A chalet style home in Hastings, fitted with a Smart Designer Front Door and Alitherm Heritage steel look glazing across the front entrance and side elevation. The project gave this 1960s property a bold, contemporary entrance that stands out against the white rendered walls and tile hung upper storey.
The combination of a high security designer front door with glazed side panels and a full height steel look screen on the return elevation creates a strong first impression from the driveway. The black powder coated aluminium contrasts sharply with the white render, giving the front of the house a clean, modern look.
Smart Designer Front Door — Eastleigh Design
The front door is the Eastleigh design from the Smart Designer Door range. This is a solid thermal panel door with horizontal detail lines across the face, giving it a contemporary, architectural feel. A long stainless steel pull handle runs vertically down the door, adding to the modern appearance.
On each side of the door, a glazed side panel lets natural light into the hallway. Both side panels have horizontal glazing bars, designed to match the steel look screen on the adjacent elevation. This ties the entrance together visually, so the door and the glazing read as one coordinated design rather than separate elements.
The Eastleigh is built for security as well as appearance. Every Smart Designer Front Door is manufactured by a specialist fabrication team and tested to PAS 24:2022, the British Standard for enhanced security performance. The door on this project comes with a 10 point locking system, hardened stainless steel pins, drill proof cylinders and hidden hinge protectors.
The construction uses a hidden fixing system with no external glazing beads, meaning the glass panels are fully integrated into the door frame. This removes a potential point of vulnerability and gives the door a cleaner finished look.
Designer Door Security and Performance
Smart Designer Doors are built around security from the outset. The locking system on this door uses a horizontal key with a cross groove profile that aligns with spring loaded pin pairs within the lock. Unauthorised keys cannot operate the mechanism, and the ISEO R7 cylinder is resistant to bumping, picking and drilling.
The door panel itself is 66mm thick with triple glazing and PAS 24 security laminated glass in the side panels. Three adjustable hinges support the door, each resistant to 80kg of pressure. Hidden hinge protectors on the frame side provide additional resistance against forced entry.
All profiles include a polyamide thermal barrier for good thermal performance, and the glass centre pane U value ranges from 0.9 to 1.1 W/m²K depending on the specification. The door is Document L compliant. The powder coated finish is applied to Qualicoat and EN 12206-1 standards, with double rebated EPDM gaskets providing weather protection around the full perimeter.
Alitherm Heritage Steel Look Screen
On the side elevation, next to the front door, we fitted a full height Alitherm Heritage glazed screen in the same black powder coated finish. This is a fixed screen with horizontal and vertical glazing bars, creating the grid pattern associated with traditional steel windows.
The screen wraps around from the front entrance onto the side of the property, bringing a large amount of natural light into the ground floor rooms behind. The glazing bars on the screen line through with those on the door side panels, keeping the proportions consistent across the full width of the front elevation.
The Alitherm Heritage system is thermally insulated with a polyamide thermal break. All glazing has a soft coat low emissivity coating, warm edge spacer bars and argon gas fill. The screen uses toughened safety glass throughout, given its ground floor position.
A Contemporary Entrance for a 1960s Home
This project in Hastings shows how a well-chosen front door from the Newlite Collection and glazing scheme can change the character of a home. The original entrance was functional but unremarkable. The new Designer Door and heritage screen give the property a defined, confident entrance that works with the white render and creates a focal point from the driveway.
The glazing bars on the side panels and the heritage screen tie everything together, while the solid Eastleigh door panel and stainless steel handle provide the contrast. It is a combination of modern design and traditional steel look proportions that suits this type of property well.
Front Doors and Entrance Glazing by Newlite
We supply and fit Smart Designer Front Doors, premium quality composite front doors and aluminium entrance doors across Sussex, Kent and Surrey. Every entrance is different, and we help homeowners choose the right door design, colour, hardware and glazing to suit their property. If you are thinking about a new front door or entrance glazing, we can visit and talk through the options and which material is best for you.
Contact us today for a free quotation and expert advice on choosing the right front door for your home.
