Share Home Renovation Ideas – Choosing the Right Traditional Internal Doors
Choosing the right internal doors for your home is an important decision. So picking door designs, finishes and hardware that compliment your interior spaces merits some exploration. This article looks at doors for interiors that require a period, rustic or an eclectic vibe, from homely farmhouse to classic contemporary styles.
Topics
- What Exactly Are 'Traditional' Doors?
- Recessed Panel
- Grooved Panel
- Glazed Panel
- Different Door Types
- Double Doors
- Pocket Doors
- Fire Doors
- Traditional Door Finishes
- Door Handles & Knobs
- Handle and Knob Packs
- Door Hooks
What Exactly Are Traditional Doors?
Essentially, a traditional internal door is another way of saying a wood door with a panelled surface. This ranges from a single large panel, two panels, going up to as many as 10 individual wood panels or glazed panes.
Traditional designs often reference Georgian and Victorian interiors, having a very familiar look that ranges from simple, plain panels, to panels with more opulent features associated with period homes.
Traditional internal doors have a timeless appeal that can fit in with a wide variety of living spaces. Remember, traditional doesn't mean old fashioned. Traditional internal doors often use contemporary materials and manufacturing methods.
This typically includes semi-hollow wood doors with laminate finishes ranging from solid colours to a realistic wood grain look in natural and stained wood styles.
Recessed Panel
Traditional panelled doors offer classic design features such as decorative beading and mouldings at the edges of the panel(s). These solid wood panels can also be simpler design for a more understated traditional look.
Image Credit: Pinterest
Panel details add to the feel of the rooms and spaces in your home. For example, a kitchen door and a dining room door will reflect the different decor and utility of those rooms.
Grooved Panel
There are other traditional door styles, such as tongue and grooved, where the panels are not recessed. They create a flatter look that resembles timber staves. This is more of a farmhouse or cottage style, with a rustic or artisan feel, such as the door pictured below.
Glazed Panel
Traditional interior door panels are often glazed. This can be a single large glass pane or multiple, smaller panes. There's a definite aesthetic appeal to glazed internal doors.
They're a good choice for creating more light in a space and helping to blur the boundaries between spaces without taking an open plan approach. Glazed doors are particularly popular for kitchens and dining rooms.
The image above shows a traditional interior door with panel moulding, in wood panelled and glazed panel options. Note that glazed internal doors should always use safety glass.
Different Door Types
Depending on the style and size of your home's interior there are a few options to consider other than a single standard door.
Double Doors
Double internal doors are often used between larger spaces, such as linking a living room and dining room. This enables an open and connected feel between spaces when the doors are open, but with the option to create a boundary when the doors are closed. Double doors can be solid or glazed, in either standard door or pocket door designs.
Pocket Doors
Pocket doors are a type of sliding door that opens into a recess in the wall. As double doors they offer a more discrete option compared to standard doors.
As single doors the pocket design is a great option in smaller areas, where a standard door would take up too much space. Kitchens and bathrooms are perhaps the most popular spaces for pocket doors.
Note that not all glazed traditional doors will be suitable as pocket doors. Also, pocket and sliding doors use flush pull handles.
Image Credit: Pinterest
Fire Doors
Traditional internal doors are available as fire doors. You may ask, do I 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.
However, given that the room in your home where a fire is by far most likely to start is the kitchen, it might be a good idea to replace your standard kitchen door with a fire door. This will give the occupants of your home valuable time to safely exit in a kitchen fire emergency.
Traditional fire doors don't look any different to standard doors. They are thicker, but aesthetically there's no discernible difference. Find out more about home fire doors in this dedicated article.
Traditional Door Finishes
When choosing new traditional interior doors it's important to go for a high quality finish, whether you have a prefinished door or a door that's ready-primed.
Prefinished means that a door is fully finished ready to be drilled and installed. A primed door is supplied ready for you to paint or finish as you choose. And of course you could go for a traditional door that has no finish at all.
The most popular finishes for traditional interior doors are a natural wood look or painted. Contemporary traditional internal doors are often semi-solid with a laminate, wood grain look or wood veneer.
Door Handles & Knobs
Once you have chosen your traditional internal doors, you should consider door hardware. This includes handles, knobs, hinges, and where appropriate, locks.
Remember, just because your doors are traditional design, it doesn't mean you have to go for traditional handle or knob styles. Mixing traditional and modern can create an interesting, contemporary look, having the essence of a traditional panelled door with modern handles.
Handle and Knob 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 Hooks
Internal doors often have hooks attached to the back of them for coats, hats and other hanging storage. Door hooks are available in a wide array of different designs and styles, and in a variety of finishes.
Door hooks are particularly useful for broom cupboard doors and kitchen doors, and bathroom doors for robe hooks.
Find out more about door hooks and general storage hooks for your home and garden with this dedicated hooks blog article.
Final Thoughts
Traditional interior doors offer a timeless appeal that can have a definite classic or period look, Georgian, Victorian etc. But traditional doors can also have a trendy, current feel in laminate finishes and with modern handles and knobs, adding a more eclectic or contemporary-classic vibe for your home's aesthetic.
Whether you're doing a home renovation or just replacing a single door, view a huge selection of internal doors in a range of different styles and finishes to find the perfect match for your home.
See the full range of hardware and ironmongery products at Hiatt Hardware. For more DIY and home improvement guides, and DIY inspiration articles, visit the blog.