Origin Doors and Windows Complete Major Renovation
Not only did I love the look of the doors and windows as they are well designed and contemporary, but I really appreciated the fact that they are British manufactured and come with a 20 year guarantee.
- Mrs Young
A recently refurbished Origin Home opened its doors (and windows) to us last week, giving an insight into their most recent renovation project, which features a largely impressive window and door display, showcasing how they are perfectly complementary in style and design to give the ultimate finish.
The Young’s, who moved in 4 years ago, knew that when they bought their Buckinghamshire home, that it would be an ongoing project.
But still, they moved in and lived there until they worked out exactly what was required and then began planning from there.
The first part of the project was to redecorate the bedrooms and replace the bathrooms upstairs. The work here was mainly cosmetic, but it gave the Young’s and their two children a more homely feel.
The second part of the project was on the detached annex. As you walk up the drive, the annex is a separate building, which is located opposite the side of the house.
The annex is of a significant size, so much so that the Young’s were able to utilise this space to benefit the whole of the family. The annex has been now separated into three – one room to act as a bike shed, one room used for the mum of the family to run Monkey Clothes, a children’s clothing business, and then the third room to act as a home gym (mostly for the dad).
Each of these areas are accessible via their own Origin Door and on top of this, the storage area and gym have their own Origin Window, both featuring 2 dummy sashes with 2 top hung windows on top, giving stunning consistency, styling and symmetry.
The windows have an overall frame size of 2040mm(w) x 1230mm(h) and 1815mm(w) x 1230mm(h), and are finished in an 7016M Anthracite Grey powder coating.
One major theme, which is prominent throughout the whole of the renovation, is the elegant contrast the Young’s have achieved between the traditional red brick style, the modern, cream coloured rendering and flawless metallic finish of the doors and windows. This helps create a contemporary twist on a classic brick style, alongside the render which is designed to fit in with many of the other houses in the lane. Mrs Young states that she knew that she loved the Origin Anthracite Grey colour from the beginning, and that it was a big influence on the rest of the project’s design.
In keeping with this, the doors to the annex are all finished with the same colour. The door that accesses the gym is 1000mm(w) x 2240mm(h), and has been manufactured with a stainless steel handle to give a nice distinction between that and the 7016M metallic shade.
The French doors that lead to the storage area have an overall width of 1650mm and height of 2155mm and open out, so that there is maximum space available on the inside. The bike shed is the most unusual of those in the annex – as instead of a glass panel in the door, the Young’s have used an aluminium panel, powder coated in the same 7016M as the doors to hide the bikes away and provide extra security.
The annex was started in September 2014 and was completed just before Christmas of that year.
After this, this is when the real project began - the side of the house and kitchen refurb.
When pulling up to the house, the front door is in fact on the side of the detached Buckinghamshire house, and immediately, the first thing you notice with this area is the seamless, matching style of the house to the annex, once again, with its elegant contrast style of the red brick to the cream render and metallic finish.
As with the bike shed on the annex, the Young’s have not gone down with the conventional route of using an Origin Door and have pushed the boundaries by using it as a front door.
“This was intentional from the off – I really wanted all of the frames and sightlines to match from the annex through to rest of the house. I didn’t want a different style front door, otherwise, it would have deterred from the harmonious style we were aiming for” Mrs Young recalls.
Instead of using glass, the front door has been installed with a panel of wood from an internal door with a letter box added and then painted to match the colour of the render. Not only does this match the colour externally, but also matches the internal door style and wood grain style as well.
The door measures 995mm in width by 2160mm in height, and has been specified with a stainless steel hafi handle, matching both the letterbox on the door as well as the hardware on the annex.
For greater emphasis and to create more light in the entrance area, the front door uses fixed paned windows either side, each measuring 428mm wide and the same height as the door.
Also on the side of the house is a new utility room which features a single access door and window, mirroring the style of the annex (2 dummy sashes and 2 top openers, all on one frame), giving an overall co-ordinated and well thought through effect. The utility single door measures 950mm by 2150mm and the window has an overall width of 1500mm and height of 1350mm.
The last part of this renovation project was the kitchen and dining area. When the Young’s moved in, the land that their house is built on used to be the old coal yard, until in 1989, the previous owners built the house on it.
The previous owners built the kitchen where the now dining room is, and where the kitchen is now situated previously was an old conservatory. Mrs Young reminisces “The old kitchen was quite cold with small windows where the bi-folds are now, and had big, dark cabinets, so we consciously tried to steer away from this as much as possible, which is why we moved the kitchen to where the old conservatory was and moved to an open-plan style, flooding it with natural light”.
The bi-fold doors are of a 4+0 configuration, so really open up the area. The overall width measures 4000mm and height of 2300mm, and because each door pane is of a good size, it means that the room can be naturally lit, aided by the light internal wall colour scheme the Young’s have chosen.
Then we move on to the highly impressive bay window set up. Spanning around the entire width of the new kitchen of a huge 4 and a half metres, the 7 window bay is really hugely impressive and is intended to get as much light into the property as possible.
Mrs Young wasn’t originally looking at having Origin – she originally consulted the company that installed the windows in her previous house, but wasn’t wowed by the style and design.
She was recommended to Origin by her local design and build company, Building Bespoke and soon agreed that they would be the perfect design and fit, so they got in touch with Goldseal, an Origin trade partner.
“Not only did I love the look of the doors and windows as they are well designed and contemporary, but I really appreciated the fact that they are British manufactured and come with a 20 year guarantee. The house renovation process has been a big investment for us as this house will be our home for many years to come, so we needed to know that everything will be looked after”, remarks Mrs Young.
This part of the refurbishment took the Young’s from January 2015 and took until June, rushing to get everything done before the kids summer holidays commenced.
The final phase of the house renovation is the living room, which is located at the front of the house and currently features 2 sliding old and dated uPVC doors. Mrs Young is already set on her next Origin installation, and is looking into the prospect of also incorporating a window seat looking out over the driveway and front garden. She anticipates that this will start in early 2017.
