If you love interior design, then choosing a functional item such as an internal door isn’t just about choosing a door that offers practical value, but it’s about something with aesthetic value too. 

Choosing the right internal doors for your home can further enhance the overall design of your home, whether they are rustic doors, slick minimal doors or Italian design doors; getting the right doors requires a little thought and sometimes some creativity.

In this blog post I will explore some tips to help you pick the perfect internal doors for your home.

Buy cheap, buy twice

A saying that is so well known, but so true and so often forgot, even by my husband and I.  When moving into our home we, at first, really appreciated the natural raw beauty of wood and rather than spend a lot of money on doors, we were happy to install the cheapest raw pine doors throughout.

It turned out to be a mistake as these doors warped and twisted out of shape, leaving many of the doors unable to close or needing to be slammed shut.

Even if you are on a budget, it’s not always wise to pick the cheapest option.  Spending a little more on something high quality will be the difference of your internal doors not being fit for purpose after a couple of years, or standing the test of time.

Over time our own personal taste changed and we replaced all our internal doors with a higher quality white cottage design.  The doors are sturdier and have not warped.  They should last many years to come.

Be creative with your door design

Internal doors definitely don’t have to be boring.  You can easily have some fun and realise your creative streak when it comes to entering and leaving a room.  

One space-saving door that always has a unique feel about it, is a sliding door.  In an industrial themed apartment you can hang a rustic wood sliding door from a black steel pole with rollers. 

In slick modern clean line apartments you can hang see-through glass sliding doors between appropriate rooms. 

The design options are endless!

Frame or no frame?

Whilst we are used to having a frame around our doors, including elaborate architrave in some instances, it’s not a requirement of a door to have a frame around it.

This is something my husband and I have discussed before and he could not imagine having a door without architrave bordering it.  We opted for the narrowest architrave we could get our hands on, but I personally think the rooms would look more spacious, minimal and modern to skip the architrave altogether and have a perfectly finished plaster to the edge of the door.

This is something Italian doors manufacturer Cocif use in their designer door designs – they have created a range of frameless doors whereby the door integrates perfectly with the wall and surrounding environment, not being a separate entity, but flowing with the space in a unique way.

They say “Interior frameless doors allow perfect integration with the wall and the environment, which is why they are the ideal solution for combining light and minimalism, aesthetics needs and space, volumes and stylistic purity.”

The doors can even be plastered and painted or wallpapered to totally blend in with the rest of the wall, almost creating a secret door if you will:

Doors don’t have to be wooden

Many of us automatically think of wooden internal doors when it comes to material choice, but metal or glass is a great choice internally too.

Glass doors will allow light to flood from room to room, adding a soundproof barrier yes, but allowing a space to feel larger and less enclosed.

In the right setting a metal door can also make a big impression. Industrial styling is big news right now and you can use metal doors or metal framed doors to really bring this theme to every aspect of your home.

Pay attention to the finish

Once you have the material and style of your door chosen, then it’s time to turn your attention to the finish of the door i.e. the colour, the handle, the hinges.

These pieces of hardware and final decisions all add to the overall look of your door and it’s theme. For instance in a cottage you may wish to use knobs on wooden doors for a more authentic cottagey feel, yet this handle choice would not be appropriate for a glass sliding door or a metal industrial door!

By choosing the right finishing touches for your doors, including the colour, will really bring your new internal doors into their own. With so many options for textures, materials, finishes, colours and designs, you really can create doors that become a distinctive piece of decor in their own right!

Or for the minimalist, a barely there door that blends seamlessly into its surroundings.

The options for your new internal doors really are quite limitless.