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Why are French doors called French doors?

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“Americans continue to call doors 'french' because that word holds a certain prestige. It impresses people in conversation,” said Elizabeth Maletz, who runs an architectural firm and has helped renovate many brownstones in New York. “That's real estate agent vocabulary. read more

French doors are actually windows that act like doors. A french door has mullions and muntins. The original door in France was wood and metal with embedded glass to let light through. So to be a “french” door, there has to be glass embedded in wood muntins, though the original french doors had much less glass embedded into the wood. read more

French doors first appeared in the 17th century as a french design called casement doors because they began as window casements reached the floor. When used as interior doors the multiple windows allowed natural light to go from room to room in the years before electricity. read more

Glass french doors soon replaced the wooden doors between two rooms, or they were drilled into the bulkhead, allowing more light to enter a home’s interior. Like many different architectural elements of the Renaissance, these new French-style windows first spread to Great Britain and then to the United States. read more

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