When you’re working on a project for a client, there are a lot of details you need to get right the first time to ensure the new homeowner is satisfied for years to come and the design decisions you made don’t cause them any undue hardships in the long run.
One of the details that often gets neglected is your door choice.
The doors of a home highlight its aesthetic design, provide security, and are some of the most frequently used features of the home.
As such, your decision on which door designs to implement is absolutely crucial to ensure you get the results you expect from the project.
Today, we’re going to go over 5 different types of designer doors, giving you some helpful tips on how to pick the right doors for your project.
Let’s get started.
A Few Things About Designer Doors
When you’re trying to reduce your project costs to maximize your profits and entice your clients, it’s tempting to buy any good-looking door off the shelf.
However, that’s a cost-cutting measure that often doesn’t provide a good return on value. You save money upfront, but the entire project suffers for it in both the short term and the long term.
A designer door is a fully custom door that is designed to your or your client’s specifications. This solves a few problems.
First, the door is aesthetically designed to match your exact needs. You don’t have to make any minor sacrifices that distract from the overall theme. On top of that, your clients can get exactly what they’re looking for if they have an idea already thought out.
Secondly, the quality of the doors will be higher overall. Just like with any other product, something that is made by professional craftsmen per order is always going to be better than the equivalent item made in mass on an assembly line.
This adds value to the doors you use that boost the overall value of the home in general.
Finally, since the doors are of higher quality, they’re more reliable. That’s not to say that mass-manufactured doors are easily bypassed or quick to wear.
There are plenty of good, sturdy doors available from off-the-shelf sources. However, the bespoke nature of designer doors does guarantee quality rather than it simply being a possibility.
Why Custom Designer Doors are Better for Your Projects
We’ve gone over some of the benefits of designer doors in general, but that doesn’t quite cover everything. Designer doors stand out in a very unique way.
If your clients are paying you to build a home, they probably have a very specific vision of what that home should look like and the features that it should have. The doors are part of that specific vision.
Your clients have likely gone through many Instagram posts, home listings, home renovation sites, and more to find designs they like, mix and match various designs, or even come up with their own unique designs for their new home’s doors.
Being able to effectively create their exact vision goes a long way toward customer satisfaction.
Popular Styles of Designer Doors
While designer doors are custom and made to order, there are several styles that tend to be popular just like with any other designer product. Certain designs just garner more interest than other options.
In this section, we’ll go over some of the designs we get commissioned to produce the most often.
Now, these are typically general design themes with the specifics detailed by the customer. They can be ordered as-is or customized to your heart’s content.
1: Slimline Glass Doors
First and foremost, customized slimline doors are becoming a part of many home projects for various reasons.
These elegant glass doors with simple right-angle geometry throughout can be made with treated privacy glass or regular glass panes, and they can be used flexibly in a home’s overall design to produce a variety of effects.
Primarily, they’re used as transitory doors between rooms such as kitchens and living areas, entertainment rooms and hallways, and similar situations due to their general privacy features without making the rooms feel sealed off.
Due to the door being mostly glass, these slimline doors provide ample natural lighting that filters through privacy treatments to provide ambiance and a sense of openness.
While not often used for entryways, these doors can be perfect for most interior room transitions.
2: Multi-Slide, Bi-Fold, and Other Modern Sliding Doors
Sliding doors are also extremely popular options on the modern market, and they’ve more or less become staples in most modern home designs. Whether used as transitions to more secure and private outdoor areas or as separators for larger interior spaces, sliding glass doors add tons of light, an illusion of openness, and a sense of elegance to a home that other types of doors simply don’t achieve.
Sliding glass doors are most commonly used to create an elegant transition into backyards and outdoor seating areas due to their ability to provide an ample viewing area of those areas in the event of children playing, monitoring pets, and other reasons.
They also come in a number of popular patterns, such as hinged bi-fold doors, lift doors that stack out of the way for a more complete opening, and multi-fold doors.
All of these options work well in a modern home if used properly from a design standpoint, and many homebuyers are expecting to have these featured at least as backyard entryways.
3: Pivot Doors
Pivot doors are relatively new, and you probably haven’t seen them on many projects before, but they are certainly picking up steam, and they have a lot to offer in terms of a luxury atmosphere and overall aesthetic.
Pivot doors are largely used solely as front entryway options. This is because they’re extra-large door options that exceed 42 inches in width.
That’s well beyond the 3-foot width of the average door. In fact, the pivot hinge system was developed specifically for oversized doors that are typically too heavy to function properly and reliably with traditional hinges.
