Entry Doors - The Traditional Classic

Posted by: Ken Mariotti

Colonial - Homeguides.sfgate.com

What’s the right entry door for a traditional style house? It depends on which traditional style house you live in or plan to build. Traditional style means long established or customary and is the most common style in our area. Traditional is a broad term compromising many styles including Federal, Gothic Revival or Queen Anne.

When we describe a home as traditional we’re often referring to either a common style historically prevalent in our region, such as Colonial, Georgian or Cape Cod, or likewise, we may be referring to the specific classic features such as symmetrical windows, Greek shapes or a portico. What’s common to this type of home is that it has a timeless design with historical roots.

When shopping for an entry door for your traditional style home, it’s important to be clear about which style you’re trying to capture. Since most traditional home entries feature a decorative surround, focus on selecting a door to compliment and illuminate that feature of the home.

Balanced Symmetry

French Revival -Jefferybrianfisher.com

When planning a traditional front entry pay special attention to how you’ll create symmetry. Will you have plants, glass, lights, ornamental trim or some other artifact adorning either side of the entry door? The door needs to appear balanced with each element carefully placed and scaled to match the rest of your home’s exterior.

Six-panel - Pinterest

Solid Door

The most common traditional door style is made of wood with rail-and-stile construction with raised panels. Panels are quite suitable to Colonial, Federal, Cape Cod or Georgian styles. If you’re designing a French or Spanish Revival you’ll want to consider plank door styles, which elongates and simplifies the lines of the door. The tongue-and-groove look emulates plank doors, but usually is built using rail-and-stile to ensure greater performance. Victorian, Queen Anne or Ranch home styles often use a French or flat-slab door.

Transom and Sidelites

Victorian - Therma-Tru Doors

Bring light into the entry hall by adding a transom above or sidelites flanking the door. Glazing, the glass, should match your home’s windows. Let’s say that your grid pattern is a colonial style traditional. It’s likely six-panes of glass, separated by muntins in both the top and bottom window panels. Your transom would also have six-panes of glass with muntins and your sidelite divided glass panes would each match the size of one of the window panes. If you have Victorian style windows you can repeat the diamond-patterned grids.

Just because you have a traditional style home doesn’t mean your entry door is the same as every other traditional entry door. Using this traditional style guide you can create your own look from our manufacturer’s traditional style doors: Therma-Tru, Jeld-Wen, Simpson, Andersen, and Marvin.

Entry Doors - The Contemporary Look

Posted by: Ken Mariotti

Marvin Website

You say modern, I say contemporary and some say industrial to describe today’s contemporary home style. Contemporary means todays style and todays style is indeed a cross of modern and industrial, so we’re all right.

If you’re building a contemporary style home or remodeling your existing home and want an up to date look, remember the entry door is a key element of the design. The right contemporary door screams, look at me, I stand out from the crowd.

The contemporary look strives to connect the indoor and outdoor spaces, so it’s common to use glass, tall or wider openings for the entry door design. Modern and industrial style eliminates ornamentation or excessive detailing, so that doors without panels and are likely to be flush with plain facings on both the inside and outside door frames. This bold simplicity can be achieved in multiple ways by following some simple principles of contemporary door design.

Jeld Wen Pivot Door

Taller and Wider

Contemporary entry doors are commonly taller and wider than ordinary doors, creating a sleek profile that seamlessly blends into the home’s design. An example of these sleek profiles are pivot door systems like the Jeld Wen example shown in the photo. These doors are designed to handle the weight of taller and wider entry doors. The weight of the door is carried at the top and bottom rather than on traditional hinged jambs. The effect of what appears to be a floating door is dramatic. The taller and wider effect is also achieved using overhead transoms and sidelites.

Thinner Profiles

Hue Interiors Translucent Glass

Strong clean lines define the sash, casings or trim giving the door a crisp look. Today’s French entry doors, by Marvin and Andersen offer thinner profiles and contemporary finishes. Contemporary homes are designed to connect the outdoors with the indoors by using fewer interior walls to create uninterrupted views. Designers frequently specify glass doors in order to optimize the views and connections between the interior and exterior. For privacy, consider translucent glass such as textured or frosted to still allow natural light into your home.

Koch Interiors Industrial Design

Industrial Design

Mixing materials like wood, aluminum, steel, utility hardware and color to create an industrial design can create a powerful look. For instance, use an aluminum frame with a wood or painted steel door to create contrast. Or use industrial grade hardware to make a bold statement. Industrial design is the art and craft of selecting products and systems that optimize function, value and appearance – it’s key to achieving the look of a contemporary style entry door.

When you’re ready to remodel or build your contemporary style home, Woodland can help you create the look without breaking the budget. Bring your dream and we’ll show you how to achieve it.

Bring the Outdoors In on a Budget

Posted by: Ken Mariotti

Today’s major trend in home building and remodeling are home designs that connect the outdoors with the indoor. These new wide-span doors from Marvin, Andersen, and others, create expansive openings, while engineered to slide easily and make a perfect seamless connection between the indoors and outdoors. A traditional slider can be up to 10 foot wide, while these doors can be up to 16 feet wide. The design significantly opens the view and allows for natural ventilation into your home.

