Victorian door styles

Front Doors in Victorian Times

In Victorian times, the front door was one of the most crucial characteristics of the your house. This has been basically as important as it is these days, in producing a superior initial impact for visitors - and for you! When you are restoring a Victorian design house, we'll look at precisely how to be able to help to make your doors and door fixtures as traditional as possible, keep your wood, door knobs as well as handles in very good repair, as well as also at the traditional context and surroundings associated with the Victorian door.

The front doors of Victorian homes was typically a central point of the front elevation. The surrounds of the door drew individuals focus: there was frequently a circular fanlight windowpane cut overhead; decorations as well as colours utilised for front doors and furniture was characteristically striking; and doors themselves were definitely made of great high quality wood, usually hardwood.

Because of the basic good quality associated with these types of doors, it is nearly normally much better to get out the sandpaper and paint and refurbish it your self, if you have one. To buy one of similar quality would probably possibly not be cost-effective. If you do not have the time to be able to carry out things like sanding, repainting, polishing brass, and repairing or changing door handles, you may possibly be able to give these types of tasks to a builder.
Be mindful that much old paint has a high percentage of lead - work in a well ventilated place, and wear a high-quality dust face mask when you are sanding paint off an old door.

At the less prosperous end of the scale, Victorian doors have been of the batten-plank design used for decades, and now used in fencing. Vertical planks of timber are placed together on the backside by either horizontal or diagonal planks.
Victorian doors were typically made of hardwood - for instance, beech or oak. Pine was also used - although categorized as a softwood, it is in fact denser and much better quality compared to many genuine hardwoods.

Numerous Victorian houses that could not have enough money for hard wood doors had them either painted to disguise this particular fact, or even stained in order to imitate the colour of a true hardwood door. It was also popular to ebonise doors in Victorian times - painting it with black lacquer to create a dramatic impact.


Six panelled doors were common at the beginning of the Victorian era - doors would typically have 3 rows of two panels, instead of than two rows of 3, that would make for a very broad door. However, the simpler four-panel design quickly took over, especially in the middle and upper class homes of the time, that could find the money to make new doors instead than trying to recycle old ones.

If you are looking for that victorian appearance but want modern day performance and security then you should have a look at the modern day grp composite doors. All of these provide good looks and will probably last for upto thirty five years without needing to be repainted. They are far suoerior to double glazed doors.