Since these doors are mounted on pivoting systems, they create a seamless appearance that enhances your home’s curb appeal, and the unique action of the door is sure to impress guests who have likely never seen a door that functions that way, as well.
However, due to the unique opening action of a pivot door, these typically don’t work well in traditionally-designed homes.
They’re better when used for more contemporary homes with equally unique architecture, and while they can be made from nearly any common door material, they’re usually designed to be more luxurious than your standard main entryway door.
4: Interior Barn Doors
Barn doors are nothing new, but in the current market, they’re surging in popularity. They add the perfect balance of rustic charm and luxury, and they can give a grand atmosphere to interior spaces. They make great transitional doorways for kitchen and dining areas, living room areas, and transitions into enclosed outdoor seating areas.
Common characteristics of interior barn doors are natural hardwood materials that tend to be more common high-end varieties; although exotic woods can be used. Design elements are usually kept to a minimum to maintain the rustic charm of the overall design.
Wood grain is kept prominent and lightly treated to maintain its natural beauty, and the hardware used is typically brass, steel, or other unpainted metal options that welcome light tarnishing with age to add to the overall charm of the door.
Barn doors can also make great main entryways, and they fit in with most home types. However, they usually match homes with more rustic design elements throughout, and they can look out of place in modern contemporary, or transitory homes.
Custom Doors from Stately
The styles we mentioned above are all highly popular, but they’re just general styles. The real creativity comes when you order a fully custom door that expands upon the basic characteristics we described.
Stately can make practically any door you think of, from the examples we mentioned and beyond, in a large variety of materials.
This ensures that you or your clients get the exact door needed for any project.
With a custom door, you get to choose every design element of the door. Starting from a basic design template, you can design your own door from wrought iron, steel, various hardwoods, and more.
You even get to choose the hardware material and design to go with the door, and we craft everything in the shop according to your specifications.
Another option is to simply find an existing door design from another company and have us replicate it. Even if your client brings you a random door design from Pinterest, we can recreate the door, make desired changes, etc.
We have a wide selection of premade doors available and ready to go, but ordering a custom-made door can truly make your project stand out, satisfy your client beyond what’s possible with off-the-shelf doors, and generally add a tremendous level of appeal to the home being worked on.
How Much Do Designer Doors Cost?
Custom doors are typically more expensive than mass-produced counterparts, but that doesn’t mean they only fall into the high-end range. There’s actually a fairly massive price range for these types of designer doors.
In general, they can cost between $500 and $10,000, depending on a few variables.
Predominantly, the specifications requested affect the price the most. A complex door design with lots of handcrafted luxury features is obviously going to cost more than something that is very basic.
Then, you have to consider the material. A designer door supplier will have a large variety of material options to choose from, and the more premium your desired material is, the more the price will go up. Just like buying anything else that has multiple material options.
The craftsman is the final major key point to consider. Every business has a minimum operating cost depending on the volume of its sales, its overhead, and the area it’s conducting business in.
Many of those businesses add a higher markup than they need to in order to make a considerable profit. You have to look around and find the best supplier possible to ensure you get a good price.
Are Designer Doors Worth it?
If you have a project and you’re trying to minimize your costs, you might wonder if it’s even worth it to spend money on designer doors when there are plenty of cheap options on the market. Well, there are a few things to consider.
First, while you might be able to find a cheaper option outright with mass-produced doors, they typically lack the quality you’ll get from a designer door, and that leads to less long-term value.
Then, there’s the issue of being limited in choice. With our service, you can choose from a comprehensive collection of designer interior and exterior doors, or you can order something completely custom.
However, that’s not the only major draw of a designer door from Stately. We also offer top-of-the-line customer service and guarantees to ensure that your investment is protected in the long term. Adding value to your purchase beyond simply saving money upfront.
Where to Source Your Designer Doors for Your Next Project
Where you buy your designer doors has a big impact on whether you’ll get a great deal or not. If you just go to the first random company you find, you’ll likely overspend, and your project budget will take a hit.
At Stately, we craft doors for builders, designers, and wholesalers.
We focus on producing different types of designer doors that are top-quality and that you can rely on at cost-friendly prices. It’s our mission to make you and your client’s, dreams come true without costing you more than we should.
Our team features a comprehensive in-house support team, a strong warranty, physical locations across the country, and more than 140 employees ready to help your team at a moment’s notice. If you have a rough opening, such as a door or window, we can help.
We can make any door you want. Even door designs your client drew up or found on Instagram. So, when you need designer doors, contact Stately for the very best.
