Few elements of a house and home are more important than the windows – not only the ‘eyes’ of the house from an architectural point of view, but they’re also the parts that let light and air, not to mention views of the world, in. The style of windows can define or complement the appearance and style of a building, or they can severely detract from it.
And doors are the first focal point visitors to your house will see and often the first part they will interact with. The front door is one of the focal points of a house design, and like the windows, it has to be a style that’s appropriate and sympathetic to the rest of the house’s overall design and specific details. Few things prevent a newly built or renovated house from looking its best than inappropriate window and door styles, and the wrong sort can render the most expensive home looking awkward or cheap.
The latest window and door designs can combine visual appeal, a choice of styles, security and energy efficiency, as well as maintaining the timeless connections between your home and the rest of the world.
Fashionable Frames
Contemporary windows and doors tend towards a sleek, minimalist style. For windows, this means slim frames and large panes of glass per frame – this means few or zero pane bars (also called muntins), which divide the total glass area into smaller panes on older styles. Frames on opening windows are usually flush, continuing the trend of sleek and simple shapes. Aluminum frames are back in fashion now, having been popular in past decades but once relegated to functional commercial and industrial buildings. Modern aluminum window frames for houses have thermal breaks so they don’t have the older versions’ problems with heat loss and drafts, and they can be produced in almost any color although dark neutral shades like black, grey and navy blue are the most fashionable.
Of course, if updating an existing building, you will be somewhat limited in the size of windows by the existing openings, but if you’re building new or carrying out more major work, then the trend is for the windows to be as large as possible – ‘indoor/outdoor’ living is the fashion, where large windows and folding doors blur the line between the indoor and outdoor spaces. Modern window materials and technology allow for this without the results being heavy or shedding huge amounts of heat.
In the world of doors, the fashion for simple designs presents as simple designs, often without built-in windows. Where windows are fitted, they will follow the same styles as discussed above. Natural materials are favoured, with varnished or sanded wood textures being popular. Wooden doors usually leave the seams between the different parts visible, and those parts are simple flush-fit ‘planks’ rather than more ornate mouldings and rails.
Smart Shades
Technology doesn’t just apply to the materials used in conventional doors and windows – the smart home revolution has reached here as well. Switchable glass can go from opaque to transparent at the touch of a button, allowing privacy and reducing glare without the need for shades or curtains. These functions can be integrated with a wider smart home system, switching window modes depending on the weather, time of day, or whether anyone’s home.
And there’s the growing awareness of environmental sustainability and the pinch of rising energy costs. It’s not just double glazing and thermal breaks that can help here. Triple glazing is now available (also great for combatting traffic noise in urban areas), and glass with Low-E coatings, where a microscopic layer of thermally resistant material (usually silver) is applied to the glass, allowing only 5% of the heat through that a standard pane would. This keeps heat in when the outside is cold and stops heat beating in on sunny days.
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