Want that model home feel? Focus on the detail.

Posted by: Ken Mariotti

Earlier this year our blog titled “Want that model home feel? Aim high”, suggested that the very act of creating taller windows and doors in your home increases the wow factor found in model homes. The desire to create that model home feel in your own home is a sentiment many homeowners express. Another design secret is the importance of detail.

Once a home’s style is determined, what makes that style come alive is attention to detail. It’s important that you take the time to select the windows, doors and other objects in your home beginning with three design principles.

Marvin Windows

Think about what you don’t see

Oftentimes design is about thing that you don’t add, rather than the material that you do create. In other words, good design requires you to consciously do less. I’m reminded of a couple that selected arched windows and then they proceeded to cover the beautiful design under lavish window coverings. It’s hard to design minimally because we feel that convention dictates otherwise. Try to resist the urge to over decorate. Remember less is more. Open space creates focal points.

Andersen A-Series

Refine to the finer details

Fine-tune a space, the elements, alignment or scale of your windows and doors with the size, shape and existing features in the room. Get the detail right by focusing on proportions and lines of sight. For example, window grills can be used discretely as design elements, rather than simply repeating the identical pattern throughout.

Borrow from what you see

Andersen Visualizer

Get inspired by studying spaces similar to the space in your home that you intend to remodel or build. Today, many manufacturers offer visual tools that allow you to be your own designer. Andersen provides a visualizer to select your trim and sash colors. Andersen Renewal products offers a visualizer that allows you to upload a photo of your home, replace your existing windows with Renewal windows to see the effect. Likewise, Simpson Door's visualizer lets you choose your home style and select from a variety of door styles and colors to create the look you want. It’s as though you have your own personal designer.

When you walk into a model home, you can be certain that professionals created that beautiful space. Becoming a professional at your craft means you’ve created a lot of bad work and made a lot of mistakes on your journey to becoming an expert. Build your skills by decorating less, creating focal points and experimenting.

If you want that model home feel focus on the details like a professional does. Visit our showroom to touch the products, see the colors in different lights and get advice from professionals who can help you avoid common mistakes.

Entry Doors - Victorian Era

Posted by: Ken Mariotti

Pinterest

What makes a house Victorian style? It’s describing Victorian era architecture in the period of Queen Victoria’s reign. The Victorian styles include Queen Anne, dominate from 1880-1910, Gothic Revival 1840-1880, Second Empire 1855-1885 and Italianate 1840-1885. You’re guaranteed to win a round of Trivia with this question.

It was common for American home styles to follow style trends from England, but what also accounts for an abundance of Victorian style homes in America was the building boom during the later nineteenth century.  Victorian homes were the first product of our Industrial Age after the Civil War when munitions factories were converted to make house parts. The factories mass-produced wood trim for the decorative trim, porches, gables, towers and dormers.

Although Victorians are largely made of wood, this was not always the case. In fact a large number of old Victorians around the Midwest are built with patterned brick and stone, which was the preference in urban neighborhoods.

DYINetwork.com

What are the characteristics of front entries during this period? Typically entry doors are rail-and-style wood construction with raised panels. Commonly they’re designed with two panels with the upper panel made of glass and decorative motifs. Four or six panel doors will combine flat and glass panels. Generally speaking these homes have a porch or a projecting pavilion above the entry door.

Wood or Fiberglass

Either material will be suitable to create the Victorian style entry door look, however wood is preferable. In most cases, the entry door is protected by a porch, which eliminates weather exposure concerns. Second, wood can finished to mimic the same carved moldings throughout the rest of a Victorian house. Expensive Fiberglass is an alternative that will give the look of wood, but it’s unlikely you can match the overall finishes to the home.

Finehomebuilding.com

A very real challenge that most homeowners face when selecting an entry door is translating their favorite style photos into an actual door that will give their home the look. Selecting just the right door for a Victorian style home presents this challenge in spades because Victorian is a stylistic hodgepodge of classical decorative elements – it’s expression is very individual. Bring photos into Woodland’s showroom and we’ll show you the door profile and glass options you can build from.

For example, a classic London Victorian will have twin glass panels in the four-panel door.  Jeld-Wen Custom Wood Glass Panel Collection or Simpson Door Selects Series offer the door profile to create this look. Or if you’re looking for a single large glass opening the Therma-Tru Fiberglass Classic Craft Canvas Collection is a good place to start.

Glass

Use your imagination and design away. Today the availability of glass options is as endless as the glass expressions you’ll see on Victorian style doors and windows. Large single panes of clear or etched glass, standalone or framed by square panes are universally liked.  Frequently you’ll see multi-paned clear glass or colored glass insets.  More elaborate use of glass includes stained glass or beveled glass designs in a variety of motifs’.  Check out Simpson Door for glass panel ideas.

London

Hardware

You’ll have no trouble finding an assortment of suitable hardware choices for your Victorian entry door. We suggest you make your entry door hardware traditionally conforming, yet unique. You can do this by observing the door hardware of yesteryear such as, an oversized knob centered on the door or an address etched in the glass above the door. The Victorian era was the romantic period – express yourself.