French Windows & Doors in Napa Valley & San Francisco
If you are building or restoring a French country, Provençal, or château-style home in Northern California, the windows set the character of the whole house. And there is a reason the look feels at home here: Napa and Sonoma are wine country, with the light, the landscape, and the indoor-outdoor life of Provence itself. Chablais brings the real thing — authentic French casements and doors, custom-made in premier European workshops, and delivered to your Bay Area or wine-country project by someone who has built these by hand.
Why French design belongs in Northern California
The parallel with Provence is not a marketing line — it is the climate and the way people live. Wine-country estates open to vineyards and terraces the way a Provençal mas opens to the garden, and the French window was made for exactly that. In San Francisco, the appetite is different but just as strong: period homes and careful renovations that want authentic European character rather than an off-the-shelf approximation. Either way, the window is where it shows.
Built for California
A French window in Northern California has to meet real local conditions. We help you specify for what matters here:
- Energy (Title 24) — thermal glazing chosen to meet California’s strict energy code.
- Seismic — units specified to work with the structural and seismic requirements of Bay Area construction.
- Coastal and wildfire — corrosion-resistant hardware and finishes for coastal exposure, and tempered glazing options for wildfire-zone (WUI) requirements in the wine country and the hills.
- Scale and light — the large, custom openings California homes love, opening to gardens, vineyards, and views.
Every unit is custom-made to your exact sizes, so the window fits the architecture rather than the architecture bending to a catalog.
Bay Area & wine-country projects — common questions
Can you match a Provençal or French-country look, or a specific home? Yes. Send us reference images or your architect’s elevations and we will work from them — proportions, divided-lite patterns, hardware, and finish.
Do the windows meet California energy (Title 24) and seismic requirements? Yes. We specify thermal glazing for Title 24 and detail each unit to work with the project’s structural and seismic requirements.
Do you deliver to Napa, San Francisco, and the Peninsula? Yes — anywhere in Northern California. Chablais handles freight, customs, and delivery, and stays involved through installation.
Where these homes are built
Across the Bay Area and the wine country, these projects cluster in a handful of places:
- Napa & Sonoma — vineyard estates and Provençal or French-country homes.
- San Francisco — Pacific Heights and historic renovations where period character matters.
- The Peninsula — Atherton, Hillsborough, Woodside, and Palo Alto.
- Marin — Ross, Belvedere, and the hills.
Wherever your project sits, Chablais delivers to it.
Why homeowners choose Chablais
A few things set us apart, and they matter most on a home like yours:
- A builder’s eye. Chablais was founded by a builder who carved wood as a boy and built an entire house by hand — windows included — before twenty-five years in European fenestration. We read your drawings the way the workshop will.
- The right workshop for your home. We are not one factory with one catalog. We source each window from the European workshop best suited to your design and budget — including French-made, in solid French oak, when provenance is part of the brief.
- Personal service. We bring samples to you, so you can see and feel the wood, the finish, and the cremone hardware in your own home before you commit to anything.
The window at the heart of these homes is the true French casement — à la française, with its cremone bolt and flush frame. See the full product, materials, and specifications on our La Française page.
Homeowners, architects, and builders
Most of our Northern California projects start with the homeowner — often working from a home they love or a rendering of the one they are building. We are just as glad to work alongside your architect or builder, with direct technical support and shop drawings for the full window and door package.
Tell us about your home — a few photos or your architect’s drawings and the look you are after is enough to begin. We will help you choose the material, the configuration, and the right path for your budget, and prepare a proposal built around your project.
French windows and doors for château-style projects across the US, including Texas, New York, and nationwide.
