Share Home Renovation Ideas - Exploring Modern Internal Doors
Doors are an integral part of your home’s interior design. They impact the overall look and feel of a space, whatever style or design type they might be. So it's important to consider a range of options when choosing internal doors, whether you're replacing a single door or planning a full home renovation. In this article we'll look at things to consider when choosing modern and contemporary internal doors.
Topics
- Modern Interior Door Styles
- Contemporary Ladder Panel Doors
- Modern Recessed Panelled Doors
- Fluted Doors
- Modern Glazed Panelled & Fluted Doors
- Sliding & Pocket Doors
- Bi-Fold Doors
- Modern Home Fire Doors
- Modern Internal Door Finishes
- Contemporary Door Handles
- Hardware Installation Packs
What Do We Mean By Modern and Contemporary Doors?
Strictly speaking, 'modern' is a term with a particular meaning. It's a design aesthetic from a specific time period – early 1920s to late 1960s. The 'modernist' period includes design ideas such as Art Deco, Bauhaus, Mid Century Modern and others. It can apply to architecture, interior design, furnishings and so on, including interior doors and door hardware.
However, more commonly the word ‘modern’ is used interchangeably with 'contemporary', which just means 'now' or 'on trend' regardless of a design period or era. So for the purpose of this article that’s what we’ll do. Ok, let’s take a look at some modern door designs.
Modern Interior Door Styles
There's a huge variety of modern interior door styles available. Which ones you choose for your space will depend on several key factors including: the door design, its finish, and function. Let's begin by exploring some popular modern internal doors.
h2 id="contemporary-ladder-panel-doors">Contemporary Ladder Panel Doors
A popular interior door look is the ladder panel. This type of door features a grooved design to look like flush broad panels running up the centre of the door. It has a 'ladder' look, hence the name. It's an understated, minimalist design that works well with modern decor, or as part of a more eclectic interior vibe.
Modern Recessed Panelled Doors
Modern recessed panelled interior doors have a distinctive look, featuring a number of smaller panels arranged in a geometric pattern. The panels can be square, short or long oblong, horizontal or vertical.
The modern doors pictured below for example have a combination of panel sizes, with a definite earlier 20th century modern look, reminiscent of the Art Deco style – although, the materials and finishes are contemporary.
This door style can often be seen with glazed panels, which can be partial glazing or full door glazing where all the panels are glass.
Fluted Doors
Another popular contemporary interior door design uses fluting. A fluted door features vertical grooves. The clean lines created by the grooves run the length of a door, covering the whole door surface or leaving a flat surface boarder on each side.
Fluted grooves are sometimes painted black to help make more of a feature of them. This can work particularly well when matched with modern matte black door handles and hardware.
Modern Glazed Panelled & Fluted Doors
Glazed doors are really popular for modern interiors, offering an alternative aesthetic to solid doors. They let more light into a room and can provide a greater sense of space, rather than having a solid boundary between rooms.
Door glazing can be individual panels, as we've already seen, or a single panel that can vary in size, ranging from a slim centre panel to a larger panel covering most of the door surface.
Make sure your glazed doors use toughened glass for strength and safety.
Sliding & Pocket Doors
A popular alternative option is sliding doors. There are two slightly different sliding door types: doors that slide on a rail fixed above the door way, and those that slide into a recess in the wall, which are known as pocket doors. The latter is more discreet, but will require more work to install.
Double sliding doors work well as room dividers, connecting or closing off spaces – often between dining room and kitchen, and dining and living rooms.
Sliding doors are ideal where space is at a premium, with single sliding doors often used for bathrooms, kitchens and tighter areas in your home, such as a utility room or pantry.
Often sliding are supplied uncut, so you can choose the handle design and lock type that best matches your space.
Bi-fold Doors
Bi-fold doors serve a similar purpose to sliding and pocket doors in terms of space saving. But modern indoor bi-folds not only save space, they offer a more unusual look compared with sliding doors, working as a room feature.
As with sliding doors, when used in pairs as double doors the bi-folding design can be opened or closed between rooms to create two spaces or a single larger space. This can offer a more open plan feel when needed, but also divide rooms for privacy, security or to help save on energy bills for heating or AC.
Modern Home Fire Doors
The modern internal doors we've looked at above that are not glazed are available as fire doors. You may ask, do I really need fire doors in my home? The answer is, probably not. Most private dwellings that are not houses of multiple occupancy (HMO) are not required to have fire doors fitted. You can find out more about UK fire door regulations here.
But given that the room in your home where a fire is most likely to start is the kitchen, it's worth considering replacing your kitchen door with a fire door. This will give the occupants of your home valuable time to exit safely in a kitchen fire emergency.
Modern fire doors don't look any different to standard doors. They are however generally thicker, but aesthetically there's no discernible difference. Find out more about home fire doors in this more detailed article.
Modern Internal Door Finishes
Modern interior doors can be supplied pre-finished, primed for painting or not finished at all. Let's take a closer look at some of the finish options you can expect to see:
Laminate
Laminate finished internal doors are usually manufactured with a surface layer of man-made materials, often with a timber look. The laminate door exterior is compressed with other materials inside the door, including compression board or particle board. Laminate doors retain the weight and feel of solid timber doors, but are more affordable and are easier to maintain.
Laminate modern interior doors are extremely durable and are fully finished, so all you need to do is fit the door. Examples of laminate doors are the ladder panel and fluted doors discussed above. They can have a high quality wood grain-like look or a flat coloured finish.
Hardwood Veneer
Wood veneer doors are similar in construction to laminate doors but with the surface being veneers of real hardwoods, such as oak or mahogany. This gives them the look and feel of solid timber doors at a relatively low cost.
Veneer internal doors may be supplied pre finished, or they may need to be varnished or stained before fitting. Veneer doors will also require regular maintenance and unlike laminate doors will be more susceptible to wear and tear. But the payoff is the look of real timber.
Primed or Painted
If you prefer your interior doors to be coloured, perhaps to match your decor or to be a feature door, then a painted finish is ideal. There are three options here for new interior doors: pre finished, part finished or unfinished.
Pictured above are flush groove and panelled doors pre finished in white and black paint respectively. Ready-primed and unfinished internal doors will of course need to be painted before they are fitted.
Contemporary Door Handles
Most of the doors in this article can be used as sliding and pocket doors if you buy them uncut. That means with no door handles, latch or hinges, and no cutting or drilling to fit them. This has the benefit of being able to choose the door's function (single door, double doors sliding door etc.) and also its handles and hardware design style and finish.
Remember, modern doors don’t necessarily need to have modern handles. Mixing a modern door and more traditional hardware designs or finishes can create an interesting, contemporary look.
Hardware Installation Packs
A good way to buy door hardware is in door handle packs and knob packs. This allows you to choose your handles or knobs and get other components (hinges, latches, locks etc.) that match without having to search for and buy them separately, saving you time and money.
Door hardware packs are available in a range of styles and types, including multi packs, installation packs, and fire door packs.
You can discover more about modern door handles in articles covering Art Deco and Mid Century Modern design aesthetics.
Final Thoughts
As we’ve seen, there's a lot to consider when choosing new modern interior doors, from an extensive range of styles to finishes, design types, to materials and door hardware. Hopefully this article has offered some inspiration for your replacement door or home renovation.
Hiatt Hardware offers modern internal doors to suit a variety of interior styles, for the home and commercial spaces.
Explore the full range of premium wood and glazed interior doors at Hiatt Hardware.