Finishing Touch

Designer doors complete a modern renovation

Photography by Rachel Tenpenny

Dr. Stephen Fesik took the interior of his decades-old, traditional Forest Hills house and transformed it into a clean-lined modern masterpiece. His style upgrade made his home the kind of place worthy of showing off, so next up was making it a hub of entertaining. The back patio and pool got new decking, and he added a bar and pool house with bathrooms.

Things still were not complete; everything was fresh and modern, all the way to the new back doors from Pella’s Architect Series Contemporary. The old front door just did not fit in.

“It was a really traditional door,” says designer Melissa Frederiksen of Atmosphere 360. “When we flipped the whole interior to super-contemporary modern, it was an eyesore. We painted it and hoped it would go away.”

It didn’t.

After living with it a bit, Fesik was ready to make the exterior upgrade. He had the brick painted a fresh, light gray with dramatic black accents and added a slate roof. Then it certainly didn’t seem right to modernize everything else and leave visitors’ first impression of his home mired in the past.

“He decided to order the front door,” Frederiksen says.

Pella’s Architect Series Contemporary appealed because of its narrow lines and contemporary hardware, and the exteriors could be made black while the interior was custom-matched white with sleek chrome hardware and foldaway cranks. Plus, they are all made to showcase beautifully unobstructed views, balancing exposure to the outside while improving energy efficiency — another plus, since Fesik’s old doors were letting cold air in through the cracks.

The result is an expansive finishing touch on Fesik’s contemporary remodel, replacing heavy wood with a custom-all glass option from Pella’s Architect Series Contemporary. It matched the windows and back patio doors, and it also accommodated the existing sidelights and curved transom. For privacy, Fesik can lower a large-scale commercial shade at night with the push of a button.

“The wooden door kind of closed up the room. We didn’t even realize how much until he got rid of it,” Frederiksen says. “Now he has a clear view during the day. There also was a lack of light in the living room because he’s in the woods — so it was nice to open that up and show off the great view of the trees across the street.”