Entry Doors and Patio Doors
Historically doors were only viewed as a necessity to come and go and were manufactured out of wood. Even 10-15 years ago, the front door was a simple slab in a standard size, maybe incorporating a small window. Today, the front door is often the main focal point to the façade of a house. An entry door replacement can quickly elevate your curb appeal. Exterior doors can still be made of wood, but now there are options in metal, vinyl and fiberglass. Each product comes with a list of finishes that can be applied to the surface during manufacturing, allowing for gradations of wood tones, black, gray and options of white.
Fiberglass is a popular material to use for entry doors. It can give you the look of traditional wood or something cleaner and more modern, with a lighter weight and longer lasting product. Fiberglass can be painted the most successfully to blend with your house colors or to give you
that standout pop of color!
The evolution of glass selections now allows a wide variety of sun control and privacy levels, opening up many design possibilities.
Twenty year Pella sales representative JJ Arens says that, for most customers, the goal is now to merge outdoor and indoor spaces by creating seamless walls of glass slides and large open windows with fewer details that break up the view. “Another big change is that we now see larger openings of a patio door wall with bigger panels to get a wider opening to walk freely.”
More current technology in fiberglass allows the frame profiles to get thinner and the ways to move and store the glass panels smoother and easier. “Energy efficiency is still a driving factor,” JJ says. “We still want function, aesthetics, and better efficiency wrapped into one. The technology of the glass itself has advanced exponentially, and the energy and sound rating levels of our doors and windows have evolved through the years with the addition of available coatings, argons, and thermal units that drive superior efficiency and hit that star energy rating criteria.”
Windows
“All the material evolutions in our front doors and patio doors have affected the design and creation of our windows,” JJ explains. “Our customers want larger open panes of glass, efficient opening and closing hardware, and high efficiency ratings.” Charming French styles, more traditional, and modern rustic styles can be achieved in much more efficient ways, while thinner frames and stronger materials allow larger spans of glass with clean lines of a modern, contemporary look.
On the exterior face of a home’s windows, alternatives to wood have become available as color tastes have evolved. The warm look of wood, which accents so many traditional styles of American houses, can still be appreciated. Early vinyl was most often white, or homeowners painted their wood white to give the windows and doors a crisp, clean look. Now, a wide variety of color tones can be used to accent the house color, allowing the windows to blend more seamlessly. Currently there is a trend toward bronze and black exterior frames, contrasting to lighter house colors for a more modern yet ageless look.
Today we can choose windows that have longer lasting materials for the outside, like fiberglass and vinyl, while being clad with wood on the inside to either stain or paint. When selecting metal framed windows, the color options are vast.
On the inside, advances in technology make it easy for house designs to include longer panels of glass, often incorporating angles that match the pitch of the roof. As the home design industry moves toward cleaner and more contemporary lines, we are seeing less curved arches.
Visit Our Showroom
Pella’s newly updated showroom at 26th Street and Homefield Drive (right across from Lowes) in Sioux Falls covers the Sioux Falls, Sioux City, and surrounding areas. “Pella has always been, and always will be, people focused,” JJ says. “We love helping people find what’s exactly right for them and their home.”
