Burning Question: Stormy Weather?
This week’s topic at hand: storm doors. Do you love them for the light they let in, or do you hate them for the extra frame of metal that clutters up your entryway? What about screen doors? Do you enjoy the breeze that they provide, or hate how flimsy they feel? Is a single solitary wood or metal front door the best bet, or do you prefer something with a little glass?
We’re excited to hear where you stand on the issue. In fact, we whipped up this handy little poll to keep everything tabulated:
[poll id="23"]
We’d love to hear more about why you voted the way you did, so feel free to comment away with more details.
Image courtesy of LEOOB found via COCOCOZY.
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I dont mind a screen but I rarely leave my front door open… i want a solid door for privacy… I absolutly hate it when people that I dont know come to knock on my door to sell stuff… but I am a sucker and will listen to what they want to say… so its easier to just not answer the door! and its so much easier to “not be home” if they cant see inside your front door!
Storm door here, with a glass insert for winter, and a screen insert for summer. It just seems kind of like a “must have” up here in New England.
Hi,
I like a ‘Dutch’ door. I am Dutch, and I live in the Netherlands (Holland if you wish) and I never realized that you in America call our old fashioned farm doors a Dutch door. Funny. But also funny is that I don’t know any body who actually has a Dutch door. They are not common at all and you barely ever see one, except on, like I said, old style farms. Our door is solid wood with three glass panels. It is good for light, although we made it non-see through for privacy reasons.
I really enjoy a screen door, my townhome is older and when you enter it brings you directly into the kitchen so I enjoy having both light and a nice breeze come through there. Plus when my son is out playing in the front yard I can see and hear him!
I think we have the best of both worlds with our storm door glass slates that are screened so we can open up the slates and enjoy the breeze coming through the front + back doors. But come winter, no need to switch out the door, just time to close the slates.
at our last house we had a regular metal door with peephole, plus we added a Pella glass/screen door to the front of that. The Pella door had two segments, where it was glass/glass on bottom and glass/screen on top; where you could lower the top section and have the screen available to let the breezes in or out. It had a locking function also. And it generally looked really nice. I liked it for security purposes, I prefer when opening the door to have something between me and the person and not just empty space. Only con would be that it trapped air if you didn’t crack the sections open, so hot air would compress in there and practically melt any wreath or doorhanging in the summer.
We love the self-storing storm/screen doors. The bottom portion stays a storm door year-round, then the top half pulls down to reveal a screen all rolled up and stored at the top of the door. It’s the best of both worlds – the bottom stays solid to prevent our dog from destroying the screen. Plus, we get blockage from the HEAVY wind when we have the storm door up, and when we have the screen pulled down it’s a nice breeze!
The best part is that it’s super easy to change back and forth – so you can switch it daily depending on the weather. Added bonus – you don’t have to find somewhere to store the storm/screen in the off season!
Currently, my apartment has a very unfriendly looking metal door.
But growing up, our front door had a full length screen insert (glass for the winter). It required constant repair as my brothers and I would accidentally punch through it at least once per summer but I loved the sound of it creaking open and slamming shut. I miss that sound. When it comes time to buy a home, I’ll be sure to include the noisy screen door.
I’m going to second Handy Man, Crafty Woman – in Vermont you constantly have to repaint a door that isn’t protected by a glass storm door in winter. OK, not constantly, but every few years. And since most homes – especially older ones – don’t have central AC, the screen replacements are lovely in the summer.
Our old house had a full glass storm door that we loved because we could leave the wooden door open and let lots of natural light in. Our new house has no storm door, but instead has some simple, full-length, stained-glass side light windows flanking the painted door that do a great job of infusing the entryway with loads of ambient light.
By the way, I clean our painted front door thoroughly about once every other month (a serious hassle due to the multi-panel design) and then lemon oil it liberally. This gives the striking red door an even deeper luster and protects agains the elements.
By the way, our new house came with a plain wooden slab on the back door with a very large doggy access door thing that rattled when the door was opened or the wind blew. (And we don’t have any pets.) This door was hinged to open inward from right to left, which made it require lots of swing space into the breakfast nook.
Outside that was this really hideous painted, wrought-iron & mesh screen door, also with a huge cutout at the bottom for the previous owner’s large dogs. This screen door had a retro, almost middle Eastern vibe and, especially with the doggy access, looked bad, bad, bad. This door was hinged to open oppositely – front left to right outwardly. So getting out into the backyard was this Get Smart-esqe manuever that I could not, would not (yeah, been reading Dr. Seuss) handle.
So, we replaced this mess with a single, full-glass, “French door” style door – with the divided mullion bars inside the double-paned glass. This new door is hinged to swing left to right outwardly so it frees up space in the breakfast nook. And the big expanse of glass also makes the nook feel twice as large.
http://www.2dolphins.com/images/km/patio/km_new_back_door.jpg
The new door was a special order item at McCoy’s Hardware, but the price really wasn’t that much more than a more traditional, inwardly-opening door and it makes such a huge difference, especially since we’re in & out that door constantly on the weekends.
When I decided to replace my front door, I decided to go with a pella door. Before I began my home improvement, I decided to do as much research as I could. I used McGraw Hill’s Sweets Directory of construction products and manufacturers. They offered a lot of really useful information, as well as CAD details I could download from their site. While I now work for them, I honestly use them myself all the time because of they are the most complete directory I have found. They can really help you out.
Love those storm doors. On a cool day I can open up my double front doors and let the light and warmth stream in through my storm doors.
A popular door in China right now is a wooden door with a decorative cast-iron grate-type thing in the middle (so it looks like it’s framed by the wood). The wood behind the grate can open up, so you can get a breeze if you want, without completely opening the door. There’s a screen that you can insert as well to block out bugs. It’s actually a really pretty and practical door, and I hope they start selling them in the States soon, but I haven’t seen them yet. And I live in an apartment anyway, so solid is still most practical for that…