Internal doors provide a personal touch to your home that truly reflects your taste. This guide was prepared to help you understand the different interior door types, finishes, and different types of materials that can be used to produce doors to give them a stylish look.
Understanding the Different Interior Door Types
It is very important that internal doors match the overall style of your home. Manufacturers offer a huge selection of different designs and coatings so that you can choose the perfect option for your interior. Check out different types of interior models:
French
French interior doors are the doors where most of the slab is occupied by glass. They are perfect for both classic and modern interiors. Such models allow much light to the room and give the feeling of open space.
Manufacturers use durable tempered glass in the production of doors. It withstands impact well, so it is safe for all family members. French doors can be glazed by frosted or clear glass. The choice depends on how important it is for the homeowner to maintain privacy in the room.
Barn
A barn door is a slab that opens along a wall. Despite its sizes, the slab opens easily. Such models are used in many modern interiors, especially in the loft style.
Barn doors fit perfectly into any room with limited space — they open conveniently and don’t create obstacles. They are also often used as screens, partitions in libraries, shelving, dressing rooms, and pantries.
Sliding
The main benefit of such models is their ergonomics. The design, which doesn’t swing forward, but slides along the wall or into a special ‘pocket’, saves space significantly. The purpose of sliding doors is not only to distinguish between different rooms, but also to create separate zones within the same room.
There are several types of sliding doors depending on the installation method: barn, pocket, magic, bifold, bypass. All these options look stylish and fit different interior styles, including classic.
Glass
Unlike French doors, ordinary glass doors have only a few glass panels. This model can be a great alternative to a blank slab. Glass delimits the space and doesn’t interfere with the penetration of light at the same time.
Panels can be transparent or frosted. Opaque ones are usually installed in bathroom or toilet doors. Transparent are great for the dining room, living room, study and other common rooms.
Panel
Panel interior doors are perfect for a classic interior. Panel cutting is done by professional equipment, that’s why they are even and neat. Often glass is inserted into the slab to give a more original look.
They provide good sound insulation, which is why such models are often installed in the bedroom or living room. Panel doors can have a decorative finish or be designed for subsequent painting.
Flush
Flush interior doors have a versatile design and fit into any design. They have an acceptable cost and are easy to maintain. They are especially frequently used in modern homes, where simplicity of lines is important.
The design of the flush door depends on the owner’s preferences. For example, to compensate for the ‘simple’ design, the slab can be painted in a bright color to make it an accent in the interior.
In such doors, the panel is hidden in a ‘pocket’ in the wall. When fully opened, the slab is completely hidden from view. It saves space when opening, and also does not interfere with the movement or arrangement of furniture. Such a construction can be installed in the kitchen, dining room, living room, and other rooms.
Keep in mind that pocket doors do not provide as effective sealing as traditional swing doors. This means that noise, light and smells can enter the room.
Bifold
Bifold doors are effectively regular paneled models sliced in half. Central hinges connect two panels, and the two sections can be folded together when a door handle is affixed to the inner panel. Such construction saves space, and they are often installed in wardrobes, bathrooms, pantries.
The second significant advantage of the bifold models is noiselessness and safety. If the installation was done with high quality, then no sounds will accompany the process of opening and closing sections. In addition, the installation of bifold interior doors doesn’t require the installation of a threshold.
Double
Double interior doors improve the appearance and feel of your house. They are perfect for homes with large doorways. This is no longer just a space delimiter, but a real custom portal, beautiful and noticeable. If your home is designed in a modern style, you can choose sliding double sliding construction.
Accordion
Accordion interior and exterior doors are still employed for space-saving designs. They are folded with vertical folds that are supported by rollers on an upper portion of the track. When the door is opened, it folds accordion-style and may be re-closed by pulling shut to undo the folds.
Slab sizes can be different. But this kind of door is quite often recommended by designers for installation in small rooms, as well as bathrooms and pantries. The mechanism of their closing allows you to significantly save space. The accordion doors can have a blank slab or glass insertions.
