Doors with Side Lights

A door with side lights is an entrance set where fixed glazed panels are hung either side of the leaf, so the whole opening becomes one wider, brighter element. It is the standard answer for a hallway with no window: the side light carries daylight past the door without weakening the door itself.

What to check before you order

Measure the full structural opening rather than the existing door, then confirm the handing and the threshold height. The glazing in an external side light must be double glazed and toughened or laminated, and the complete set has to meet the thermal requirement of Approved Document L.

Our current set is an unfinished external oak door with clear bevelled glass and a matching side light, so it needs sealing on all faces before it is exposed to the weather. Side lights are also sold on their own in side panels for external doors. Order a matching external frame, and compare leaves in glazed external doors, composite external doors and the wider external doors range. Internal versions are internal side panels.

A complete entrance in one order

These sets pair an external door leaf with a matching glazed side light, so the whole entrance arrives designed to go together rather than assembled from parts that nearly match. The rails, mouldings, timber and glazing detail line through, which is exactly what is hardest to achieve when a leaf and a panel are bought separately from different ranges.

What a side light does for a hallway

Most British entrance halls have no window at all, so the only daylight comes through the front door. Adding a side light typically doubles or trebles the glazed area without enlarging the door itself, which keeps the leaf a sensible weight and width while transforming how the hall feels. Bevelled and obscured glazing lets the light through while keeping the hall private from the path.

Ordering the right set

Measure the structural opening brick to brick, in three places for both width and height, and record the reveal depth. Confirm the handing of the door and which side the side light sits, because an external set is made to one hand and cannot be reversed later. Unfinished oak sets must be sealed on every face and edge, including the top and bottom, before they go into service. Check the frame requirement in external frames, compare separate panels in side panels for external doors, and see other options in external doors, glazed external doors and composite external doors. Specify weather-rated ironmongery from door hardware and read front doors: costs and considerations.