D oors are often an afterthought in the world of home improvement.
By the time you’ve decided on a room’s flooring, paint colors, lighting, window treatments and furniture, you may be out of remodeling energy.
But front, back and interior doors are equally important to successful interior design and functionality.
Many homeowners looking to eliminate visual clutter are ordering specialty interior doors for media rooms, pantries and wine cellars. Families living in close quarters are adding double French doors to close off office areas and family rooms to help with noise control.
Exterior front doors, meanwhile, set the tone for your entire dwelling.
“You can change the whole look of the house by changing the door,” said John Sims owner of The Door Store of Marysville and Shoreline, also known as Frank Lumber.
While fiberglass doors continue to be popular because of their durability, wood door manufacturers such as The Simpson Door Co. in McCleary, west of Olympia, are always adding updated styles, including new twists on prairie French, bungalow, craftsman, wrought iron and Shaker.
Doors can vary with wood type, color, texture and finish, hardware, panel patterns and glass accents, all of which will undoubtedly affect the overall design.
While fir continues to be a popular wood choice in the Northwest, knotty alder is hot now too, Simpson spokesman Brad Loveless said.
“It’s rustic but tends to be a little bit classier looking than a knotty pine,” Loveless said. “It feels less formal, a little more causal. People love distressed looks, whether it’s their cabinets or doors.”
Doors, which can be easily customized to fit buyers’ tastes, can be the perfect way for homeowners to express their individuality, Sims said, adding that Northwest nature scenes, featuring orcas, deer, trees, mountains and streams, are also growing in popularity.
Homeowners can combine single or double doors with sidelights and transom windows to create elegant “entryway systems” that go far beyond the typical front door.
“You can get a pretty dramatic statement,” Loveless said. “Everyone wants something that’s unique. They don’t want a cookie cutter, and we’re finding that people are doing that with doors.”
Sidelights are growing in popularity thanks to the remodeling of many homes in the Northwest built in the 1960s and ’70s, said Sims, whose business includes a small door-manufacturing plant in Marysville.
“They take out the old orange glass that’s next to the door, and we do sidelights of leaded glass,” he said. “It changes it from the ’60s and brings it up into the ’90s or above.”
Doors with textured glass panels or ovals are another hot trend inside and out, Sims and Loveless said, because they add radiance to a space without giving up privacy.
“You can’t see through them, but you can still get the light,” Sims said.
Reporter Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037 or sjackson@heraldnet.com.
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