Marvin Integrity Sliding Doors

These beautifully designed and engineered doors can take a big bite out of your budget. Before you rule out creating oversized openings between your home and the outside, consider other alternatives that will give you essentially the same result for a smaller investment.

Creating oversized door openings and expansive window walls can be achieved on a budget by using standard sized windows and doors put together in a modular way to achieve the look you want. Depending on the overall size you need, your options for creating the look you want are limitless.

Sliding patio doors have evolved and can now be selected in one-two-or three panel doors, up to eight feet tall, creating a wide opening. Add sidelights or a transom to expand your views even more. You can also use multiple sliding doors side by side to open the space even wider. Sliding patio doors can be very versatile system if designed where immense areas of glass are desirable.

French doors are a classic favorite that adds architectural detail to any space. Although these hinged doors require less wall space than sliding doors, if they are in-swing doors you’ll need to plan your furniture arrangement to accommodate them. The pair of doors are typically about six feet wide, although you can pair the doors with sidelights and even place two sets of French doors side by side to fill an entire wall.

Andersen 100 Series Sliding Doors

The French slider has the appearance of a classic French door with wider stiles and rails, while functioning as a sliding glass door. It’s a nice hybrid between the sliding patio door and the French hinged door. Typically, French sliders have four panels, two of which remain stationary. When closed, the center panels look like a pair of French doors – a classically beautiful look.

Sidelights, Transoms and Awnings can be mixed and matched with sliding, French doors, or French sliders to create an expansive opening. Traditionally, sidelights were narrow picture windows, which were more decorative than functional. Transoms over interior and exterior doors adorned old homes. Awnings were used, prior to air conditioning to ventilate a home. In the 1950’s when ceilings were lowered these functional windows largely disappeared from home designs. Today, these styles are making a comeback to ventilate spaces, as modern homes are built with higher ceilings, large glass windows and glass doors.

Andersen French Doors

The new expansive doors that connect the outdoors with the indoor are magnificent – lift and slides create an uninterrupted wall of glass – spanning 16 feet tall, which disappears into a wall. Folding glass doors achieve a similar look but don’t require pockets in an adjacent wall. Or Pivot doors that swing open to a perfect 90º are all the rage because of their architectural beauty. Now you can create the same look on your budget with a little imagination.

Marvin, Andersen, Pella and other Woodlandselected window and door manufacturers offer unlimited choices to create oversized openings – you dream and we’ll help you put the components together to bring the outside in.

Traditional Homes Mix With Modern Building Materials

Post by: Ken Mariotti

Source: dailyhomedecorideas.com

Some of the most beautiful neighborhoods around Chicago and its suburbs are the old tree lined streets of traditional homes. Famous for it’s historic architecture Chicago reflects the best of classic homes through the years. Prairie, craftsman, Victorian, farmhouse, brick row houses, limestone mansions – we’ve got it all. If you love the traditional styles that have defined our beautiful area, but want modern functionality – learn how you can mix traditional styles with modern products.

The benefits of remodeling or building a new home using modern windows, skylights, doors, siding, sunrooms and other building products are quite simple; ease of use, better performance, lower utility costs and less maintenance.

Ease of use and better performance

Today’s products are produced using new technologies that make life easier. For example, built in and auto controlled window treatments can be preset to open and close at optimal times. They are simple to use, while maximizing daylight and minimizing unwanted heat gain or loss. There are multi-point door locking systems that engage automatically when the door is closed.

Lower utility costs

Without argument, low E dual and triple pane insulated glass lowers costs over the length of owning your home. Other improvements like insulated oversized glass, gives you more natural daylight to keep your home warm and reduces your need for electric lighting. Modern skylights with special coatings and ventilation are now built in new forms that can direct light and control ventilation in a room.

Source: Velux

Less maintenance

Whether you purchase natural wood windows or synthetic vinyl windows, more than ever before, today’s finishes have a higher resiliency to weathering, mold or mildew. Modern windows tilt inward for easy cleaning and offer water spot resistant surfaces for skylights and hard to reach picture or awning windows.

Traditional exterior and transitional interior

One way to combine the desire for a traditional home with an equal desire to use modern materials is by blending classic style with a few contemporary elements. Keep the traditional exterior façade, while using more contemporary materials for the interior. For example you can choose that classic red brick Georgian exterior and add more windows and glass patio doors, rather than the traditional small and sparse windows. Select traditional brick moldings made of low maintenance composites or vinyl around the windows, rather than the higher maintenance wood choice.

Source: Marvin

The interior can be less traditional with an open floor plan that invites in more natural light. Create entire window walls without completely violating the traditional style of your home by using multiple French doors with glass transoms for a floor to ceiling light wall. Modern folding doors are an alternative if selected in dark hardwoods for a more traditional look. And replacing stationary transoms with remote controlled awnings will help ventilate your home creating cross breezes that will cut down on energy consumption.

You can enjoy the easy living that comes with an energy efficient and low maintenance home and have the everlasting beauty of a traditional home. Woodland offers a broad selection of styles for windows, doors, siding and sunrooms with state-of-the-art products from major manufacturers like Marvin, Andersen, Pella and Velux. Let us help you create a traditional look using modern materials.