We’ve all been spending a lot more time at home over the past 18 months and time spent staring at the same four walls has inspired many of us to renovate our living spaces, giving our homes a new lease of life inside and out.
Star Doors is a new business, based in Ipswich, that provides high quality external doors to people taking on a home makeover. Run by sisters Alicja Stalmierska and Anna Wisniewska, the family business opened its showroom to the public earlier this month, and has now set its sights on building a strong reputation for quality products in the local area. Later in the year, Star Doors will be expanding its offering to include a range of windows.
Anna Wisniewska, sales and marketing manager at Star Doors says: “We definitely want people to know who we are and what we do, and the quality of what we sell is definitely key to that.”
The duo was inspired to start up the business when Alicja’s husband – who owns and operates a building company – remarked how many of his customers were looking to replace windows and doors on their homes as part of larger renovation projects.
“We had been looking at launching the business for quite a long time,” says Anna, “but Covid made it quite hard to start anything new, so we thought let's hold fire on that for now.”
The sisters put their heads together and used lockdown as an opportunity to research the market and create a strong foundation from which to launch Star Doors.
“Now, we’ve got the showroom, which has seven sets of doors for people to look at,” says Anna. “With products like this, you do want to see them before you buy rather than just looking at them in a catalogue.”
Star Doors’ products are manufactured by SplenDoor, a Polish producer that supplies doors, windows and joinery throughout Europe. “It has a massive variety of options that you can choose from, not only are there different types of doors and windows, but you can also pick and choose your own colour, different door handles, and more,” comments Anna.
Currently, Star Doors’ offerings include standard, steel, premium, aluminium and hybrid doors, which can be customised to suit the customer’s preferences.
There are options to include windows and fanlights in the doors in many different styles, as well as a number of optional extras such as fingerprint entry systems, proximity and code opening mechanisms, electric strike locks and anti-burglary rosettes.
Alicja and Anna endeavour to ensure that customers are informed in their decisions and choose the right product to suit their lifestyles. The team is happy to visit people at their own homes to discuss their needs, measure the space and advise them on what would work best for them.
After the customer has chosen their shiny new door, it can be manufactured by SplenDoor in as little as six weeks. “Once we have an estimate on when the doors will arrive, we speak to the customer and arrange when is best for them to have the doors installed,” says Anna. Quality is the focus in every step of the process, and the whole team thrives on providing an excellent end product.
At the heart of Star Doors is Alicja and Anna, and the business truly is a family endeavour, from day-to-day operations right down to the logo itself, which was designed by Anna. Moving forwards, the sisters are working to make Star Doors a nationally recognised brand.
“My sister and I do get on really well,” Anna concludes. “We’ve got a great connection and I think, together, we can do great things with this business.”
Star Doors is located at 11 Bailey Close, Hadleigh Road Industrial Estate, Ipswich, IP2 0UD. For more information or to book an appointment in the showroom, please email stardooripswich@gmail.com or call 07592 668 938.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here