Interior Doors: Where to Splurge, Where to Save, and What Actually Looks Good
Interior doors are easy to overlook during a renovation. Until you’re standing in a hallway surrounded by them. Then their proportions, materials, and finishes become a very big part of how your home feels.
When I’m designing a Colorado Springs home, I want the doors to work with the architecture—and give you some privacy while they’re at it.
Solid Core, Sensible Thickness
My preference is solid core for bedrooms and bathrooms. The added substance helps reduce sound transmission, and those are rooms where privacy deserves a little investment. Hollow core would be a budget-saving choice for closet doors, where sound separation matters less.
But solid construction and extra thickness are two different decisions.
For most interior doors, I prefer 1⅜ inches thick. Exterior doors are commonly 1¾ inches, and lately I’m seeing that thicker specification brought inside as an upgrade.
It makes the doors noticeably heavier. To me, it can also feel bulky—almost as though we repurposed exterior doors and brought them indoors. I don’t automatically equate that extra thickness with extra luxury, and I wouldn’t spend more on thickness alone expecting it to solve sound concerns.
Possibly an unpopular opinion. But you’re hiring me for my opinion, and this is somewhere I think you can save.
Height is another place to be strategic. A typical interior door is 6 feet 8 inches tall; an 8-foot door can look beautiful when the ceiling height supports it. That doesn’t mean every door in the house needs the same upgrade. Taller doors on the main level and standard-height doors upstairs or in a basement can be a perfectly sensible combination. Especially when soffits enter the conversation.
Let the Walls, Trim, and Doors Talk to Each Other
I like both paint-grade and stain-grade doors. Lately, I’m especially drawn to stained wood because it brings depth and texture to a room.
One of my favorite combinations is walls and trim in the same color, with different paint sheens, and a stained door that gives the space some contrast. Another shade of paint can work, but sometimes the room needs the richness of actual wood.
If the walls and trim are different colors, I usually connect the doors to one of them. Knotty alder trim with knotty alder doors, for example, feels intentional against a painted wall.
What I don’t love is a wall and door in the same color with contrasting trim outlining everything. It gets stripey. A little zebra situation, and that’s rarely what we were going for.
Darker trim can be lovely. White trim can be lovely too, but I rarely specify it unless the walls are also a matching white. The colors need to belong together before we start opening paint cans.
Keep the Door Profile Calm
A two-panel Shaker door is my favorite: clean lines, recessed panels, and enough detail to feel considered.
A one-panel door reads a little more modern and can suit a modern mountain home beautifully. Four, five, or six panels usually bring more visual activity than I want, particularly when several doors share a hallway.
I generally avoid arched panel profiles on standard interior doors. I’d rather let the wood, proportions, and hardware do the work.
Simple doesn’t mean we forgot to design it. Sometimes it means we knew when to stop.
Yes, a Barn Door Can Still Be Beautiful
Barn doors have fallen out of favor, but I don’t have a blanket ban on something that could be the perfect solution.
Our Boulder project had exactly that situation. A sliding glass door created separation for an office nook while keeping the space visually open. There was a practical reason for it to be there.
And a barn door doesn’t have to look farmhouse. White oak, arched glass, and brass fittings can give it a lovely traditional character. The sliding mechanism doesn’t get to dictate the entire aesthetic.
I wouldn’t choose one where we need the privacy of a well-fitted hinged door. But in the right location, with the right materials, it can be beautiful and useful.
That’s where the creativity comes in. We look at what the room needs, then make the solution feel like it belonged there all along.
Planning a renovation? Let’s choose the doors alongside the layout, finishes, and trim—before your GC prices the scope and before anything gets ordered. These decisions are much easier to get right on paper.
Explore the Boulder Residence for the sliding-door example discussed above.
Want help bringing these ideas home? Explore Full-Service Interior Design or Virtual Design.
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