One of the reasons bifold doors are a popular choice in new build projects, refurbishments and renovations is because of the abundance of design options they offer.
You get to choose the size of your door, opening options, thresholds and colour of your door, but this can often be a daunting decision.
So, we’ve put together a guide to help you design the perfect bifold door for your home, making the process simple and easy.
The beauty of a bifold door is that they completely open up to reveal a stunning wall of open space. They fold away, leaving you with a seamless point of access to your garden and when closed you can benefit from a bright, sleek & stylish feature that transforms the entire look of your living space.
The bigger the bifold doors, the more impressive the feature generally looks.
The size of your bifold doors depends on the size of your wall.
The larger your wall, the larger your bifold door can be to best make use of the space.
You can choose from a variety of panel options to best suit your space and how you’d like to use your bifold doors.
For maximum apertures, you can design your bifold door with up to 10 panels that each can be as big as 1200mm wide and 3000mm high.
Choosing fewer individual panes will make it look even more luxurious and create a sleek glazed feature wall for light to shine through.
Bifold doors offer lots of flexibility thanks to a range of opening configurations.
You can design your bifold doors to be stacked inside your home or outside and can either fold away to open in one direction or split to fold on both sides.
You can also choose whether they open from the left or right to best suit how you use your living space and how you’d like to lay out your room.
The configuration options mean that you can design your bifolds to meet your exact specifications and plans.
If you’re planning to add bifold doors to your property on an external wall, which is the most popular choice, how you design your bifolds can have an effect on both your home and your garden. For example, if your children often play and run around in one area, don’t stack your door into their play space.
While bifold doors are favoured for their ability to give you maximum openings, it’s sometimes handy to have a smaller opening too.
This is where a traffic door – just like a back door – would come be useful.
A traffic door is a single door that is built into a bifold door system, which opens separately from the rest of the feature.
You can open the traffic door without having to open the entire glazing feature, which is ideal during colder weather. It leaves you with access to the garden when you need it, whether you’re letting the dog out or taking out the rubbish, without compromising the warmth of your home.
Bifold doors can be opened up so that they are stacked away completely, or left partway open, however the addition of a traffic door leaves you with all the choices you need for optimum access.
Bifold doors offer a seamless entry and exit point to the outdoors, allowing you to effortlessly make best use of your garden space.
This can be made even easier with the use of a low threshold.
Low thresholds are chosen for easy access, which is ideal for children and pushchairs and wheelchair users, as well as a more practical option for people with limited mobility.
An added bonus of choosing low thresholds when designing your bifold doors is that they finish the feature off to look clean and sleek.
Once you have designed the perfect bifold door to suit your property and needs, you’re left with choosing the colour.
The colour you choose depends on the style of your home. If it’s a contemporary project you’re completing, a modern colour such as the popular Anthracite Grey or Black is best. If you’re restoring your period property, you can choose colours with hints of brown and gold. If it’s a light, bright feature you’re after, choosing White or Cream could be the best choice. Alternatively, you can make a style statement with a striking Red feature.
Aluminium bifold doors are available in any RAL colour, so you can choose the exact shade you desire. This way, you can colour match your bifold door frames to the colour scheme of the rest of your living space, or to the hues in your garden.
If you’d like more information on designing bifold doors for your home, get in touch with the experts at Bowalker Doors.
We work on refurbishments and restorations across Sussex, designing and installing 2 ranges of bifold doors, including the impressive aïr range.
You can send us your plans and specifications or bring them into our showroom, and we’ll come up with a bifold door design that will best suit your space and needs. You can even bring your architect in to see us, and we’ll work with them to create a bespoke bifold door solution that works for you.
Visit us on Bolney Grange Business Park, Stairbridge Lane, Hickstead, Haywards Heath from 8am – 5pm Monday to Thursday, 8am – 4:30pm Friday and by appointment only on Saturday.
Alternatively, you can fill in a contact form here or call 0800 881 5640.
You can trust us with your transformation plans as we’re members of Checkatrade, FENSA and the Plastics Window Federation.
