When you have a fantastic view that you want to incorporate into your home, you need windows that are as big as doors. In a sense, that is what patio doors are. They are a wonderful aesthetic and functional addition to your house that allows you to literally merge the indoors and outdoors. When closed, they provide an uninterrupted view of the outdoors and when open, they open up the room and extend it into the outdoors.

A lot of homeowners default to one style for their patio doors, but there are currently plenty of options out there to suit your home's style and structural needs. So here are two common options you can consider:

French Doors

These are a common choice for a lot of homeowners because they actually tend to look like windows and blend in almost seamlessly with the rest of your home's windows. There are two types of French doors:

• The in-swing doors
• The out-swing doors

The main difference is that the first swings into the room while the other doors swing towards the outside. A major consideration with the in-swing doors is how much indoor space you have to accommodate these doors, while with the out-swing doors, you need to think about protecting the door from being slammed and damaged by the wind.

There is one limitation, however, with these French doors; the size of the doors can only go up to 1.8 meters. This is because the frame needs to be able to adequately support the two hinged doors, which would get heavier, and unsafe, if they were any larger.

Sliding Doors

As the name suggests, the mechanism of these doors is that the panels slide within the door frame and into pockets in the walls of the room. This way, you can create a seamless merger between the room and the outdoors. It is especially popular for spaces that lead into a pool area.

There are various types of sliding doors ranging from the French sliders with two fixed outer panels and two mobile inner panels to the telescoping sliding doors that can have as many panels as you want that slide past each other.

If you want to really open up a room, then these are the best option for your home since these doors can be designed to be as wide as you like. In fact, you can have an entire wall of a room replaced by these sliding doors to create a magnificent room. The only challenge here is that you will need several tracks needed each sliding panel which will affect the width of your threshold and the general look of the room.

Both of these doors come in various materials ranging from timber to aluminium. They can be bought readymade or custom-built into your home. So choosing between them will depend on the architectural style of your home, how much you are willing to spend and what you envision as the perfect patio space for your home.