Bifold windows: the kitchen trend that actually suits period homes
18 July 2026
Somewhere in the last few years, the folding "servery" window — a run of glazed panels that concertinas fully open above a kitchen counter — went from restaurant trick to the most requested feature in period-house kitchen renovations. Done in timber, it deserves the popularity: total openness in summer, a proper insulated wall of glass in winter.
Window or doors? The decision is simpler than it looks. If the opening sits above worktop height — a counter to the garden, a pass-through to outdoor seating — you want a bifold window (ours run from 1800mm to 3000mm wide). If people will walk through it, you want bifold doors (2400mm to 4200mm, at standard door height). The two share construction and hardware logic; the difference is what's underneath the opening.
Keeping it in period character. The trick with any big glazed opening in an old house is to let it be honestly new while speaking the same language as the original windows. Three ways to do that: match the RAL colour of your sashes (or deliberately contrast — anthracite against white sashes is the classic modern-extension move); consider Georgian-bar layouts on the leaves if the house's windows have bars; and keep the frames timber, so the new opening and the hundred-year-old windows age the same way.
The practical bits. Timber bifolds run on a track with the leaves folding to one side — tell us which side suits your kitchen. Wooden cills and lockable flush bolts are part of the construction conversation on your drawings, which — like every order — you approve before anything is made. As with all our products, supply-only: your builder or fitter installs, with the drawings giving them everything they need.