And you can complete it with the perfect wood-look or painted finish and decorative or privacy glass to make it your own!
Glass That Works for You
Adding glass to an entry beautifies a home inside and out. It provides a decorative element as well as brightening the foyer and creating a welcoming vibe for those arriving home after dark. Take stock of your door opening and surroundings to decide if you want a doorlite, sidelite(s), and/or a transom window, and how large each glass element should be. You can stay classic with framed glass, but there’s also flush glazed glass that offers wider expanses with clean modern edges and better energy efficiency because it’s built right into the door. Look at all the options, though—you’ll find triple paned, impact-rated, low-E, and other special glass features to suit your practical needs.
Glass has to work with lite space—that’s why some decorative patterns aren’t available in some doors. If it comes down to it, you’ll have to decide what’s more important. Privacy glasses, with their visually obscuring textures and lack of patterns, adapt particularly well to divided lite designs. Use the Decorative & Specialty Glass page to acquaint yourself with the possibilities; check out the available glass shapes or view matching products to see how each specific type of glass can be implemented in an entry system. Plenty of beautiful and viable options await!
A Fitting Surround to Complete the Picture
Consider further defining your front door with a complementary surround. Door surrounds are comprised of two pilasters on the sides and a crosshead on top, all of which fully encompass the sidelight(s) and transom, too. They come in numerous widths and styles to enhance curb appeal in just the right way for each case. While you may think they’re primarily meant for rustic and traditional architecture, there definitely are contemporary renditions to give these homes the same desirable pop of definition.
They may seem relatively simple at first glance, but door surrounds come in all sorts of looks. Perhaps you want a flat or woodgrain surface? Plain or fluted pilasters? Keystone or endcap details? To paint or stain it to your exact liking? The choices are yours! Treat the surround as a way to tie your entry to the rest of your home’s design, and don’t forget that you can use it to define the door on both sides of the threshold.
If you’re ready to give your home an elevated entry with refreshed style, take a look at all the new products that Therma-Tru® Doors introduced in spring, 2019! There are tons of updated doors in multiple collections, privacy glass and divided lite options, surrounds for every type of architecture, and even internal blinds for full lite, flush-glazed Smooth-Star® doors. Find a local dealer to help outfit your home to its fullest potential!