It’s about finding the right ‘actor’ for a specific ‘role’ – and, just as with casting, it’s not simply a case of choosing the ‘most talented’ actor. An actor who doesn’t quite ‘fit’ a story is not as good as one who does, however talented. A character is more about ‘fit’ than ‘quality’.
In the same way, buying a front door is more like casting than buying a product. Homeowners and architects are often mistaken in thinking of a composite door as a product to be selected. The right door for the front of a house is, in fact, not the ‘best composite door’.
The front door is not simply a discrete object. A front door forms part of an architectural story. This story is told not just by the front door but by the house it adorns. The facade, as an element, doesn’t stand alone. It has other elements that make up its overall appearance: windows, brickwork, roofline, landscaping. And then, of course, you have the hardware and the visual decisions made about the opening, colour, and relationship with surrounding materials. A well-constructed, properly specified, and correctly installed facade is not sufficient if the proportions, colour, or style of the architectural era of the building does not complement or tie in with the other architectural elements or indeed the overall visual weight of the building.
The effect of a door that ‘fits’ the facade it adorns is subtle but immediate. A building will appear resolved. The eye will land on it without discomfort. For Composite Doors Cardiff, contact choicetradeframes.co.uk/composite-doors/cardiff/
Conversely, the effect of a door that doesn’t ‘fit’ is often less dramatic but no less important. Our eye will be drawn back time and again to the door because it is not resolved. This could be because of the proportions of the door in relation to the other architectural elements, the colour, or indeed the style of the door in relation to the building.
It is this subtle, almost imperceptible effect that makes a discussion about a composite door, before even seeing the products, so key. We are not discussing a product that has a security rating or thermal performance or indeed a budget; we are having a conversation about what sort of character questions we want to answer with our front door. We want to talk about the impression we want to give, the qualities we want to convey, and the story told by the facade of the building we are altering.