7 mistakes to avoid while choosing a front door
People can gauge the aesthetics of a house right from the moment they enter it. In terms of first impressions, there are few things that stick in the mind, like the front door of a residence. Besides, the main door of one’s home is critical from a safety and privacy perspective as well. For all these reasons, people need to be wary of certain mistakes when they sift through various front door options.
Not paying attention to research
Often, people make a critical lapse in judgment when they impulsively go about selecting doors for their houses. The phrase “it’s just a door” is commonly thrown about during the selection process. Ideally, the doors of a house must be given the same importance one gives to any furniture, interior design scheme, or external visual element. Research is key to choosing the perfect main door for a house. Research helps people find the right option between materials used to build the door, the look of each panel holding the door, and specific decorative elements on it.
When homeowners do their research, they will find doors that not only shut out the various weather elements, but also sit right with the design language of the rest of their house.
Not having the proper measurements
The perfect fit is an absolute necessity for the doors of a house. Different materials age differently, so finding the perfect fit for each kind of door is a challenge in itself. One needs to first select what kind of material they will use for their doors, after which they can zero in on the measurements of the doors and the frames. Not having the proper measurements results in a lot of time and money wastage for homeowners who are underprepared for the process.
To do this, people need to hire professionals who will accurately calibrate the material quality and measurements before finding the right fitting doors for various rooms and the main entrance.
Shopping solely on price
Price is a massive aspect of any home. Building a home is an incredibly costly thing to do in today’s hyper-inflated age. Unsurprisingly, people prioritize costs while selecting doors for their homes. As vital as the price aspect is, focusing solely on price is a major mistake, too.
Certain materials are cheaper than the rest, but building doors using them simply degrades their quality and reliability over the long term. One does not need to purchase the richest materials and build the most expensive doors for their main entrance. However, one must spend enough effort and money on a quality door that they will use every single day.
Not thinking about inswing/outswing
The inswing and outswing of a door have to do with its wingspan. The direction that a given door opens to has multiple implications from a security standpoint. Doors that have an inswing – or the ones that open into the house – are considered safer for the main entrance as they make ingress and egress as optimal as possible for people living in the house, and also reinforce the security quotient of the place.
On the other hand, certain homeowners may prefer an outswing for their home to keep the door in sync with the overall layout of their entryway. One can strengthen the hinges of their doors with the right one that comes with non-removable pins (also called NRP hinges).
All in all, people may not think much about the inswing and outswing of their doors, but they are vital to keeping the occupants safe and making entries and exits into houses as safe as possible.
Using the wrong installation methods
Once the look of a door is visualized and imagined, people need to use the right installation methods to fit the main door into its frame. Using incorrect installation methods can make doors appear clunky and their working mechanism severely crippled. Moreover, such doors will not function as well as they should and will inevitably get damaged soon. People who choose to fit the door by themselves will find several complications while doing so into an old structure. To get the process right, one must possess the right equipment for making the fit. Some of the equipment useful in the installation process are sills, screws, hacks, screwdrivers, hammers, and some other typically essential objects that ensure correct installation.
Not considering energy efficiency performance
In today’s climate change-ridden times, energy-efficient doors are fast becoming a necessity rather than an object of vanity. Energy-efficient doors come with a roster of benefits, including maintaining consistent indoor temperature. As a result, homes with energy-efficient doors tend to have higher resale values than the ones with normal doors.
For maximum energy efficiency, one must select doors that come with minimal to no glass panels. However, glass entry doors, on the whole, add good aesthetic value to one’s home.
Choosing the wrong door paint color
The paint color scheme of a door needs to be consistent or contrasting with the color of the walls and furniture of the space. When that is ensured, the overall aesthetic appeal of the home grows manifold. While there is no objectively “wrong” color for the main door, specific colors, like yellow or green, give the house a not-so-good vibe from a design standpoint.
