It’s easy to overlook doors as a design feature in your home, but as a daily touchpoint, they’re more important than you may realize. Today I’m divulging all of my best tips and resources to guide you through choosing the right style, color, hardware and more.
Over the past decade, I’ve tackled just about every type of door upgrade—from my very first DIY paneled door to hiring a custom fabricator for our home. I shared a guide on this topic years ago, but since it’s still one of my most frequently asked questions, I thought it was time for an update.
If you’re considering upgrading your doors, I’ve broken down everything you need to know to get started, including round-ups of some of my favorite doors and hardware. Let’s dive in!
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Door Types
- Swing/hinged: Standard everywhere in homes.
- Bi-fold: Commonly used for closets that don’t need a lock, saves space.
- Pocket: Ideal in scenarios where there isn’t enough room for a swinging door, requires a more involved installation.
- Barn/sliding: Open by sliding horizontally along a track, a space-saving option for patios or closets.
- French: Doors with glass panels (usually double) and a popular choice for patios/exteriors.
- Dutch: A door divided horizontally in the middle, allowing the top half to open independently from the bottom half.
- Saloon/cafe: These partial height bi-directional swinging doors allow for an easy hands-free passage between rooms.
- Pivot: Swings open from pins at the top and bottom of a door, eliminating any visible hinges. More commonly used in luxury/modern or commercial spaces and requires a specialty install.
Slab vs Pre-hung
Slab doors are a more cost effective option if you are replacing an existing door and don’t need a new frame or door trim. It requires drilling new holes and mortises for hardware, and precise installation to fit perfectly in the existing frame.
On older houses especially, it can be tricky to get the new door to fit perfectly and operate smoothly. For this reason, I usually prefer spending a little extra on a pre-hung door—you can still try installing it without the frame, but it’s there as a backup just in case.
Door Style
There are many affordable style options to suit your home, from traditional to modern, craftsman to mid-century. I recommend choosing a design that matches the time period and style of the house. The doors in our Riverside Retreat property were worn out and mismatched, so we opted to replace them all with these solid-core Jeld-Wen replica of the original 1940’s doors:
For cohesiveness, make sure to use the same doors throughout the house, with the exception of any “feature” doors such as exterior, closet, and glass or partial glass doors (ie pantry or laundry). I found a vintage door at a local salvage yard and converted it to a pocket door for our laundry room:
Lowe’s carries a wide range of door options to suit a variety of different home styles. Here are 50+ of my favorite doors in every style (tap on the image below to shop them all!)
Door Material
For interior doors the most common options are wood, MDF, and particle board composite (either solid or hollow core). I always recommend solid core as it helps reduce sound and feels more substantial.
Exterior doors are available in a wider range of materials such as fiberglass, aluminum, wood, glass, steel and iron. They range greatly by price, size and style, and each material has its own pros and cons. I love the look of wood, but they require a lot of maintenance here in Florida. Fiberglass and steel are my top choices if you’re looking for something low maintenance and budget friendly.
Paint color
While white doors and trim are still the default throughout homes in America, I encourage you to think outside of the box! Paint is an easy way to make doors more than just a functional building element, but rather a way to enhance the design and style of your home. I often paint my doors and trim to match, but painting just the doors works too.
My general rule of thumb for door/trim color is to make sure they all match within the common areas, but anything goes for the interior of rooms. I treat each room separately with its own design concept and color palette, so it can be different than the trim and door color throughout the rest of the house.
Doors that are a different style, like exterior doors and glass doors can also be a different color. In our home, I used both a rich black and natural wood for these “feature doors”.
Paint sheen
A semi-gloss finish is a common choice for interior doors due to its durability and ease of cleaning. I use satin more often as I normally prefer the richer look of matte surfaces (and less fingerprint smudges), but our home has semi-gloss on the main doors and trim, and we’re happy with that choice.
A high quality paint is also key for durability and longevity. We typically opt for Sherwin Williams Emerald Urethane or Benjamin Moore Advance. For exterior doors, you’ll want to use exterior paint which is specially formulated to withstand the elements. You can learn all about our technique for painting cabinets and doors here.
Hardware
Now for the fun part—choosing the ‘jewelry’ for your door! There are so many different options these days, and while hardware selection is a personal choice, there are a few guidelines I abide by.
Finish: consider the color of your doors. Your hardware should stand out, so if your doors are painted dark, choose a lighter colored metal when possible. The hardware style should be complementary to the style of the door and the home itself. Classic black is my go-to, but unlacquered brass and pewter look striking on dark doors.
Knob or lever? Think about function and if you’d have a reason to choose one over the other. Example: our cat figured out that she could open a door by jumping and pulling on the lever, so knobs would have been a better choice if we didn’t want her trespassing in certain rooms!
Function: Most hardware styles are available in privacy, passage and dummy for different rooms. For privacy handles, I prefer the designs with a subtle push pin rather than a bulky turn lock.
In our own home as well as the Hacienda Hideaway, we used Emtek handlesets which are beautiful, but also a splurge. Schlage is a brand I always return to as they have a huge product selection at an affordable price point. I chose their Latitude/Addison line to use throughout our current renovation.
Below you’ll find 50+ of my favorite door hardware sets from Lowe’s. Tap on the photo to shop!
Tip: if you see a style you like but it’s the wrong finish or locking type, chances are it’s available in what you need. Just search for the brand and model name on Lowe’s, and all of the available options will come up.
