Characteristics & Benefits of Wooden Glass Doors

The doors on a home are often underappreciated, but they have some of the biggest effects on the visual and functional aspects of your home. When you go to buy new doors, you don’t just want to go with the cheapest option; you need to know which doors are going to provide the best benefits in the long term while also matching the aesthetic of your home. 

Today, we want to go over wooden glass doors. These are custom wood doors with large glass inserts that offer a number of benefits. 

We’ll go over the characteristics and benefits of wooden glass doors.

Let’s get started. 

Characteristics of Wooden Glass Doors?

As we mentioned earlier, a wooden glass door is a wooden door with large glass inserts. However, there are some more details that need to be touched on for you to truly understand what you’re looking at. 

Here are the characteristics of a wooden glass door. 

Hardwood: 

First and foremost, a wooden glass door is almost never made from the cheapest construction lumbar or subpar wood pieces such as plywood. 

Wooden glass doors are typically made from solid hardwood, and they tend to be made from higher quality hardwood species that come at a premium price. 

Common woods for wooden glass doors include red oak, mahogany, teak, and maple. 

Glass: 

The glass used in wooden glass doors is also a bit different than what you’ll find in a typical home window. 

Cheaper doors might use single-pane, unglazed glass, but most doors worth buying try to utilize more durable multi-pane glass with at least some glazing. 

The reason for this is two-fold. First, there’s the elegance factor. Thicker, elegantly designed, and glazed windows add a sense of luxury to the door that enhances whatever entrance or interior space you install it in. 

Then, there’s the security and durability factor. Glass is obviously a weak point on doors, and having thicker, stronger glass helps prevent that from becoming an issue. The glaze can also help protect privacy by preventing people from easily getting a full view of your home, office, or whatever space is on the other side. 

Luxurious Designs: 

Visually, wooden glass doors are almost always more luxurious and elegant than cheaper hardwood doors or mass-produced doors made of lower-quality materials. 

You can expect intricate carvings, glass designs that create patterns with glaze and inserts, and other things that really make the door stand out from your run-of-the-mill entryway door. Of course, those features do typically increase the price of the door, but it’s not so much as to make wooden glass doors inaccessible to most homeowners. 

Used for High-Profile Spaces: 

Wooden glass doors aren’t used for bedrooms, bathrooms, and other random spaces. They are typically used for high-profile spaces where people are likely to want to make a good impression. 

For example, a wooden glass door is typically used for the main entryway of a home. Since this is the first impression guests get of your home, the presence of an elegant door helps set the right mood. It can also be used for professional office spaces or fancy rooms that are designed to be more than just a space for the family to interact on a day-to-day basis. 

Benefits of Wooden Glass Doors

Now that you have a good idea of what a wooden glass door is and some of its key characteristics, we’ll go over the benefits that you can enjoy when buying one. 

Some of these benefits are true for every wooden glass door, but there are some that depend on your purchasing decisions specifically. After all, every door design is different, and various designs can provide some unique benefits. 

Security: 

Since wooden glass doors are solid hardwood and they’re made from some of the most resilient wood species around, they tend to be extremely difficult to bypass by force. While it’s always possible that inferior locks can create a problem at no fault of the door, there’s practically no way an intruder is getting through the door itself without drawing a lot of attention to themselves. 

Also, glass tends to be a concern for homeowners and businesses as a weak point, but that’s not necessary. Designers ensure that the glass embellishments are far enough away from locks and other things that unwanted guests would try to use for an easy bypass. 

This all comes together to create an extremely secure door that is perfect for the home entryways, and professional office spaces for these doors are commonly used. 

Natural Light and Privacy: 

These two benefits seem to contradict each other, but they don’t thank to two clever design features. 

Most wooden glass doors feature glaze across all, or most, of the glass panes. This is to decrease visibility and ensure that you don’t have strange people peeking through your entryway door or watching you in your office when you’re handling sensitive tasks. 

However, the glaze doesn’t stop all-natural light from coming in. This can not only provide you with more natural lighting, but it can help you lower your energy bill because you won’t have to rely on lamps and similar light sources as often. 

With some wooden glass doors, the design of the glass inserts combines glazed and unglazed glass to balance out these benefits. You might get higher unglazed portions that allow in more natural light, while the panes at eye level are glazed for privacy. This can also be used to create distinct visual effects that don’t necessarily increase privacy, but they at least break up the view of the space behind the door. 

Energy Savings: 

Hardwood doors that are sealed around the edges properly provide ample energy-saving benefits. The wooden parts actively prevent heat or cool air from escaping thanks to their high levels of insulation. 

However, with standard glass, the glass can somewhat undermine that insulation. 

Luckily, professional wooden glass door manufacturers, Realwood Crafters, actually offer energy-saving glass options, as well. 

These are almost identical to the energy-saving windows that many homeowners are now installing in their homes, and they offer the same benefits; they insulate your home more effectively, and they prevent your HVAC from having to work too hard. 

