Choosing an interior door isn’t just about what the door looks like—depending on what materials the door is made of, the veneers used, and the price point, every door will have unique properties.
It’s important that the door you choose for a particular room not only matches the style and color scheme of the room, but also its function. A thin, glass door for a room that is meant for privacy isn’t a great idea. Similarly, a solid oak door for the hallway closet is a bit superfluous. Interior wooden doors come in many different styles, and it’s important to choose the right one.
Choose Your Door Material
Let’s look at a few of the standard door materials to see which is right for your needs:
Hollow Core or Honeycomb Doors
Most modern home builders of large suburban subdivisions fill a home’s interior doorways with hollow core doors. This design fulfills a door’s basic function by allowing privacy and not much else. They are extremely cheap and resistant to issues, such as warping and swelling, that solid wood doors may be susceptible to.
The “honeycomb” name comes from the structure inside the door that provides its strength and rigidity. This structure is often made of little more than heavy cardboard, but its hexagonal shape allows it to stay strong enough for interior doors.
Solid Wood Doors
These doors look fantastic and are great for impressing your guests when used as a front door. As an interior door, however, a solid wood door is most likely a poor choice.
Not only will it cost a small fortune to outfit your entire home with solid wood doors, but these doors are highly prone to swelling and warping. If you choose to buy even one as a special entry for a particular room, be ready to have a woodworking kit handy and know how to keep a wood door from sticking.
Solid Core
This type of door is an excellent compromise when you want a high-quality, sturdy design without the price tag of a solid wood door. A solid core door has a core made of engineered wood, covered by a veneer of real wood.
Engineered wood is popular because it resists warping while providing excellent soundproofing. These doors are also sturdy, and are just as strong as their solid wood counterparts, making them excellent high-traffic doors.
Glass Doors
Glass doors can make beautiful interior doors, but are typically suited for large openings where you can have a double or French door installed. Whether you choose full-length or half-length glass is up to you, but half-length will provide a stronger door that is less likely to break under stress.
Glass doors work well in places where you want the light to flow from one room into the next. If you have a room that has one window pointed at a shady spot and you’d like more light in the room, a glass door is an excellent way to achieve additional natural lighting.
Factor in Privacy and Sound Considerations
For areas of your home where privacy is important, you’ll obviously want to stay away from glass doors for privacy–but what about sound?
Solid doors are the best at insulating sound. Hollow core doors should theoretically be good at sound insulating because the hollow space helps dampen sound, but the exterior paneling of the door is often too thin to provide any sound protection. For maximum soundproofing ability, solid doors are superior.
27EStore Has All Your Interior Doors
Browse our selection of high-quality interior doors, and feel free to mix and match interior doors to your heart’s content. We have a color and style to suit any interior room, each made of materials designed to last decades. Take a look and see what 27EStore can do for your home today!