Keyless Entry
Keyless entry is a non-negotiable—not only for our rentals, but our own home as well. There are many great options but we use and love the Schlage Encode Smart lock. It allows our property manager to easily access, create codes and control it remotely to keep our rentals running smoothly. The keypad replaces your deadbolt, so you’ll never have to fumble for your keys. I’ll never have a house without smart locks!
Shop Doors & Hardware
Outside of big box stores, you can find unique vintage or handmade doors/hardware on places like Facebook Marketplace, local salvage yards, Ebay, Etsy and more. For our current renovation, I sourced solid pine doors at a clearance center with a hefty shipping fee and long lead time, but it made sense since we were replacing all of the doors.
But, I did some digging and found the same doors on Lowe’s!
Shop more options below:
DIY Door Upgrades
If you’d rather update your existing doors than replace them, try one of these DIY tutorials from project library!
I hope this guide is a helpful resource for anyone thinking about new doors and hardware. Don’t forget to bookmark this post to reference later!
KJ says
Cats are smart!
Catherine says
So helpful, thank you! I recently moved into a home built about 20 years ago, and the doorknobs are pretty terrible. We’d like to replace all of them. My preference would be to have an antique brass finish, but I just noticed that all of our hinges, which are visible, are brushed nickel. What would you do? Match to the hinges? Or replace the hinges too?
Jenna Sue says
Great question! Ideally, the hinges and knobs would match. I wouldn’t let that deter you from getting the knobs you really want though. Swapping out the hinges isn’t difficult, so that’s what I’d do!
Jo Mathis says
Thank you soooooooo much for this post! It is very timely and informative!
Abigail R. Jacob says
Can you talk about budget – how much in total you spent to replace all the doors? And how you think it will affect ROI? I’ve got an older home with three different styles of doors, and many of them are in poor shape. It’s not worth salvaging original vintage doors, as the home is from 1972 and so they are all cheap hollow core doors, not nice solid wood ones. But I just don’t know that in my modest home, it’s worth the expense!
Liz says
Do you have tips for getting slab doors cut for the hinges and the handles? I know we could do it ourselves but that is pretty intimidating. Home Depot said they don’t do it. Thank you!
Jenna Sue says
For the handle and latch you should just be able to use the right size hole saws, and for the hinges they make templates that latch onto your door and cut it to the perfect size. You can also use a dremel to cut the area out. Or if you don’t have those tools, simply use a sharp chisel like we did in this post! https://www.jennasuedesign.com/2018/04/one-room-challenge-week-4-2/
Meagan Graham says
Hi- last time you did a post like this you went with Emtek hardware and smart system. I realize you’re likely doing sponsored posts for each but can you provide a comparison so we know which you’d prefer?
Jenna Sue says
Hi Meagan! Honestly the hardware all operates the same, but Emtek is considered more of a luxury brand at a higher price point. They have a much larger catalog to choose from, and they’re completely customizable (ie you can use different style/finish for each side of the door). If you don’t need that many options, Schlage is a great way to go at a more affordable price point!
Elly M Coressel says
Very informative post! So I live in a 1975 ranch, and it still has the original dark stain baseboard/trim/doors. I’d like to paint the trim and doors frames white (not sure if I want to paint the doors yet or stain a lighter color). But I’m afraid if I paint the frame and doors that the doors will stick. Have you ever had this problem? Is there a way to prevent this from happening?
Jenna Sue says
As long as the doors are in good shape/good quality and not sticking now, paint shouldn’t change anything! If they stick now, sand or plane down the edge of the door where they are making contact.
Elly M Coressel says
Ok great! The doors do not stick, and other than some dings (from children lol), that will need filled in, they are in good shape!
Jen says
Loved this post! Two quick questions…
1. What are the backplates called and are they sold alone? I have new door hardware (black simple handles) but I have been thinking of painting the door black, so I wanted to look at brass backplates. Can those be added behind exisiting handles and do you know what those are called?
2. Our home is a new build, smooth walls, light paint and my floors are a white oak engineered hardwood that look a lot like your floors at the house you live in. I have door #5 and want to paint them charcoal or black…but I’m so nervous it’s too much for all the light floors and walls. Any suggestions or thoughts on what to paint them? Kitchen is grey cabinets/white island. Home has lots of black sprinkled throughout in hardware, fixtures, frames etc. Also, if we do paint them black…the idea of it being semi gloss and shiny in a black is not exciting to me…should I just go for Satin since it’s black? I really prefer the matte finish like you mentioned.
Thanks in advance if you get time to answer this…I always appreciate your insight.
Mara says
Depending on the type of lock, the “back plate” is called either a rose or an escutcheon. Cylindrical locks have a rose. Mortise locks have an escutcheon.
I’m a hardware nerd, by trade.
Jenna Sue says
Thanks for chiming in, Mara! 😉
Jenna Sue says
Hi Jen! With the Schlage hardware I use, the backplates are called the “trim” and you can see the different options on their site: https://www.schlage.com/en/home/style/trim.html
I’m not sure if they’re sold alone — they aren’t at Lowe’s, but you may be able to contact Schlage directly. It’s worth a shot! I think brass trim with black handles would look really nice.
Black doors are more of a statement as they’re bolder and more dramatic, sounds like you’d prefer something a bit more subtle. I might try to find a neutral gray or greige that will flow with every room. Our current house doors are painted SW Accessible Beige and I absolutely love it! Something like that could work? You could reserve the black doors for exterior doors, or one of the special doors like a pantry/closet.
Jan says
Great post! It’s something I have to do to my house to finish off each room. Doors and trimwork add so much life to these Florida homes. Thanks for the inspiration!
Jenna Sue says
Of course, Jan! So glad you found it helpful 🙂