French doors are stylish, beautiful, and can serve many different purposes in your Toronto home. They can be used as exterior doors for your patio or deck, or used inside to separate one room from another. Many details need to be considered before you decide to install French doors, and some may be less obvious than others. Here are a few things to think about.
There are a multitude of places throughout your Toronto home where French doors can be both beautiful and serviceable. For example, you may want to use a pair to separate your dining room from your living room or family room. This will come in handy for the holidays, when you need to extend your available dining space for all of your loved ones.
Places in your home where French doors might be a nice addition would include…
- Patio Doors
- Balcony Doors
- Dining Room Doors
- Bedroom Doors
Each possible use for French doors comes with the opportunity to add beauty and style to your home. The more obvious choices would be as patio doors or as a partition between rooms, as mentioned before. However, French doors onto the balcony from your master bedroom can add a whole new dimension of beauty and romance to your sleeping quarters. And it doesn’t matter if you have an interior or exterior balcony.
An upstairs deck can be accessed from a variety of places on the second floor, and each of those locations may be a good place for French doors. Besides separating your dining room and family room, French doors could just as easily separate your home office from your den, or children’s play room, and offer a good view of what your kids are up to.
French doors with curtains look very sophisticated as bedroom doors, and make it a lot easier to get the larger furnishings into and out of a room when necessary. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to wiggle a big, heavy couch through a standard width bedroom door, but let me assure you, it is nothing I would ever do for recreation.
Almost anywhere in and around your home is a potential spot for French doors, and there are other possibilities that haven’t even been mentioned. But deciding if French doors are a good idea for your Toronto home really comes down to a couple of important factors.
Do You Have What it Takes?
So what factors should ultimately affect your French door decision? That’s a good question, but let’s start with a simpler one. What makes a good French door?
French doors are constructed in basically the same way as any other, except sliding patio doors. They can be made of wood or a combination of wood and metal. They can have large areas of glass, either in small gridded windows or large panes. They can be designed to open individually or swing free at the same time with one turn of the knob. Their thermal properties will vary as greatly as their designs and construction, so some models will be better suited for use as exterior doors than others.
Safety and security should be a main deciding factor when choosing your French doors, because doors of this type can sometimes be more tempting for would-be home invaders. All those little panes of glass can look like an open invitation to break one small pane, reach inside and open the door, gaining access to your home. Make sure your home’s overall security profile is up to snuff before adding French doors to the equation.
Also consider the effect weather will have on both the doors and your home. The right French doors, with the correct thermal properties, can actually help to reduce your heating and cooling costs, so spending a few extra dollars now might save you money in the long run. Energy Star reports that the right exterior doors and windows on your home can reduce energy costs by as much as 15 percent, so that is definitely something to consider.
Safety needs to be addressed here as well. Do you have small children that don’t need to wander off unattended? Remember, French doors, especially with the decorative lever style handles, are much easier to open for a toddler than the standard, heavy sliding glass door. Slightly older children, especially the rambunctious boy types, will eventually figure out that it can be a lot of fun to swing from the doors, so they had best be sturdy.
The Real Question
Now, to get back to our original question, what factors should ultimately decide whether or not to put French doors in your Toronto home? Most people would think price is the number one thing to consider, but with so many other factors to keep in mind, this may not be the case for you. You may be able to afford the most expensive French doors available on the market, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are the right doors for your home, or that you need to spend that much on them.
Keep in mind, first, what your French doors will be used for, where they will be situated, and how you expect them to function. Decide if they will add to the look and value of your home. Think about how they will affect your energy costs, and whether or not they pose any kind of risk to the security of your house, or the safety of small children. Look carefully at the styles that you have to choose from, and narrow the field by remembering what the French doors will be used for.
The bottom line is, only you can decide if French doors are a good fit for your Toronto home, and you really do have a lot of things to think about before making that decision. But if you decide French doors are right for you, call Toronto Doors and Windows today. We’ll be happy to help.
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