There’s plenty to consider when choosing doors, and the decisions need to be made pretty early on in your project. While they might not get installed until very near the end of the build (largely to protect them from damage), the structural openings, thresholds and other critical details must be finalised well in advance to ensure that everything works as intended.

The front door goes in

If you’ve been following our Education House coverage, you’ll know we ran a reader vote to choose the colour of our Kloeber FunkyFront timber entrance door. We wanted something with a bit of pop and wow-factor, and we’ve certainly got that with the winning bright orange hue. In fact, it’s already generating a bit of a stir amongst our neighbours! The final design includes a glazed toplight in the frame and a Hamburg 4 door panel, which features a central glazed column. This adds interest and continues the theme of maximising natural brightness throughout.

Kloeber offers an install service for its doors, but we agreed some time ago that our main contractor, Drewett & Hunt, would fit the FunkyFront. It’s simply a timing thing: putting the choice out for a reader vote meant we couldn’t order in time to coincide with installing the apex windows. Thankfully, it’s a pretty straightforward process – helped by the fact that Kloeber provides a full kit of parts and easyto- follow installation instructions. With the door in, we now have a fully weathertight and secure house, so we don’t need to rent our site cabins any more!

The bright hue of our door may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but once the porch is on and the planting in, the colour should soften a little. And because we’ve gone for timber, versatility is built-in; so a future owner could always repaint the frame or even the door, should they wish.