French Doors - How They Came To Be

Nearly any home can benefit from the addition of French doors because of the added light and beauty that they bring. You will hear realtors talk about curb appeal and that is something that French doors definitely bring to home. Opening up onto a patio and making a smooth transition from the outdoors to the indoors or opening up between two rooms to make your home seem more spacious is something that the doors do well. Modern designers have found a number of new uses for these functional works of art and today we will look at some of those as well as a bit of a history behind French doors and materials that can be used in their construction today.

The French door actually began its life as a window. The Renaissance period in France is believed to be when the window began to change into the French door. Initially the window grew down to meet the floor and was normally seen on second floors of homes. The evolution then turned towards extending these doors upwards and converting them into doors. Strongly resembling the windows from which they originated these early doors contained individual pieces of glass separated by wooden dividers. Using the number pieces of glass in the door as a naming convention, a door with 8 pieces of glass would be called an 8 lite French door.

Single paned, individual pieces of glass were used for these original doors and were separated by wooden dividers. Modern manufacturing techniques have allowed us to replace wood with lightweight materials such as uPVC and aluminum. Often times these days instead of using multiple sheets of glass separated by mullions, manufacturers will use a single piece of double pane glass in the door and overlay a grid to give it the divided look. Today's French doors are created using innovative and crafty techniques. You can find French doors with mini-blinds encased between the two sheets of glass to provide a way to block out light and provide for privacy. This illustrates just how creative modern manufactures have become in creating these doors.

Designers are constantly coming up with new and creative ideas to keep up with the changing needs of consumers. By constantly looking for ways to expand the available seating that they have restaurant owners have provided us with an example of these constantly changing needs. By replacing entire wall sections with bi-folding French doors, designers were able to meet the needs of these owners. Only our imaginations limit the uses to which these doors can be put to use.