Different Styles of French Doors

The decision to opt in favor of installing french doors is one you make only after you’re fully apprised of all the style choices that are available to you. The thing about french doors Denver is that you have a vast selection with respect to window styles, types of glass, door materials, and of course, the color, and size of the door you plan to install.

There are many different styles that are available to fit just about any size door opening. You can even have custom sizes created for those specific measurements that are often reserved for older homes.

French Door Configuration and Functionality

French doors are easy to recognize from their configuration. They are typically installed as a pair of doors that either swing out from or swing into the room where they have been placed. You can also find french doors that slide to and fro on a track, much like you might expect from a normal sliding glass door.

Due to the fact that french doors are placed two aside and they open and shut together, you are usually afforded a much larger doorway through which to enter and exit a room or even the home to a deck or patio outdoors.

French doors that operate on hinges are the most traditional and you can find them installed in many areas throughout the home. Some homeowners like to have them placed in between two rooms for interior use, some will install them as a way to enter and exit the home in an exterior fashion.

Sliding versions are a little less common but they are no less useful as a way to beautify any entryway of the home either indoors or out. But while sliding french doors offer the same large, expansive entry through the doorway in which they are installed for a modern, contemporary aesthetic, some homeowners don’t like having the track laid across the point of egress through the doorway.

Sometimes you might even find french doors installed in a closet or storage area where you want some visibility inside.

French Door Style Options

Purchasing the right french doors leaves you with a myriad of options in terms of design choices. Since french doors are comprised of a significant amount of glass within the frames, many homeowners will utilize these types of doors as a way to bring more natural light into the room where they are installed.

But you do have some decisions to make as to personal preference, you can go with doors that contain flat panes of glass with or without grills. There are also the choices to go with lite in half or three-quarter view choices, so more light gets into the room while maintaining some level of privacy from the outside world.

You have many choices as to the number of lights you can have installed in the door, with as few as one lite to as many as 12. Again, this will all depend on how much light you want to filter in the room while trying to keep some level of privacy.

The glass can also be frosted, which might diffuse your lighting and minimize your view through the doors but it does bring an increase in your privacy for the room where they are installed. This might be of greater importance should you decide to use the doors along the exterior of the home.

When it comes to sizes, your options are even more wide-ranging. Check out any hardware store website and you’ll find doors in all manners of sizes and shapes. Many standard french doors can be as small as one foot and six inches with subsequent sizes increasing to as much as three feet wide. Some doors can even reach six to eight feet.

But those of you who live in older homes with architectural styles that lend themselves to putting an emphasis on strange or uncommon door sizes can find manufacturers who are all too happy to create custom sizes in order to accommodate those openings.

French doors that are being used for deck or patio access can come with one inoperable panel so that just one of the doors physically opens and shuts and the other one remains intact yet matches the same aesthetic of the panel that is functional.

Security is also something to keep in mind with french doors that are being used outdoors, though some homeowners may want to keep valuables under lock and key behind indoor french doors as well. In either case, many french doors come with special security measures such as three-point locking systems and other hardware that fortifies your doors for complete security, despite the use of glass that might be easier to shatter.