Interior doors for your home aren’t as tough as you might initially think. This is one case where all the reputable locksmiths have to offer are in agreement: They can provide whatever hardware you need for virtually any interior door style. I’ve been weighing interior door style options carefully lately because we’re in the middle of building a new house. Well-chosen interior doors contribute a lot to your home’s style and flow, so I thought I’d share the simple principles that I’ve learned in my own building process.
1) Picking The Style Of Door
Settling on the perfect style for your interior doors is key. The decision you make here can make a major impact on how the rooms in your home feel, so it’s worth careful consideration. The size of the rooms involved is important. Ornate doors in small rooms may create an unwanted feeling of busyness. You don’t want to be too diverse in your style selection; consistency is key in giving your home a smooth flow from space to space. Barn doors, Dutch doors, pocket doors, paneled doors, and glass-framed doors are all on the table.
These are the key points I consider before choosing a door style:
- What rooms will the door face?
- What styles will fit with the home’s decor?
- How high are the ceilings?
- What are the floors made of?
2) Picking Your Door Swing
The direction in which the door swings will determine which side you end up placing your hinges on. Should the door swing into the room or out of it? Doors tend to swing into rooms when they are significant spaces, like bedrooms and family rooms. Picture in your mind what entering the room will feel like, and which swing direction will feel more comfortable.
3) Material Selection
The material you choose for your door has to do double duty: It needs to be suitable and complementary to both the overall style of your home and the specific style of the door. Doors are constructed out of a huge range of materials, including hollow-core wood, solid wood, glass, and MDF. To me, glass doors are particularly suited to rooms like pantries or sunrooms, while solid doors are a must for spaces where privacy is important (e.g. bedrooms and bathrooms).
4) Door Casings
The style of the door and the style of the casing around it conduct an important dialogue from an interior decorating standpoint. As a general rule of thumb, contrasting doors and casings in terms of simplicity is a good idea. For ornate doors, simple casings will enhance the look of the door. For simple doors, the reverse is true: More detailed moulding can stand out on its own. My personal preference also includes a pretty substantial base moulding. I aim for about 6″ in base moulding height or even more in rooms with high ceilings. I think the substantial look it lends to interior doors is terrific.
5) Picking Out Colors
Picking out colors for doors can be tricky when they link two rooms with different color schemes. This is why neutral shades are always popular for doors. (Check out our selection of top neutral paint shades here!) With a little extra effort, you can lend your rooms a sense of designer flair by picking out a bolder color that matches both of the spaces linked by the door.
6) On Interior Paint Colors
Picking out interior paint colors is an opportunity to impose your personal taste on your home’s decor. Work with the colors you love rather than some sort of impersonal “ideal” mandated by traditional style guides. Any color can serve usefully as a base color that brings to life a whole palette of coordinated color choices. Let your favorite colors serve as the inspiration you need to make your home distinctive!
7) Seeking Inspiration
For decorating inspiration, it’s hard to go wrong with the old standbys: design magazines and catalogues. The internet makes it easier than ever before to seek out inspiring and educational color ideas. Sites put together by retailers and paint manufacturers can teach you a great deal! Don’t neglect the opportunities to be found on social media platforms like Pinterest and Instagram, too. Pinterest is especially powerful for decorating because it allows you to collect ideas as you find them.
8) Making Use Of Color Theory
It doesn’t take a full-on education in color theory to jazz up your paint selection game. Just referring to a color wheel can improve your color choices immensely. Every turn of the wheel shows you how given colors relate to each other, and you’ll pick up the basics of color theory before you know it. Though the exact colors you see on the wheel probably aren’t going to be the ones you end up putting on the walls, the insight you gain on how colors relate to each other is easy to extract and apply to your own favorite colors.
9) The Creative Strength Of Neutral Colors
Don’t get the impression that using neutral colors means you’re unimaginative! You don’t need eye-popping high-intensity colors to add tremendous interest to your home. You can keep rooms feeling relaxed and flexible without surrendering to dull colors. Consider using different neutral stripes to make rooms more stylish without getting garish. Another workable option is keeping the walls neutral while picking out a stronger pastel shade for the ceiling.
10) Match Paint To Prints
An especially easy way to pick out your paint palette is to use print fabric as a reference. Any piece of fabric you’re planning to use – bedding, throw pillows, table linens, etc. – can become a source of inspiration for picking out paints. Look at a print’s boldest colors to find great accent shades. For larger areas, pick neutral colors from the details in a print. Don’t forget to bring fabric swatches with you when you go to the paint store!
11) Take Inspiration From The Outdoors
Some of the best color schemes are those drawn from the natural world. Outside color schemes can be tremendously relaxing whether they draw inspiration from the deep greens of the forest or the cool blues of a sunny beach. Remember that the exterior world is going to affect the shades you pick out! Before making a final decision, look at how samples will appear in a given room at every time of day and at night. If possible, check how your chosen window treatments are going to change the natural lighting of the room as you close and open them. If you are looking for the best locksmiths have to offer, check out!
