8 Things To Know Before Ordering A Custom Wrought Iron Door

Not finding any door style that will fit your house. Want the perfect front door?

Custom doors are an option for many people who want to make sure every detail is hand picked and matches their house perfectly. After all, the front door is the first thing people see when viewing your home.

But what type of door should you order custom? Wood like mahogany, cherry, alder or wrought iron?  

Unlike custom wood doors, custom wrought iron doors have as many as 10 different customization aspects to consider.

Ordering a custom wrought iron door can be very confusing, so we want to make sure our customers are informed before getting a free design consultation, so they have all the knowledge necessary to build their perfect dream door.

After all, a custom wrought iron door can last a lifetime and are an investment that will be sure to pay dividends down the line with increased security, curb appeal, and durability. Let’s talk some of the different things to consider when ordering a custom wrought iron door.

Size

First and foremost, the size of the door is important when determining a custom wrought iron door.

Typically, entry doors have standard sizes at around 80” or 96” tall. However, custom iron doors can be any size necessary as the door will be built specifically for the customer.

Another important size aspect when ordering a custom wrought iron door is how many doors do you want? For example, 6 x 8 wrought iron door can be 2 36” single iron door slabs to make a double door or a 42” single iron door with 2 12” sidelights (shown below).

Generally, whether to add sidelights and go with the single door option over a double iron entry door is completely up to the customer. A double iron front door will have more entryway room as both doors will open while a single iron front door with sidelights might have more light shining through the sidelights, resulting in an overall brighter entryway.  

Frame Design

Wood doors usually only have one shape or frame shape which is a square top. However, custom doors have 3 different shapes: square top, eyebrow, and arch.

Wrought iron custom doors have 5 different frame shapes: square top, eyebrow, arch, square top-eyebrow, and square-top arch. These different frame shapes will fit different house styles better.

Frame shape also depends on if your custom iron door is going to fit an existing opening in your home for a remodel or if you are planning to build a construction where the opening has not been built yet. Keep this is mind, changing the opening on an existing house to fit a different frame shape for your new custom iron door can be quite expensive and will require an experienced contractor.

Unlike wood doors, the two frame shapes on custom wrought iron doors, square top-eyebrow, and square top-arch, can add an extra wow factor to your entry way. These frame shapes are characterized by thicker frames on top that sometimes even include glass. Note, these frames or jambs will be much heavier because of this.

Frame Width – Standard wrought iron doors have a 6” frame width which fits best on 2 x 4 wall studs. While a 6” frame or jamb width will fit a house with 2 x 6 wall studs, you may want to consider getting an 8” jamb. For custom steel interior doors, a 4” jamb or frame width is best. At Black Diamond Iron Doors, we can custom make 4”,6”,8”, and 12” jamb widths to fit any house foundation.   

In conclusion, frame shape for custom wrought iron doors is ultimately dependent on customer preference and if the customer wants to do remodel on an existing opening if needed.  

Swing

Another important aspect of ordering a custom wrought iron door is the swing.

Swing refers to which way the door opens. There are for types of swing: Right Hand In swing, Left Hand In swing, Right Hand Outswing, Left Hand Outswing.

Inswing means the door opens inside the house which is common for entry or wrought iron exterior doors. Outswing means the door swings out which is more common for patio or interior doors.

To determine which hand is active, we always look facing the outside of the home. For example, when facing the outside of the home, if the front door swings inside to the left, it is a left-hand in swing. Vise-versa, when facing outside and the door swings inside to the right, it is a right hand in swing.

Choosing between a right- and left-hand door is mostly based on customer preference and the layout of how the house is set up but is something to consider before ordering a custom wrought iron entry door.   

Design

Home Style

By far the most important aspect of ordering a custom wrought iron door is DESIGN!

After all, why would you wait the long lead time to make a handmade iron door if the design was not exactly what you wanted.

The design options for custom wrought iron doors are endless and ultimately is decided by the taste of the customer and the home style. At Black Diamond Iron Doors, we have 1000’s of pre-designed doors and can make any design imaginable.

Certain designs will work better for certain houses. For example, a modern wrought iron door will look better on a more modern house and a Mediterranean style wrought iron door will look better on a Spanish or Mediterranean style house. A more rustic farmhouse design will compliment a house that has a farmhouse ranch style.

Scrollwork

Unlike custom wood doors, wrought iron door scrollwork can be straight with simple lines, or twisted and curved for a more decorative wrought iron door. Additionally, wrought iron design can have features like flowers, flour de lees, crosses, birds ect. for a truly unique and custom ornamental wrought iron door. For more designs, check out our article on wrought iron door designs to match home styles.

Glass

An important aspect of custom iron door designs is how much glass do you want on the door.

Some doors have full glass from top to bottom, others are ¾ glass with a kickplate, some with no glass at all, and everything is between. Different levels of glass will ultimately affect how much light enters your entryway.

If you do not want a lot of light to enter or want added security, go with less glass or no glass at all for a full iron security door. If you want your entry way to light up the room, choose a design with full glass panels from top to bottom.

Kickplate

Another design aspect is the kickplate design or whether to have a kickplate on the door at all.

No kickplate with either be a full glass door with scrollwork or an full iron door with no glass. Additionally, we can make many decorative and ornamental designs on the kickplate for some of our more decorative iron door designs.

