Bob's Bloggers
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doors, interior design
Hold the Door: Selecting an Interior Door Style
By House*Tweaking on Jul 05, 2012
The original interior hollow core doors that came with the Underdog were in bad shape. We figured we’d replace them at some point and decided to just go ahead and do it during the renovation stage. So, down they came.
We’ve been living without interior doors for over a month now. With little to no privacy in the bedrooms and the one finished bathroom, we are one big happy family! Interior doors are a standard house item that you take for granted until you don’t have them…especially when there’s a newborn in the mix. I’ve resorted to letting the boys play Wii, watch a movie {yes! the TV is functioning…more on that project to come} or mess around on the iPad while Mabrey is napping. It keeps them somewhat quiet. At least it usually keeps them from running and yelling in the hallway just outside Mabrey’s door.
Needless to say, HH and I have been scoping out interior door options and getting estimates.
The first style that we were drawn to was a five-panel door similar to this. But when I tried visualizing how several of these doors {six to be exact} would look lined up down our small hallway. I started thinking maybe they would make the hall look too busy with all those horizontal rectangles. It wasn’t enough to take them off our ‘maybe list’ but it was enough to make us consider other options.
We sought a simpler design in a one-panel door like this. But it seemed a little too simple.
Then the company that installed our new French doors {in the mudroom and kitchen} sent us a few sales brochures after we contacted them for an estimate on five-panel doors. HH was casually browsing through the brochures {I mean, really, how many interior doors can you look at before you’ve seen them all?} when a particular style we hadn’t seen before caught his eye. He immediately shoved the brochure in my face and asked ‘do you like this?’
My response? Yes! How much is it?
Of course, the sales brochure didn’t have prices listed so we had to wait until the next day to get some quotes. The first quote we received was similar in price to the single panel door above {~$115} and we were pleasantly surprised that it was in our price range. But we like to check all our options and got two more quotes from other sources. One source quoted us the same price {~$115/door} but another company quoted us $85/door. Yip to the eeee! We actually went through this same company to purchase our new chunky baseboards because they offered us the best price. We’re 100% satisfied with the quality of our baseboards and we are more than happy to be repeat customers.
So, seven of these doors {two for the hall closets, two for the bathrooms and three for the bedrooms} are on order for us. It’s the Berkley door and part of Masonite’s West End collection. We had originally wanted solid wood doors but after a little reading decided these molded panel doors would be just as good if not better. We ordered the doors in the Safe ‘n Sound solid core form. This construction type resists warping, shrinking and cracking. It’s considered an environmentally responsible choice as well. It’s manufactured with a low density fiberboard made from wheat straw which is an annually renewable material.
We’re really digging the simple, modern, almost midcentury design of the Berkley. The vertical panel gives it that extra something while the horizontal panels mimic the five-panel style we originally liked but without all the thick molding that gives a busier look. We can’t wait to see them in person which should be in about 3-4 weeks. We plan on painting them to match the trim {Benjamin Moore’s White Dove} and using matte black hardware.
As far as installation goes, HH is going to attempt to hang them himself. We got estimates for having the doors installed professionally and they came back at ~$300/door. WHAT?! $300 x 7 doors = $2,100!!! just for installation. Craziness. Of course, it’ll probably take us way longer to hang them ourselves but we’re no strangers to living without interior doors. {See the first image of this post.} And, if for some reason the project turns out to be more than HH can manage, we won’t rule out bringing in outside help. But the chance to save over $2,000 is worth giving it a go, don’t you think?
Have you ever replaced interior doors? What style did you go with? Did you DIY the installation? We’re open to any and all tips that you want to throw our way!
images: 1) Dana Miller for House*Tweaking 2 & 3) The Home Depot 4 & 5) Masonite
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