An often neglected yet relatively affordable way to significantly enhance your home.

Interior doors are one of the most neglected features in many homes, and are often underestimated by homeowners for their aesthetic and functional potential.

A boost in the quality of your interior doors is an excellent way to enhance the look and feel (and value) of your home, create the illusion of space, and help soundproof any room. When done right, an upgrade can add richness and elegance to any domicile.

Since commercial builders typically use inexpensive materials in order to control costs, it is common for buyers to inherit a set of the standard, hollow core, six-panel variety—the cheapest and most common doors available on the market today.

Kevin Rockwell, owner of Moulding Warehouse, says that in the last six years, a flood of new styles have become available to the homeowner, which is good news for those wanting to toss the uninspiring, cookie-cutter variety out with the compost.

“There’s a shaker style, textured and non-textured door now—the five panel being the most popular. Also popular would be the Carrara style door, which is a two panel, smooth door,” says Rockwell.

Glass doors are also big these days because of their reflective quality and many of the new glass doors are opaque and have an attractive sheen.

“It’s all about the glass,” says Rockwell, who adds that one of the wonders of glass is that it allows light to pass through in both directions, while closing off a room. In addition, it can also create the illusion of space.

Some glass varieties come with a stylish row of glass panels and are available in an assortment of woods and finishes. The symmetrical elegance of these multi-panelled glass doors exudes a contemporary and/or Asian feel. The opaque variety is suitable for rooms that would typically require privacy.

Many interesting patterns are now available and can be customized with a window film, quite popular in commercial spaces as well as the home. The film is applied to flat glass and comes in many colours and designs such as venetian blinds, frost, rice paper, stained or cut glass, rippled glass, floral, and ice. Adding window film can give you that extra layer of privacy you might want should you choose glass doors for your office or bedroom. The film can also help you retain a much-desired light source from a brightly lit hallway, while obscuring interior movement to the hallway bystander.

But Rockwell says having some of these effects built into the glass itself is ideal as the films have a tendency to look cheap if not applied properly. Real glass, he adds, is easier to clean as well.

French doors also offer a new twist as caming or mullions are now available in wood, a satin nickel or pewter look, black, and oil rubbed bronze. Standard brass is no longer a popular choice, but is still available, and Rockwell says many don’t realize other options are available to them.

f you just can’t find what you want or need in a door series, Rockwell suggests having your doors custom made to fulfill your vision—however, remember that the lead time on custom doors can be long, but well worth the wait.

Pocket doors are great for areas with limited space as they disappear inside the wall, says Rockwell, and these doors have become quite popular over the years, and can be customized to fit any situation.

Twenty-five year veteran cabinetmaker, Colin Craig of Colin J. Craig Custom Cabinetry, does a lot of custom work for Halifax’s South End residents, and says many of his clients are looking to maintain or refurbish what they already have.

“People want to keep what they have and upgrade and re-establish some of the gentrification in the South End (Halifax). The older homeowners want to match aesthetics from their houses for their additions and are looking for special finishes as well to complement existing finishes. Many people are stripping down old doors and finding that there’s more value in a natural finish than in years of paint. They’ll often find a hidden gem under years of paint layers. Glass can be upgraded, matched and replaced as well. Some of the doors I’ve refurbished made it through the Halifax explosion.”

Although most of Craig’s work is in the early American colonial style, he says that Arts & Crafts, Shaker, and mortise and tenon joint doors are very popular these days, as well as raised panel doors, elliptical tops, oval inset panels, and doors with combination panels and glass-lite.

According to Craig, stained or lead glass have never gone out of style.

“Quality materials and quality workmanship can add beauty and value to your home and it doesn’t hurt the resale value either,” says Craig, who also does a lot of contemporary work.

Choosing a Style

Don’t clash and burn. Of primary importance when choosing the style of your new interior doors is co-ordinating the style throughout the entire house. For example, don’t choose a colonial door because you like it if your house is circa 1960s.

“The first thing I ask people is what the shape of their kitchen cupboards is. Are they square panel or are they curved or shaker style? I also ask them if the cabinets are visible from the same area you’d be viewing the doors. Another consideration is the window style,” says Rockwell.

An important aspect when choosing to upgrade is to remember to take note of the fact that doors come in both hollow and solid varieties and that homeowners choosing their interior doors will usually get a hollow door unless they specify otherwise. Rockwell says solid doors are ideal for the bathroom, bedroom, library or office, as they transfer less sound, whereas closets can be hollow core.

Newer homes these days have high ceilings, which provide more options like transoms (a glass window panel above the door), says Rockwell, who says the transoms of today are more decorative than they used to be and are suitable for the higher end home. Transoms are high enough to allow for privacy but lighten up living spaces. They also lend a sense of grandeur, adding that extra impact to the entrance of a room.

Knobs

Make sure to match knobs as you do doors, always complementing the existing style of the house. You’re going through the expense and effort to replace your doors so go the extra mile and hold out for that perfect fit.  With so many choices available including finishes like oil rubbed bronzed, brushed nickel, black matte or shiny gold, bronze and silver, consider durability and convenience as well as aesthetics to narrow it down. If what you want is not available locally, try perusing on-line to widen your scope of possibilities.

Levers are quite popular these days for their nice clean lines and easy feel and are a great alternative to knobs. Levers are available in a variety of styles, which include swirls, a square look, slim or curve.