In 2019, builders will need doors that go big and tall, and light on the paneling and moulding. Patio doors remain in the spotlight and are tracking bigger than ever.
For painted finishes, darker blue shades are trending strongly for exterior doors, and warmer reds are making a showing.
The continuing style trend is toward really clean lines, with any glass glazed directly into the door, says Dan Jacobs, JELD-WEN’s director of product line management for doors . Sticking, the moulding surrounding door panels, is going away.
“If there is a panel, it’s one panel, but no ogee, all straight lines,” says Joe LeFlore, vice president of South Florida Millwork on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
“Big is better. Ten-foot doors were becoming the new normal, and now the 12-foot door is becoming the 10-foot door. People are starting to demand 10-by-6-foot doors. Massive, massive, massive. These big doors are also using pivot hinges,” says LeFlore.
“The pivot door has been sort of rediscovered,” says Greenwich, Conn.-based designer and builder Sabine Schoenberg, host of Sabine’s New House. “Doors are your first hello to the house, and this is doing something interesting with them,” she said, noting that pivot hinges look very fresh in a modern home.
While doors are increasing in size across the country, there are regional differences. Coastal communities tend toward using more glass in their exterior doors, and Jacobs sees a developing trend toward more doors incorporating glass in the first place. “People are [going] for viewing space over security.”
When it comes to patio doors, sliders are growing to enormous proportions, thanks to homeowners’ intensifying desire for a connection to the outdoors. The extreme popularity of this trend is such that even production builders are adding multi-panel sliders a total of 8 to 10 feet wide.
Orlando architect Tony Weremeichik is using exterior-mounted pocketed glass doors that completely open a room to the outdoors. When it comes to sliding patio doors, his firm has been specifying 12- to 16-foot units. “I haven’t done a 6- or 8-foot slider in ages.”
For interior doors, the trends are the same: clean lines, no sticking, and taller doors up to 8 feet, rather than the 6-foot-8-inch door that was the norm in the not-so-distant past. Interior doors used to be either painted white or stained. “Now you might see doors the same dark color as the walls,” says Jacobs.
Barn doors remain a huge trend on the interior. Because the doors hang from a hardware system mounted above the opening that allows them to roll open and shut, the size of the opening doesn’t dictate the size of the door. In a nod to their popularity, production builders have also jumped on the barn door trend, says Philadelphia architect Jim Wentling.
For assistance with your 2019 projects, including incorporating door trends, visit JELD-WEN’s professional portal.
