Designs on your door
They come in different sizes and can be traditional or contemporary. Today they are custom made in a variety of materials and come in different colours. They define the entry to a home and can be accessorised to serve numerous purposes. If you are wondering what, well it is the door. As a vital part of any home, doors have undergone a metamorphosis of sorts and are nothing like what they used to be.
What’s new...
‘Slide N Hide Door and Window’ systems are the most versatile self-storing screens in the market currently. This patented, award-winning system features a roll-away screen which disappears into the door or window frame to offer an unobstructed view and easy access for cleaning.
This also lets the user control the use of the screen - simply sliding it into place when it’s required and out of sight when it isn’t. Other new launches include ‘Hollow Core Doors’ which are lighter doors with a hollow, reinforced centre. They are much cheaper than solid wood, steel, and fibreglass doors and are perfect for indoor applications. However, they don’t hold up very well to weather and provide little to no security, making them unsuitable for exterior use.
Everest Industries Ltd offers smart steel doors with a wooden door look and a five-in-one locking system and is superior in strength, termite proof and are moisture resistant with protection against non uniform weathering. The door is a composition entirely made up of steel, layered with hi-tech honeycomb craft paper with an attractive wood finished appearance. Designer Mukul Goyal says, “in a country as diverse as ours, doors and windows are not of any standard sizes. Earlier each of these were custom-made by the local carpenter according to each site specification. Then not so long ago came about the modular, readymade doors and window structures with standard sizes. These worked beautifully for builders and contractors who were working on large scale projects as apartments and hotels.
“At this point of time, customisation and personalisation is becoming important and gaining in preference. So even if all the inside doors are of a standard look and finish, people are going out of the way to create exclusive main doors for their homes and other spaces. Doors are popularly made of wood, glass and metal and a combination of all these too. Semi-precious stone is also being incorporated into main doors as a style statement and so are embedded installations of glass/metal.”
Accessories
A vast market exists for door handles, knobs, locks, door closure in materials ranging from steel, acrylic, wooden, crystal etc., which are available in various shapes and sizes. Current fittings consume less space and time for installation. You can accessorise doors in myriad ways so as to make them storage spaces.
Doors can be made to serve many purposes based on how they are accessorised. Zicom Electronic Security Systems’ 7” Screen Video Door Phone combines many functions such as verifying your visitors, digital photo frame paired with SD card and audio/video player that supports MP3. With the digital photo frame, you can even watch movies. It is also equipped with a remote control.
The outdoor unit has a loudspeaker that makes the users’ voice audible to the visitor and a camera that captures image of the visitor. The infrared LED ensures clear vision during at night, the microphone captures the voice of the visitor and the call button is used to generate a bell sound inside the house and activate the camera.
When technology meets security, it creates an impeccable security system. Fingerprint Locks opens by designated fingerprint(s), making the key unique and one that cannot be duplicated. Likewise, Howard Storage World has a massive collection of door accessories which can turn the doors into innovative storage spaces.
These are highly modern products that can save the storage space in today’s small and compact flats. These products can be easily adjusted at the doors and include over the door hooks, a cap rack that can hold up to 20 caps, an ironing hanger hook designed to keep the ironed clothes, a hanging shoe storage that has optional drawers which can store around 20 pairs of shoes at a time and sweater organisers.
Metal doors
Apart from brass fittings stainless steel and aluminum are some of the other metals that have made a big entry in the door space.
“A very important thing to keep in mind while choosing fittings is the finish as there are many colours available including antique and silver satin or silver finish,” says Rajendra Gupta, MD, Rati Ram Gupta & Co.
Silver is the most trendy, useful and in demand. Door hardware is plainly utilitarian for opening or securing a door, but it can also reflect elegance and style.
A 2002 study of stainless steel door handles conducted at a 759-bed facility in Ube, Japan, found that, despite the staff’s conscientious hygiene practices, stainless steel door handles on 53 out of 196 rooms (27 per cent) were contaminated by Staphylococcus aureus. One in five door handles (19 per cent) to rooms of MRSA-infected patients exhibited the live pathogen. Copper alloy hardware is both functional and decorative and has long been used to convey elegance, strength, stability and wealth.
In addition to being attractive, new research confirms that uncoated brass and bronze hardware contribute to a healthier environment by inactivating the bacteria commonly found on touch surfaces.
Trends
The latest trend in doors is the extensive use of honeycomb doors.“From being environment-friendly to earthquake-responsive to thermal-efficient, these honeycomb doors open up a whole lot of progressive ideas. Although they may look pretty much the same to the layman’s eye, there are many points that differentiate them from normal doors,” says Anjum Jung, MD, Morph Design Co.
The rectangular shutter frame of the door can be made of MDF, solid timber with red meranti, rubber wood, pine or the wood of your choice, but the body, instead of solid core timber, contains a honeycomb structure made out of recycled craft paper.
This honeycomb that is in a compressed form is spread out with an expander which helps get rid of the inherent moisture, even as the expanded hexagonal structure is cut into the required size that sits snugly into the shutter frame.
These can be used as internal doors and the concept can be taken across to windows and any kind of flat surface application in furniture like dining and study tables.
New design element
“While brass is becoming a thing of the past, knobs are also fading in popularity as homeowners turn to levers. Over the decades, knobs have been overdone, but levers provide a whole new design element.
In a homeowners’ quest for grander entrances, they are also choosing taller entry doors.
As the market shifts to accommodate this demand, there is a trend toward multi-point locks that bolt into different locations of the door frame,” adds Jung. “Apart from wood, aluminum, steel, FRP and plastic are in vogue.
Wooden doors are available in a range of products like engineered veneer doors, PVC laminated doors, decorative laminated and veneered doors, fire retardant doors, moulded panel doors, flush doors and many more. The new ‘Moveo Glass System’ from Dorma are attractive, efficient and cost-effective. Even Dorma’s ‘Automatic Doors’ can be effectively, conveniently and safely controlled with their advanced sensor system accessories,” says Manisha Sheth, Joint MD, Goldmine Projects Consultants.