“Shape, design, and wood type—wood doors allow endless design flexibility to match the look you want for your home.”
Welcome to our Wood Door Series, where we’ll cover a variety of topics, from choosing the right wood material to customizing the design, to help you decide what door is best for you and what to consider once you receive it. Whether it’s interior doors or customized front doors, there are a lot of factors to consider.
Throughout this series, we’re speaking with Brad Loveless, Marketing and Product Development Manager at Simpson Door Company. With 17 years of experience in marketing, operations, and sales at Simpson, he has a tremendous amount of knowledge about wood doors, trends that have come and gone, and how to navigate the many decisions involved to select the right door for your project.
Because wood doors are made with parts and pieces, customizable options are endless. In this episode, Brad discusses design flexibility and customization of wood doors, from unique designs to specific wood a door can be made with.
Watch our discussion in the video above, or keep reading to get the highlights.
Custom wood door options
Wood doors are not stamped out with a mold or skin—they’re made of parts and pieces and because of this, you can customize each part and piece to fit any door design or size you’d like.
You can move door parts and pieces around, add glass to the door, or add multiple wood types into the design—you have the flexibility to make a strong statement on the front of your home with a customized wood door.
How big can wood doors be?
Innovations in door engineering and hardware—from pivot hinges to sliding barn doors—have made extra-large custom wood doors more accessible.
- A pivot hinge is a system where the door rotates at a single pivot point allowing large wood doors to open and close with ease.
- A barn door system hangs and slides large wood doors on tracks making them easy to operate and viable options for tighter spaces. Plus, if you have the skills, a DIY barn door is a simple way to upgrade a home.
Wood doors are highly engineered with different parts and pieces and each part and piece is designed to prevent warp. While extra-large doors are built to prevent warp, it’s important to check with your door manufacturer about the warranty. For example, with Simpson, the part of the warranty related to warp covers the door up to five feet wide. Doors larger than five feet wide can still be built with the same quality, but the warranty only covers up to a certain warp tolerance, which varies depending on the final size of the door.
Best types of wood for doors
There are hundreds of wood species that can be used for doors, but often, the wood doors in a home are made from the types of trees that grow outside of it. For example, in the Pacific Northwest, Douglas fir and western hemlock doors are most common, while in the Midwest, you’re more likely to find hardwood wood doors, like oak and cherry.
Each wood species and cut offers unique grains, textures, and uses:
- Douglas fir has a tight, straight, vertical grain that looks great on doors and can endure the Pacific Northwest climate.
- Mahogany sapele has a ribbon grain with a noticeable luster when light hits at certain angles, which sets this species apart.
- Quarter-sawn white oak has a unique grain pattern that provides a timeless look that makes a statement and is known for its versatility.
For manufacturers like Simpson, there are over a hundred different species used to build wood doors. The machinery used to manufacture doors is the same no matter what the wood species (though blades and knives may be changed out more often). Options for wood species are endless, making it easy to build what you are looking for.
How to customize wood doors with glass
Glass is a common upgrade in custom wood doors for homes that need more natural light. There are different glass textures to choose from depending on your application—a front door on a busy street, a home office door, or even a bathroom door. For example:
- Satin etch has a frosted layer and only allows visibility if something is pressed up against the glass, maintaining privacy while allowing light to come through.
- White laminate is two pieces of glass with a white layer between them, obscuring the view even when pressed up against the glass.
Pet doors
There are many ways to customize a wood door to fit your lifestyle and home’s design, but you can also customize it to suit your pet.
- If you’re a cat owner and want to keep the kitty litter hidden, you can create a hole in an existing door so it can go in and out on its own.
- If you’re a dog owner, you might want to install a pet door in an exterior door to allow your dog to go in and out as it needs.
There are online tools to help you choose the right size and shape as well as determine the best height from the floor. The flexibility in size and design allows pet owners to have doors that meet all of their pets’ needs.
Pre-hung wood door options
Pre-hung doors are “ready-to-go” with hinges and come attached to a three-sided frame. Some interior doors have odd shapes or requirements, such as an attic door with a corner trimmed off. If you have a custom need or an unusual application, a manufacturer like Simpson can work with you to build exactly to your needs.
To learn more about doors, watch our other door videos: