Replacing doors is one of the fastest ways to give a whole room or a whole home a makeover. The door is the first thing people typically encounter in a room when approaching a home, and this means it’s an integral part of the impression your home makes. The following will look at some practical tips that can help you select the right doors for your home and ensure that they’re properly installed.

Dip Your Toes In Feng Shui

No matter what you think about energy and how it moves or doesn’t move through the world, feng shui has a lot to teach you about aesthetics. And since feng shui focuses on key meridians in the home (one of those meridians being the doorways), there is a lot of literature out there on what you should and shouldn’t do with your doors.

Take a little time to peruse the vast sea of knowledge that feng shui has gathered about design, and in particular, the balance involved in good interior design. In feng shui, your doorways, especially your front door, are the pathway for things to come into your life, both physically (like money and friends) but also emotionally (stability and feelings of being valued). It’s vital that you keep the area around your doors clean so that good things can easily make their way into your home.

Keep Your Home’s Style In Mind

If you’ve spent five minutes online looking at different door options, you know that there is an endless amount of choice. Be honest with yourself about the style of your home—when was it constructed? What housing style does it reflect? You can’t put a brutalist door on a Tudor home and expect it to look good. You can’t put a sliding barn door on a straight-edged modern condo and expect it to look good.

Narrow your choices down to only those doors that suit the style of your home. If you’re completely renovating and changing the style, of course, you can focus on the new style. But you shouldn’t ever go against style when it comes to foundational elements like doors, windows and roofing shapes. 

Get Inspired

This one should go without saying, but too often, it doesn’t. Spend time on Pinterest. Find your favorite design concepts, be they hygge or minimalist and look at the doors that go along with these aesthetics. Cut pictures out of magazines like you’re a teenager again (yes, you can still buy magazines). Go to your local library and find yourself shocked by the number of books on design, architecture and interior decorating. Drive around your neighborhood and ask yourself about the doors that speak most to you. Very quickly, you’ll find a ton of wonderful ideas. At least some of these ideas will be within your budget.

Set A Financial Limit

While on the topic of budget, it’s important to have one. Ideally, you want to have one before you do anything else. Home renovation projects have a tricky tendency to cost far more than you were initially expecting. A good rule of thumb is to assume that the project is going to cost 30% more than it seems like it will. This means you’re aiming to select a door (or doors) and an installation process that is about 30% below your financial limit for the project. You also want to set a financial limit that is comfortable for you. If it’s a struggle, you might find yourself annoyed every time you look at your new doors because you’re still paying for them months after your nephew put a nice big scratch in one.

Security Considerations

Of course, your doors aren’t just aesthetic components of your home. They serve a really important role in the security of your family and your property. Did you know most burglars enter through the front door? Take the time to learn about different locks and security elements that you might want to incorporate. It might even be worth speaking to a local securities team as they might be able to give you specific information about the types of crimes that occur in your area and what you can do to reduce the risk of them happening on your street in your home. At the bare minimum, you want to ensure that you have a deadbolt lock on all your exterior doors. Standard key locks are relatively easy to pick, even for inexperienced burglars.

Proper Sealing

While talking about sealing might not be sexy, it’s really important. Another critical role your doors perform is keeping things that are supposed to be outside, outside. Foremost, this means water. Rain can be beautiful, but water damage can cause a whole array of problems, from swelling and warping the structure of your home to mold and mildew. Exterior doors need to fit nicely into the frame with a quality lip or edge in order to keep out moisture. This will also help keep out pests. Maybe you’re okay with having ladybugs in your house because they keep your houseplants healthy, but even that’s probably a stretch. Most people want bugs to say outside of the home. A properly fitting and sealing door will help you with this endeavor.

Professional Help

Building upon the idea that security and quality sealing is vital, you want to ensure that all exterior doors are properly installed. In most cases, this means working with local interior door installers to make sure that there are no errors that could cause security risks or weather-induced damage. The edges of your door need to fit snugly against your door frame, and the sealing should be tight enough to protect your belongings from outside moisture and to keep pests at bay.

Measure Multiple Times

If you’re doing any of the work yourself, it’s important that you measure more times than you feel like you need to, especially if your doorway isn’t a standard size or your home is very old and may have altered shape slightly over the ages. While you’re at it, use a level and try to get your frame as level as possible before you start putting doors up.

The above list should have given you a few crucial tips that can help you select the right door for your home, wallet and aesthetic preferences, as well as give you a few key guidelines on getting it installed.