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As much as many homeowners tend to overlook them and focus on the other home interior elements, the truth is that home doors don’t only influence the entire aesthetic of the interior space, but they’re also packed with a bunch of functional features for everyone. So, whether you’re currently moving into a new home, or you’ve decided to replace your home’s old ones, we put together a couple of tips to help you choose the right house doors, covering both their functional and aesthetic features.
Choose the Right Type
Choosing the right home door can be a very daunting task, especially once you realize that the market offers a plethora of different types, each of them having its own advantages. So, before you invest your money into something that won’t serve its purpose, let’s get to know the different types of interior doors:
Flush Doors
This is the simplest door design out of all the types, since it doesn’t feature any panels or patterns, but only plain facings on both sides. Usually, these facings are sandwiched on either side of the core material, which means they’ll allow you to keep their appearance smooth.
In fact, flush doors can feature three types of core- solid, hollow or stave. Solid cores feature solid sheets of materials such as particles of board or foam to completely fill the space between the two facings. Such fillings result in strong, insulated and sound-proof doors.
Hollow cores feature minimal support between the door skin and the frame, which is often in a form of corrugated cardboard in a lattice or honeycomb formation. Finally, the mixture between these two cores is the stave core. In fact, stave cores are constructed by wooden slats that are stacked and fixed one on top of the other. This means that you’re getting a rigid, yet aesthetically pleasing door, and all of this without paying a fortune for it.
Panel Doors
Panel doors are one of the most commonly used types, so don’t be surprised if your favourite hardware store is overflowed by this type. Such doors can be found in a huge range of styles- from the modern designs featuring two vertically stacked panels to the traditional ones featuring more than 10 horizontal panels.
Cottage Doors
Cottage doors are the traditional type featuring vertical planks which run the full length of the door. These planks can be placed from edge to edge or encased within the door’s border. Such doors are often made from oak, which makes them sturdy, hard, rustic and perfect for both, traditional or contemporary styled homes.
Get the Right Material
But once you decide to hit the market and explore the various home door designs, besides choosing the right type it’s important to pay attention to the material they’re made from.
Solid Wood Materials
If you were aiming to choose something that will look gorgeous and last for long and long years, then don’t hesitate to choose from the solid wood household doors. These doors are made from woods such as oak, maple, walnut or cherry tree which makes them solid, resistant to any kinds of chipping and cracking and very aesthetically pleasing at the same time. But have in mind that for this quality you’ll have to pay a little bit more than for the other materials.
Solid Core Materials
Some doors can be made from solid cores which are often a moulded composite exterior or plywood and filled with wooden blends. Such doors offer great insulation, but they aren’t that resistant to heat and moisture and therefore not that suitable for humid areas such as bathrooms. This is why they’re less expensive than the ones made from solid woods, which makes them perfect for those who want to spare a couple of pennies.
MDF Materials
MDF (Medium-density fibreboard) is an engineered wooden material that is mostly made up of recycled wood fibres. This makes MDF doors sustainable, eco-friendly and yet very affordable. Also, MDF house doors are way more resistant to moisture and heat, which makes them a durable option that is suitable for the entire household.
Except for this, MDF made doors offer a smooth texture, which means that it won’t be hard at all to paint them once you get fed up with the current colour or you simply want to give your doors a makeover.
Pick the Right Size
Even if you choose the perfect type of door and the most durable material, know that your investment won’t have any purpose if you don’t get the right size. But if you don’t know how to choose it, don’t worry since you can always determine it by using a simple measuring tape.
So first of all, it’s important to determine the width of the door, and for this purpose, you should measure the top, middle and the bottom of the frame opening where you’re about to place the door. The widest measurement you record is the perfect width for your new door.
The same concept should also be applied to measure the door’s height, so once again, measure the left, centre and right points within the frame and use the longest length to determine the height.
Once you get and record the right dimensions, make sure you compare them to the sizes available on the market. At this point, know that many of the internal doors for sale will require some trimming, but have in mind that not all of them can be trimmed equally. So, before you purchase the door you like the most, it’s best to check the amount you can trim so you can achieve the perfect fit.
Think About the Finish
Once you choose all the functional features, it’s time to wake up the designer in yourself and choose the aesthetic ones to match the entire home design. At this point, it’s important to think about the finish of the door- will you go for a painted or luxury real wood veneer, or smooth laminate finishes will complement your contemporary home more?
Also, don’t forget to think about the option to choose different finishes for different parts of the home. For instance, the gorgeous walnut veneer finishes are perfect to give another natural element to your Scandinavian styled living room and saloon area, while white primed doors are more suitable to enhance the “cleanliness” of your bathrooms and “calmness” of your bedrooms.
So, now that you know what to consider, don’t hesitate to hit the market and explore the various household doors for sale. Once you choose the right model for each area, we’re sure your home will become a more pleasant space to spend time at.
