Choosing a Panelled Door

We split all of our doors into two categories: frame and panel doors. These names refer to the manufacturing method of the unit. For panel doors: these are constructed from a single door panel. Spyholes, letterboxes and small glass cut-outs can be made in a few different shapes to add features to the design.

The basis of a panel door

The base to any panel door is a flat, coloured door leaf without any glass or details included. This often looks very commercial, so most homeowners choose to at least and a groove pattern. The go-to option is vertical grooves to be in-keeping with a traditional cottage timber door, but many bespoke options are available.

Grooves are available to have both inside and outside, and they are purely an aesthetic design – they don’t affect the construction.

Glazed cutouts

Next, it’s often worthwhile having some form of glass in the door, especially if it is to be used as a main entrance. As standard, the glass is triple glazed, toughened and laminated for great insulation and security. Satin glass is also an option if you need to let light through, but prefer to have privacy glass in the door.

As a general rule, square and rectangular cut-outs are the most cost effective.

Basic combinations

The same glass design can be used in combination with any groove design. So, if you see an example of something close, but not quite what you have in mind, please do ask for us to make an adjustment.

Unfortunately, there are size limitations to the glass cut-out we can make. We apologise if the exact glass shape you like isn’t possible to make – the manufacturing constraints are in place to make sure the structural integrity and long-term performance of each door is not compromised.

Adding More Interesting Glass Elements

Curved glass cut-outs and more bespoke designs are available at extra cost.

Please do bear in mind that the one of the most expensive ways of making a glass unit is to produce a curve!

A lot of customers choose to save money in the design department and gain practical items such as an insulated letterbox and a spyhole.

Finishing touches

All ironmongery is designed to have the same satin chrome finish. So handles, locks, hinges and optional extras all contribute to a consistent design language.

If you ask for a letterbox, a spyhole or an additional lock for extra security, the finish of each item will match with the rest.

On some products, automatic locks are available at extra cost. And, whilst our factories do not directly supply electronic keypads or finger-print reader, our doors can be factory-prepared to suit such a system.

A range of posibilities

All our factories use the RAL Classic range for their water-based paints and powder-coats. On a panel door, the outer frame and the opening leaf can be any RAL Classic colour inside and out.

Most manufacturers display a reduced range of RAL colours that incur no extra cost. Be sure to ask a standard colour chart if you would like to keep within the manufacturer’s preferred colour set.