A Bifold Pass-Through Window Connects a Kitchen to a Three-Season Room

Built in 1970, this Sioux Falls home has a kitchen that sits right beside a three-season room lined with windows and surrounded by mature trees. The two rooms shared a wall but little else. Whoever was working at the kitchen sink faced a wall, while the rest of the household gathered on the other side of it.

When the homeowners took on a remodel of the entire kitchen and the connecting three-season room, they wanted the two spaces to finally work together. Working with Pride Built Homes and Pella Windows & Doors of Sioux Falls, they added a new opening in the kitchen wall directly above the sink and fitted it with a Pella® Reserve — Contemporary Bifold Window. Three glass panels fold to one side, turning the countertop into a pass-through between the kitchen and the three-season room.

Because the remodel covered both the kitchen and the three-season room, the homeowners had the chance to rethink how the two rooms related to each other instead of updating each one on its own. Their priority was a stronger connection between indoor and outdoor living: a way to cook and clean up in the kitchen while still being part of whatever was happening in the room next door. 

A pass-through window suited that goal better than another doorway would have. Placed over the sink, it keeps the person at the counter facing the three-season room and turns the countertop itself into the point where the two spaces meet.

Unlike a replacement project, there was no existing window here to swap out. The opening didn’t exist yet when the window was ordered, so the remodeling team at Pride Built Homes cut and framed it into the wall as part of the kitchen renovation. Their work set the stage for everything that followed, from the placement over the sink to the finished trim around the opening. 

Because the window was going into freshly framed walls rather than an old window frame, it was ordered for a new construction-style installation with installation fins applied at the factory. Those fins fasten the window directly to the surrounding framing, which helps secure it and tie it into the wall around it. 

The window arrived unassembled, which can make a multi-panel unit easier to bring into a home in the middle of a remodel. Pella’s installation team assembled it on site and set it into the new opening. From there, the remodeling team handled the trim on both sides so the finished opening would match the new kitchen and three-season room.

A bifold window is made of hinged glass panels that fold against one another like an accordion. In this kitchen, all three panels fold and stack together at one end of the opening. Where a sliding window always leaves one panel overlapping another, a bifold can clear nearly the entire opening when it’s open. 

The panels swing outward into the three-season room rather than back toward the kitchen. That keeps the folded glass away from the faucet and countertop, so the sink area stays fully usable whether the window is open or closed.

With the window open, the countertop becomes a shared surface. The kitchen side stays set up for cooking and cleanup, while the other side serves as bar seating in the three-season room. 

The window uses a flush sill finished in black, so there’s no raised threshold to lift plates or glasses over when passing things from one side to the other. The dark finish reads as a thin line between the two surfaces rather than a barrier. 

Every panel uses tempered glass on both panes. For a window at counter height, where people lean in, reach through and set things down close to the glass, that choice matters. Tempered glass is built to be stronger than standard glass and, if it does break, it breaks into small pieces rather than sharp shards.

A three-season room isn’t meant to be used through the coldest part of the year, and the homeowners planned for that. When the room is closed up for the season, the bifold window closes and separates the kitchen from a space that isn’t in use. 

The panels use insulated glass with Low-E coatings and argon gas between the panes, designed to help limit how much heat moves through the glass. That helps the kitchen hold its temperature when the room next door is cold. 

When the window is closed, a multipoint locking system secures the panels at more than one point along the frame. That helps hold the panels snug against the frame for a tighter seal, and it adds a layer of security that a single latch wouldn’t provide.

The window’s contemporary design keeps the look simple, with squared-off panels and no grilles, so the view into the three-season room isn’t broken up by extra lines. On the three-season room side, the frame carries a factory-painted finish in Fossil, a soft neutral that sits comfortably among the room’s light-toned window frames. 

The wood interior was left unfinished, giving the remodeling team the flexibility to trim and finish the kitchen side of the opening along with the rest of the new kitchen. The brown hardware picks up the dark tones of the kitchen’s fixtures, so the window reads as part of the design rather than an add-on.

What started as a wall between two rooms is now a connection the homeowners can open or close as the seasons change. When the three-season room is in use, the panels fold away and the countertop links the kitchen to the people gathered next door. When the room isn’t in use, the window closes and locks, keeping the kitchen comfortable until the weather turns again.