“Interior doors don’t need to be identical throughout the home, you can explore creative ways to make a bold statement.”
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.
In this episode, Brad explains how doors can add to the design of your home and shares some of the latest interior door ideas and trends.
Watch our discussion in the video above, or keep reading to get the highlights.
Interior door trends
People are opting for unique interior doors throughout their homes. This means you can get creative when it comes to choosing interior doors.
For example, Dutch doors are popular exterior doors as they provide an open-air connection to the backyard or patio—and they work well as interior doors, too. A Dutch door is a great option for a home office where you can choose to be connected to the rest of your home while keeping pets or kids out, or have full privacy.
Barn doors are also growing in popularity. These doors roll side to side on a track, fitting in spaces where normal hinge doors might not. They can also make an open-concept space more flexible; for example, a large barn door can slide across a wide opening to wall off spaces in your home.
Pocket door systems are another option worth considering, especially if you’re building a new home. Like barn doors, pocket doors don’t open into either room they connect; instead, they retract inside the wall and take up very little space.
Interior door design ideas
Interior glass doors are growing in popularity as a modern and practical design option. With different glass textures to choose from, you can have interior glass doors in areas you’d least expect like bathrooms or bedrooms, giving you a nice aesthetic design with the right amount of privacy.
Family-centric areas like kitchens or kids’ play areas, can benefit from custom doors. A pantry door with a chalkboard or whiteboard panel can be great for parents and kids alike, whether for drawing or building a shopping list. These panels are often magnetic, so you have a place to hang report cards, artwork, or reminders.
You can also dress up your pantry door with a picture or word etched into the glass. Simpson can custom etch anything into a piece of glass—the word “Pantry,” initials, or even a family crest. This can be a fun way to add a special element to your home.
Soundproof doors
If you have a home office or need uninterrupted sleep, you’ll want a door that limits the sound that can reach neighboring spaces. While many doors are hollow by nature, you can specifically choose a solid door if you’re concerned about sound.
Wood doors are built from solid parts and pieces, so they are naturally better at containing sound than hollow core doors. To find out if a door is solid, simply give it a few knocks and listen to the sound it produces. Knocking on a solid wood door will sound sturdy while other doors will sound hollow. We all knock on doors—and inherently know what a solid door could sound like—and that’s an easy way to identify the quality of the door and ensure it functions the way you want it to.
Can I replace a door without the frame?
With both interior and exterior doors, you can replace the door slab by itself or the entire pre-hung unit. Replacing the door slab is more common for interior doors as they don’t experience wear and tear from the elements like exterior doors do. Interior door units usually stay intact, so there’s nothing wrong with only replacing the door.
If you’re planning on replacing or purchasing new doors, visit or contact a door specialist who can help answer questions, go over the different options, and provide trusted advice.
To learn more about doors, watch our videos on [will insert links once earlier episodes are published]