Victorian
The Ranch
The Two Story Traditional
The Country French Traditional
A two story home with even more architectural detail then began to replace the two story traditional. This style is still somewhat popular today, usually in larger homes with a “rambling” footprint. Characterized by more use of natural stone and brick, larger windows and trim, larger roof overhangs with steeper pitches, bigger front entryways with large doors, sidelights, transoms, and many interior elaborate features, larger kitchens with elaborate cabinetry, huge staircases, you get the picture… Bigger is better. As far as our door business is concerned, we’ve made many grand entryways for these types of homes. Also, we started to notice a trend inside a trend. At the beginning of this Country French styling trend, let’s say in the early 90’s, we were making and installing large, ornate leaded and beveled glass entryways. However, within 10 years a new door trend emerged – iron doors, which were very dramatic, ornate, and seemingly “castle like” began to gain popularity.
At first they were being made in the US, but as popularity flourished, these doors began to be imported from Mexico and then China. We were actually one of the first companies to recognize this trend and embrace it. At first, we invested in metal working equipment and competed fairly with other iron doors businesses, but we found problems. Unlike our traditional wooden doors at the time, (before we switched to using only composites), we found these doors had overwhelming problems and customer claims. They became too hot on the outside, and in the direct sun literally burned your hands! They were so heavy that our customers’ homes could be damaged by loosening bricks and stonework if the doors were slammed. We saw fading of the finish, leaking air and water in a strong storm, ill-fitting weather-stripping and residential hardware not designed for such heavy doors, and worst of all, interior sweating in the winter from a buildup of condensation! That turned out to be a terrible idea. But, with some conscientious development, we created an “Iron Style Door” made purely from our fabulous exterior weatherproof composite. We have been able to offer our customers a superior door with all the visual features of an iron door but none of the drawbacks. See our Iron Style Doors page for more details on this fabulous product. To this day, we manufacture and sell our Iron Style composite doors all around the country. Some advantages are that they will never rust, never peel, never sweat from condensation, never leak air or moisture, and can be installed using traditional jambs and molding by any competent carpenter! No special skill is required.
And thanks to Joanna Gaines, we have a new trend!
The Modern Farmhouse
