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Interior doors do sound like the least complicated part of home decoration and remodeling, but they actually make a huge impact on your home’s interior. You may not be aware of this now, but when push comes to shove, you’ll quickly realize just how important the style of your doors actually is. With this in mind, we’ve come up with a tutorial of sorts on how to choose a perfect door for your bedroom.
In This Post:
Knowing what You Need
Materials and colors are the least of your problems, yet people usually focus their attention on them first. Here are some things you should consider before you start choosing the color and material of your door:
Operational style
When you think ‘doors’ you probably instantly imagine a piece of wood swinging on hinges or pivots. Well, there’s more to interior doors than this. While swinging doors come in a wide variety and aren’t too difficult to install, sliding doors are a better choice for smaller spaces, for obvious reasons.
Regular or prehung doors
- – If you are remodeling, you probably already have a frame, in which case you don’t need anything but a door. If you are planning on replacing both the door and the frame, a prehung unit is a great choice!
Outwards or inwards
- Another question you need to ask yourself is a rather simple one: do you want your door swinging outwards, or inwards. The best way to decide is to see how everything looks like once the door is fully open, and don’t forget about other furniture as you wouldn’t want anything blocking your door.
Door size
- – The major rule when fitting a door in an existing frame is that they should be around 1/8 inch smaller than the frame in terms of both length and width. Similarly, if you’re installing prehung doors, the two measurements should also be 1/8 inch smaller than the opening in the wall.
Material and Design
Once you’ve chosen the door type, it is time for a more creative part.
When picking the right material for your bedroom door, keep in mind that wood is usually the most affordable one. On the other hand, it has the shortest lifespan. Most commonly, they can be found in three material types: solid wood, solid-core and hollow-core. Solid wood doors have the most natural look and feel. The benefit of opting for solid wood instead of hollow-core isn’t only outlined in terms of lifespan and durability – solid wood is more efficient in blocking sound, which is very important for a bedroom door. Solid-core doors, on the other hand, are made from plywood and molded composite and, although they are cheaper, they feel similar to solid wood doors. Hollow-core doors are the cheapest of the three – they consist of a wood frame and plywood or hardwood surface, but are filled with rigid cardboard.
When it comes to finishes, they can do you a world of good – wood stain finishes, for example, can even make your steel or aluminum door bring out a traditional or bungalow atmosphere. However, satin finishes, when applied to solid wood doors can even further emphasize the wood grain.
We bet you didn’t expect this amount of science behind objects as simple as bedroom doors. We hope that this article will make you dig a bit deeper when doing a home, or a bedroom remodel. After all, doors do play a vital role in a home’s interior design.