Made to Measure Glazed Oak Doors

Bespoke glazed doors, built around the opening

A made to measure glazed door carries an opening in the face instead of a solid panel, and here that opening is set out to the size of the door rather than the door being cut down to suit a stock pane. It is the practical answer to a room that has no window of its own, or a landing and hallway that only ever borrow light from somewhere else. Because the door is made to order, the proportions of the opening stay right whatever the doorway measures.

How much light, and where it sits

The layouts differ by how the face is divided rather than by how much glass they carry. A single large opening moves the most light and suits a plain modern room; several smaller panes divided by glazing bars read as part of a period interior; a half glazed design keeps a boarded or panelled lower half and puts the light above waist height, which is the usual choice where a door takes knocks. What each design is supplied with is set out on its own product page, since that varies by design and by the options taken on the order.

Solid oak around the opening

These are prime grade A solid oak doors, kiln dried before they are worked so the door stays true once it is hanging in a heated room. The frames are mortice and tenon jointed and the openings are formed within that frame, so the structure of the door is not weakened by the light it lets through. Stiles and rails are deep enough to take a mortice lock and a pair of butt hinges without crowding the opening. Character grade oak is available on the same designs where a knotty, reclaimed look is wanted.

Why a custom size matters more on a glazed door

Trimming any stock door eventually reaches the lipping, but on a glazed design the cost shows sooner. Taking width off both stiles narrows the opening and shifts the glazing bars off centre, and taking height off the bottom rail leaves the proportions bottom-heavy. A door built to the figures keeps stiles, bars and openings in the relationship the design was drawn to. That is worth more in older houses, where doorways predate standard sizes and rarely land on one.

• A single large opening where the priority is moving light
• Several smaller panes divided by glazing bars, for a period interior
• Half glazed layouts keeping a boarded or panelled lower half
• Openings formed within a mortice and tenon jointed frame, not cut into the face
• Glazing bars and stiles kept centred at any size, rather than shifted by trimming
• Character grade oak where a knotty, reclaimed look is wanted

Where a glazed door fits in the rest of the house

One glazed door on a dark landing usually does more than several elsewhere, so it is worth deciding which doorway actually needs the light before choosing for the whole floor. The solid designs in the same families sit in made to measure oak doors, which is also where to start if a run of doors needs to match. Period layouts are grouped in traditional bespoke oak doors and the plainer faces in contemporary bespoke oak doors. How the service works is covered on our made to measure doors page, and if a standard size fits, the stock glazed range is in glazed oak internal doors.