Slab
The slab is most commonly used for a remodel where an existing frame is present. Usually homeowners order one slab if the old frame is strong and reliable enough. It is also a great option if the client wants to speed up and simplify the process of updating the doorway: there is no need to carry out serious work including the destruction of the wall and cutting the frames.
Finally, ordering only one slab is much cheaper than a complete set. Thanks to this option, it is possible to update the doors relatively inexpensively.
What are the Different Interior Door Finish Options?
Choosing a finish is another important consideration when buying a new door. The range of slab treatments available is very large today, so it is easy for the buyer to get confused.
Most often, the door slab can be finished, unfinished, or primed. There is a brief description of each finish below in the article.
Primed
Primed doors for painting are semi-finished products that the future owner transforms and improves on his own. At the same time, he/she should take into account his own tastes and views on interior aesthetics. As a result, each model designed in-house can be exclusive.
Having bought a primed door, the homeowner needs to consider the artistic features of the space: its style, color palette, decor. It is also necessary to take into account the purpose of the room and the operating conditions.
Usually the slab is primed in white. It is already ready for further painting and does not need additional sanding or other processing.
Stained
Stain is frequently used instead of painting. This material allows you to accurately recreate the structure of real wood, which will make even cheap models more presentable.
A stained slab can have any tone and color of the surface. Thanks to this, the owner can significantly improve the color or completely change it. However, the stain is used not only for the sake of aesthetic functions. It perfectly penetrates into the wood, impregnates the pores and protects the surface from harmful effects.
Often stain is used in combination with varnish. The stain penetrates deep into the wood, where it forms a protective barrier against moisture and fading. The varnish creates a decorative sheen on the door, and also additionally protects against moisture.
Prefinished
This type of door already has a ready finish, made at the factory with the help of professional equipment. The advantage of a prefinished slab is that once you purchase the door, you won’t need to prime or paint it yourself. This saves a lot of time when installing the construction. In addition, such doors are often prehung.
Prefinished doors are covered with paint, varnish and other materials. Machine application in factory conditions gives you the ideal quality of the coating. The homeowner can be sure that the door finish will last for many years.
Unfinished
Unfinished interior doors give you a wide range of possibilities for their finishing. There are countless options in terms of color and effect. The slabs can be painted in almost any color or shade with a matte, satin or glossy finish. In addition, unfinished doors usually cost less than finished ones.
Unfinished models are often painted with enamel. Many people can handle this process on their own. It’s quite common to paint a wood door white. The enamel on the slab creates a protective layer that makes the slab resistant to temperature and moisture negative impact. This paint is economical, wear-resistant and dries quickly.
What Interior Door Cores do Manufacturers Offer?
The core can be made of different materials. We will describe the main advantages of the most popular options below.
Hollow Core Interior Doors
Interior doors with a hollow core have a frame made of natural wood. The core is a honeycomb or lattice of cardboard, foam, or a combination of both. The frame and core support the veneer surface bonded to the surface on both sides. Hollow core slabs are the most affordable of all models.
Such models are much lighter than solid core ones and are more convenient to handle and hang. However, keep in mind that such a slab allows noise to pass freely through it. Some manufacturers use the EDSR technology that makes the door even stronger than many solid core models. They are well suited for any room of the house including bathroom, closets, dining room, and bedroom.
Solid Core
Solid core doors are usually made from composite wood such as plywood with wood fiber infill inside. Usually such models are painted or lined with birch, oak, fir, beech, alder veneer.
Because slabs are made of composite materials with high density, they can sometimes be much heavier than hollow core ones. The fillers and resin used in their composition also add to their weight. That’s why such models are often sold prehung.
Due to such density, solid core models provide better insulation, temperature control, and superior noise insulation between rooms.
Solid Wood Core
Internal doors made of solid wood have a beautiful look. Each slab is distinguished by a unique pattern, which is unique for each door block in terms of the combination of the texture of individual elements and their milled sections. In addition, wood interior doors are eco-friendly, strong, and provide good thermal and noise insulation.
Wooden models are sensitive to various types of temperature and humidity fluctuations. In order to preserve their original appearance as long as possible and extend their service life, they are processed and covered with special protective agents. Thanks to this, the slabs will serve faithfully for a long time to their owners for many years.
