HOw TO CHOOSE A FRONT DOOR FOR
A HOUSE wITH TIMBER CLADDING?
WORDS: eLizabeTH aSSaf, DeSigneR, uRban fROnT
With buildings becoming more contemporary and home frontages
involving many different finishes, the dilemma of what front door
to choose seems to be even more complicated. It’s an even harder
decision if you are having cladding too.
To help our clients make a decision we usually ask them to
consider the following:
1. Is the cladding being left to weather or is it being treated or
finished? This determines whether or not it’s necessary that the
front door matches the cladding. Usually if cladding is going to
be left to silver, the finish of the door is easier to choose. If the
cladding is going to be finished or keep its original colour, then
matching or going for a painted finish works better. However, there
is also the option to go for an opposite colour completely – for
example – choosing a dark wood like fumed oak to work with
western red cedar cladding.
2. Is the cladding going to be horizontally or vertically boarded
or even both? A lot of customers believe that everything should
match but, the door can be more of a focal point if the boarding
is going in a different direction. This also reduces the difficulty of
matching the door exactly to cladding that comes right up to the
door.
3. If the house has a lot of cladding, it’s also w orth considering not
going down the hardwood look and going for a painted finish. This
works particularly well if the house has more than 50% cladding
over the surface of it. Making this choice, breaks up the timber
look and creates even more of a focal point.
4. If the cladding being used is a colour or painted a colour like
grey for instance, it is either worth matching the RAL colour or
going a few shades darker or lighter depending on where the door
sits on the houses elevation. Or another choice is to then go for
a timber front door that is completely different to make the door
stand out.
5. Another concern is if the house already has a lot of different
materials going on like a wood lookalike cladding system,
aluminium windows and zinc roofing. We tend to try and find the
least used material to match to as it could look too balanced and
that wouldn’t necessarily be the best end result.
6. We always find that it’s best to lay all the samples of the
different materials down in front of you and also be aware of the
fact that each material will take up a different amount of space on
that frontage. Fine tuning with samples like this always helps to
put the bigger picture into perspective.
On the whole, it isn’t a decision taken lightly because cladding will
also change in colour over time. Thinking about that will definitely
help and if you feel that it is still too difficult, we can always help
you. Just give us a call to discuss your project in detail.
contact urbanfront
t: +44 (0) 1494 778 787
www.urbanfront.co.uk