The addition of door sidelights can transform the appearance of your home. By using these frosted and bevelled glazed panels, you can create an eye-catching front door and let natural light flood into your home while maintaining privacy.
As an aesthetic and inviting entrance, sidelights are often installed with main doors. Sidelights can also be installed with patio doors in order to enhance the light in your living room while saving wall space when compared to wider French doors.
While sidelights are most commonly associated with front doors, they can also be fitted alongside patio or French doors, offering the same benefits of additional glazing and style.
Sidelights are far more than a purely decorative feature. They provide practical advantages that can significantly improve your home’s entryway experience:
Many UK homes have hallways or entrance corridors that are naturally dark, especially in terraced houses or properties without large front windows. Sidelights introduce extra daylight without compromising privacy when paired with patterned, frosted, or stained glass.
A door with sidelights instantly looks more sophisticated and architecturally balanced. Whether your home is modern or traditional, a thoughtfully chosen sidelight design can elevate its appearance and make it stand out on your street.
Sidelights can be customised with various glazing styles – from simple clear glass for maximum light to frosted, bevelled, or patterned designs for privacy and elegance. Frames can match your door colour for a coordinated look or contrast for a bold design statement.
By allowing light to filter in and providing a visual connection to the outdoors, sidelights create an airy, spacious feeling in your hallway. This can make even compact entrances feel more open and inviting.
Modern sidelights are typically made with high-performance double glazing or even triple glazing, ensuring that you can enjoy the benefits of added light without losing warmth. Many also include thermal breaks and weather seals to help maintain energy efficiency.
When selecting sidelights, it’s essential to balance functionality, security, and style. Here are a few key considerations:
The material you choose for your sidelights should ideally match or complement your entrance door. Options include:
Timber – Warm and classic, ideal for period or traditional homes.
uPVC – Low-maintenance and cost-effective, available in a variety of colours and finishes.
Aluminium – Sleek, modern, and strong, perfect for contemporary designs.
Your choice of glass will affect the look, privacy, and energy performance of your sidelights:
Clear Glass – Maximises light and visibility.
Frosted or Satin Glass – Maintains brightness while ensuring privacy.
Leaded or Stained Glass – Adds decorative charm, particularly suited to heritage properties.
Patterned Glass – Offers texture and style with varying privacy levels.
Since sidelights are typically positioned at hand height, it’s important to consider security. Look for toughened or laminated safety glass, secure glazing beads, and robust locking systems to protect your home.
The size of your sidelights should complement the proportions of your entranceway. Narrow sidelights work well with standard single doors, while wider panels are more suited to large, double-door entrances.
If you want a cohesive, elegant look, match your sidelight frame colour to your door. However, if you’re aiming for a more contemporary style, a contrasting frame can make a bold design statement.
Some popular UK combinations include:
Anthracite Grey Door with Clear-Glazed Sidelights – A sleek, modern pairing.
Traditional Oak Door with Leaded Glass Sidelights – Perfect for period charm.
White Composite Door with Frosted Sidelights – Timeless and bright.
Installing sidelights alongside your entrance door typically requires professional fitting to ensure security, weatherproofing, and a seamless finish. The installation process may include:
Measuring the full entrance width and determining the optimal sidelight size.
Removing the existing frame and preparing the opening.
Installing a new frame designed to accommodate both the door and sidelights.
Securing the sidelights with proper sealing to prevent drafts and water ingress.
An entrance door's sidelights, also called side panels, flank one or both sides of the entrance door so that larger openings can be accommodated. To let natural light into your home, designs with glass are fitted with decorative double-glazed designs.
Window sidelights are narrow windows that are installed next to a door or a large window in the glazing industry. A porch or entrance that is much wider than the average door width is likely to have them on one or both sides of the doorway. You can choose something different like patterned glass, even if the frames match the door's colour, or go with something in keeping with the style of the door.
By adding sidelights to your home, you will be able to bring in more natural light. Many homes have a dark corridor immediately following the front door without artificial lighting. Sidelights are a great option for wide doorways, even if you can also add glazed panels to your front door.
With a sidelight, your front door not only lets in additional light and opens up your hallway, but also adds a unique touch.
The beauty, sophistication, and style of front doors with sidelights create a majestic entrance to the exterior of your home. Our external doors with frosted, double-glazed, and clear-glazed sidelights will provide your home with a great first impression. They look great, are amazingly durable, and will last for years to come.
Sidelights for front doors vary in price depending on your preferences. The models and sizes are available in a variety of sizes and shapes, as well as with or without glazing bars. Also, sidelights are available in various colours and materials and can be fitted with different types of glass.
Composite Doors With Sidelights
Homeowners today can choose from a variety of solid and secure composite door options. In addition to being stylish, they offer a wide range of customisable options, so you can make your dream design your own. You can choose matching side panels to complete the look, as well as optional accessories such as handles and letter plates.
For larger openings where you might wish to replace your entrance door screens, we offer matching sidelights that complement our trimmable composite external doors. Add a matching full or half-height composite side panel to your new or replacement composite door. Inside or outside, you can choose from any of our colours.
In addition to matching the colour of the door, the sidelights should have the same material or stain. You can, however, incorporate one or more of those colours around exterior doors if your home has a colour scheme that includes multiple colours that work together.
A front door is typically 36 inches wide but can be ordered in 2-inch increments in either direction. Similar to front doors, sidelights are typically built in 2-inch increments, usually 12 or 14 inches in diameter.
You can add beautiful sidelights to your home by adding them to either side of a door or other fixture. The sidelight curtains can cause privacy issues, so installing sidelight curtain rods can help but this can in turn reduce the amount of light that enters the home.