In the end, the customer should choose what designs looks best to them and suits their house the most. At Black Diamond Iron Doors, we try to make our customers their dream door and can make any design with or without a kickplate. The choice is up to you!

Color

Traditionally, wrought iron doors are a dark or oil rubbed bronze. However, custom wrought iron doors can be painted any color imaginable.

We have even seen white wrought iron doors! At Black Diamond Iron Doors, we have over 10 different color options. Our most popular color is oil rubbed bronze followed by black and light bronze.

The color of the wrought iron will depend on the door design and home style. For our modern wrought iron doors, we choose to have our designs with black iron doors. For more Spanish or Mediterranean home style, we would recommend a light bronze color for your custom wrought iron doors.

Along with oil rubbed bronze, light bronze, copper and black, we also can make colors more vintage with a distressed look. For more info on colors, please see our custom iron doors.

Glass

Another important aspect when ordering a custom wrought iron door is glass style.

Glass style is preference by the customer but also serves as functionality, privacy, safety, and different glass styles look better on different wrought iron door designs. Most of our exterior doors with glass can operate independently from the door, a standout feature of wrought iron doors.

Black Diamond Iron Door glass is 5/8” dual paned with clear on the inside and a textured or clear glass on the outside and the glass is tempered for safety which means if the glass shatters it will break into small pieces like a broken car windshield, which offers much better safety and security.

Privacy - Different glass styles also have different privacy levels. For example, Low E Clear glass has a reflective tint that blocks UV light and reduces energy costs but has a lower privacy rating and higher visibility than others.

Our most popular glass style, Rain glass, is textured on the outside as if rain is falling on the door and has a high privacy rating meaning people cannot see inside the home at all. If you are looking for a modern wrought iron door, try sandblast or frost glass. This glass has the highest privacy rating and has a more modern look than our rain glass which can match certain wrought iron door designs better.

Black Diamond Iron Doors has over 10 different types of glass styles from clear to reflective to many different textured glass styles. For more info on our different glass options, visit our iron door specs page here.      

Boreholes

One of the design customizations our customers do not often think of is the boreholes.

Boreholes denote how many holes are on the door for the locks and handle sets. This mainly affects double iron doors. Do you want only 1 handle set? Do you want a dummy handle set on the nonactive door? Do you want 2 deadbolts with wrought iron pull handles?

All of these are different option when choosing a custom wrought iron door. At Black Diamond Iron Doors, we like to make our stock doors with double boreholes so that customers can purchase handles for each door slab so that the door looks much more luxurious and symmetrical, adding to the art of the door design.

Handles

As with boreholes, knowing what handles you want before you order a custom wrought iron door will help tremendously when building the door.

For example, if you choose to buy your own lockset from the 3^rd party, you can let us know and we can adjust the holes to fit your handle and lock perfectly. Sometimes, certain handle sets may not fit well with a certain design. Having an idea of the handle set you want before ordering can save a lot of headache.

Additionally, Black Diamond Iron Doors provides iron pull handles that traditional wrought iron doors have. While these wrought iron handles are handmade and look as beautiful as the custom iron door they are made for, these iron pull handles do not have latches and must be opened using a deadbolt.

This is important if you plan to keep your door unlocked most of the time because these handles will not have a latch to keep closed so keep this in mind. We only use wrought iron pull handles on our custom wrought iron doors. Check out our wrought iron pull handles here.  

Accessories

Included With Purchase

At Black Diamond Iron Doors, almost all accessories is pre-installed and included with purchase. Touchup paint, roller catch, threshold, window knobs, T-astragal, hinges, door sweeps, weatherization, etc is already installed on the doors. Our doors are pre-hung which makes installations a piece of cake. To install our doors, simple set the frame in the opening and then hang the door.

Mesh Screen

When ordering a custom wrought iron door, consider adding a mesh screen so that when you want to open the glass windows on the door, no insects, dirt, smoke, etc will come into your home. Our mesh screens can be added to any wrought iron custom door and are magnetic so the screen can be easily removed.    

Thermal Break Conductors

At Black Diamond Iron Doors, we sell and ship our door nationwide to all 50 states. Our doors are fully insulated with a polyurethane foam which provides up to 50% more insulation than a traditional wood door. Although metal will be cold to the touch in the wintertime, these doors should not freeze unless in extreme cold climates where we would recommend adding thermal breaks to mitigate extreme cold weather and to maximize energy savings. 

However, we can add thermal break conductors to a custom wrought iron door to maximize thermal efficiency to reduce energy costs. Adding thermal break conductors is a tedious process, must be done by hand, and adds 1/8” to the door width. A thermal break essentially cuts the door in half and has a sandwiched look so that cold air cannot easily pass through the metal. 

This option is quite an expensive add on and we only recommend in areas of severe cold weather that is consistently below 20F during most of winter. For more info on thermal break doors, please contact us directly.

Conclusion

If you have made it this far, you can tell there are many different parts to ordering a custom wrought iron door.

At Black Diamond Iron Doors, we only use the highest quality materials, so our doors are durable enough to last a lifetime. As such, we like to keep our customers informed on all the different customizations to make sure they get to order their dream door.

After all, the front entry door is the first thing people see when viewing your house.

To order a custom wrought iron door, please contact us directly at [email protected]