Not only does this help you more efficiently control the climate in your home for your own comfort, but it also reduces how much you have to spend on your energy bill. 

Luxury: 

Everyone wants a home that looks as good as it possibly can and elicits a sense of luxury; after all, your home is probably the biggest investment you’ve ever made, and it’s likely the place that you want to relax in and escape the stress of life. 

A wooden glass door gives your home that luxurious touch. The delicate design carvings, the genius use of glass inserts for both extravagance and function, and the overall quality that a wooden glass door exudes are something that will make any entryway look far fancier than it actually is. 

Obviously, this is a touch that won’t benefit every home. Having a wooden glass door on a rundown trailer or a modern contemporary house would look exceptionally odd. So, take the general theme of your home into consideration before committing to a wooden glass door. 

Luckily, wooden glass doors do look great on older homes, modern homes that aren’t too modernized with their visual designs, and more. 

Flexibility: 

One of the big advantages of wooden glass doors is that they offer a lot of flexibility. 

Usually, when you’re looking to buy a door, the options at your disposal for the area you need to purchase the door for are highly limited. For example, most modern businesses are stuck with iron door options, interior doors are typically just cheaper wooden doors, etc. 

A wooden glass door can take on multiple roles. It can be the perfect entryway for a more high-end residential home, or it can highlight the entrance to an office in a commercial building. It can add a sense of luxury to an at-home theater room or office, or it can be the perfect way to add a sense of luxury to a small guest house on your property. It can even work well at a rustic bar, small business, or restaurant of almost any kind. 

Most door types only look good in one or two settings, but a wooden glass door combines class and luxury with functionality so well that they are extremely flexible. 

Price VS Benefits: 

This is a big one. Yes, wooden glass doors tend to be expensive when they’re made properly. However, that price is perfectly balanced against the features of the door. Whether you’re paying more for distinct visuals and the time put into creating them, or you’re paying more for high-tech features like energy-saving glass, you get your money’s worth. 

The same cannot always be said about other types of doors where demand greatly impacts the price of the door. In some instances, even “cheap” plywood doors can cost way more than they’re actually worth. 

Longevity: 

Wooden glass doors last an extraordinarily long time without much maintenance or care. This is just like the regular hardwood doors they’re so closely related to. 

It is not abnormal for a well-maintained wooden glass door to last decades without signs of wear and tear. Of course, you’ll want to pay attention to the door, make sure you replace the finish every once in a while, and generally take care of it, but those are easy tasks that will prevent you from ever needing a replacement. 

The same is not true for steel doors, cheap composite doors, or even the expensive carbon fiber doors that rival wooden glass doors in price. All of those will typically need to be replaced in 10-20 years. 

Prolonged Beauty: 

If you have had a steel door for 20 years, it doesn’t matter how well you maintain it. It’s going to show major signs of wear. 

However, a wooden glass door can actually get even better looking. 

As the years pass, you add new sealants and stains, and the wood simply alters its natural color due to the oils in your hands or the stains you’ve applied, the door takes on the character and an entirely new look. This is especially true for doors made from certain wood species. Wood like mahogany is known for shifting its color slightly with age. 

High-Tech Options: 

Of course, you don’t have to get a solid wood glass door. Sometimes, they can warp if they’re mistreated. That’s just the nature of wood. 

Thanks to modern technology, you can get polymer doors that are lighter, cheaper, and more resistant to natural damage than solid wood, but they’re laminated with sheets of high-quality wood to give the luxurious wooden look you want. These can also have window inserts installed. 

These aren’t quite as proven as solid wooden doors. This also sacrifices a lot of the benefits listed above. However, it is another option with its own list of benefits. Namely, they tend to cost a bit less. 

Some Cons of Wooden Glass Doors

Of course, you can’t make a fair purchasing decision unless you know some of the negative aspects of wooden glass doors. No product is absolutely perfect. 

Security Issues: 

Yes, most manufacturers take this into account, but it’s not guaranteed. If the glass is positioned in certain ways, and it’s low-quality, easily broken glass, it’s possible that unwanted guests can bypass your lock system by breaking the glass. 

This is entirely avoidable by purchasing a high-quality door from a trusted manufacturer. 

Maintenance Requirements: 

You need to maintain any wooden door to prevent warping and rotting. If you don’t remember to re-stain or seal your door, problems can occur that will require a replacement. 

None of the maintenance requirements for wooden glass doors are time-consuming, and they don’t need to be done often; besides cleaning the glass panes, of course. 

Get a Wooden Glass Door and Boost Your Home’s Value

Wooden glass door’s benefits far outweigh its cons. We highly recommend purchasing a wooden glass door for office spaces and similar professional spaces, and even for homes if you want to add a luxurious flare. They increase property value, look amazing, and can even help cut your energy bill.