How to choose the perfect door for your home – a beginner’s guide.

How to choose the perfect door for your home – a beginner’s guide.

Choosing a design for a new home is an exciting and dilemma-filled stage of our lives, just like the general renovation of a family nest or the full renovation of an age-old building that remembers the times of our grandparents. Regardless of whether the visualization of changes is born in a professional architectural studio or spontaneously arises in our heads – the final result must give full satisfaction and joy from the choices made. How to choose a door for the house and what to follow? Let’s try to familiarize ourselves with the various issues on the subject.

What to look for when choosing an exterior door?

Exterior doors are a showcase that welcomes homebuyers and guests, which is why its aesthetic value is so important, but nevertheless, along with a nice appearance must go the quality of workmanship. It is not uncommon to see modern buildings with beautiful window frames or a well-kept facade, but a faded, peeling film and neglected entrance door that stings the eye. Therefore, it is definitely not worth saving on materials and choose proven solutions. Pay close attention to the quality and thickness of the sheet metal, the infill, so important for thermal insulation and soundproofing of external noises, and solid hinges, which guarantee quiet, smooth and light operation of the door leaf for years to come.

Metal exterior doors – solid, glazed, plain or with appliqués – are made of galvanized laminated sheet metal, filled with polyurethane foam or foamed polystyrene and guarantee not only timeless beauty, but also compliance with the highest quality standards and applicable norms, as well as attention to millimeter precision fit. They are easy to adjust and, properly cared for, will serve the next generation of children slamming them hard. Modern solutions include glazing packages with a warm frame, improving thermal transmittance indicators, sophisticated and elegant door glazing with a frame made of black glass, expressive colors of door leaves or magnetic locks with fingerprint readers.

What are the best materials for interior doors?

Internal door leaves are used by householders to separate rooms, create a sense of intimacy and emphasize that “mine is this piece of floor.” Therefore, the choice of the material from which they will be made is also very important – how to choose a door for the house? Let’s look at three solutions, starting with ordinary particleboard. These are wood-based products, formed by pressing chips and small wood particles, joined by synthetic adhesives under high pressure and elevated temperatures. A rung higher in terms of technology stand MDF and HDF boards – of medium and high density. They differ from particle boards in that in the case of MDF and HDF the wood material used for production is more fragmented, and in addition the fibers are treated with resin and hardening compounds. As a result, home door leaves made from them are more solid, more durable, more resistant to damage and factors that affect longevity, such as high humidity. Higher density also means better insulation and acoustic performance, i.e. doors made of HDF will best dampen noises from neighboring rooms. This may not yet allow you to test a set of drums without protests from the rest of the household, but it will, for example, work well for noises coming from the laundry room or when you want to arrange a quiet, cozy study in which to sit with your favorite book.

Should the door style match the architecture of the house?

Most often, the color scheme and style of the door fit into the overall design concept – modern, classic, rustic or ascetic. How to choose a door for the house? Typically, the entrance sashes correspond to the window joinery in color, the applications on the door may repeat the muntins in the windows, for example, the shape and size of the glazing will emphasize the geometric details, and the veneer will face the external elements of the facade – wood or composite board. It can be said that the door is like a decorative element of an elegant outfit, which is a distinguishing mark of the owner’s good taste.

However, since sporty shoes for an elegant coat emphasize individualism and unorthodox image creation, similarly, why not be tempted to use the front door in a contrasting color scheme? After all, colors such as red or blue are available – so it can be a deliberate stylistic effort, drawing the attention of guests and inviting them “go ahead, this way!” to an original corridor or hallway, decorated in distinctive colors.

What security features are important in a home door?

When considering aesthetic and visual issues, we should not forget what to consider in choosing a door when it comes to its everyday practicality and security. Exterior doors are equipped as standard with peepholes and locks that lock only on the inside. This increases security and reduces the risk of letting unwanted people in. Innovations in the field of self-locking doors include the increasingly popular fingerprint readers – meaning we literally open the door with the touch of a finger. Electromagnetic locks unlock and let in only those whose fingerprints have been pre-programmed into the device – so no more nervous searching for keys in pockets. It’s a great solution, especially for school-aged children – it will ensure that they can enter the house quickly and not have to worry about guarding the house key at every opportunity.

Magnetic locks for interior doors, on the other hand, are a useful element in everyday life, reducing, for example, the risk of damaging the door frame when the leaf is closed abruptly with the key turned in the lock. Aesthetic value is also important, because the use of such a recessed lock in the door means that there are no parts protruding outward. This also increases the safety of use, because who hasn’t happened to get their clothes dirty on a solidly lubricated lock bolt or even tear their shirt sleeve through it?

Is it worth investing in custom doors?

When you are thinking about what kind of door to choose for your home, it is definitely worth leaning towards ordering them to size and your own needs. You can then carefully compose the product according to your requirements – locks, anti-burglary protection, choice of colors, glazing and veneer structure, and finally perfect fit and installation by professionals. This is an element on which it is definitely not worth saving – after all, you don’t replace doors too often, and a functionally well-thought-out model selected according to your taste will please us every time we enter or leave our home.