Adding trim around a bedroom or closet door is like adding a frame around a picture. Case molding makes a door look more special and adds a finishing touch.
A grand entrance makes a lasting impression. So you can make a big impact on the way your house looks by upgrading the doors.
Simple updates to both outside and interior doors—to the bedrooms and bathrooms, for instance—can transform your décor from plain to fancy, and it doesn’t have to cost a lot.
Here are six ways you can update and embellish your home through your doors—and you can do most of the work yourself.
1. Replace hinges and doorknobs. The shiny, polished brass hardware that came with your doors all those years ago is woefully out of style—and looks scratched and worn by now. Maybe you replaced the doorknob or deadbolt and the finish on the new hardware doesn’t match the old hinges. Invest in a matching set of hinges, doorknobs or handles, and wall bumps so your door looks finished and uniform. The most popular finishes right now are oil-rubbed bronze and satin nickel.
2. Change the locks. A good time to change the hardware on exterior doors is when you replace the locks—again, so everything matches. If your lock is cheap or flimsy, your home could be easy to break into. Find a name-brand deadbolt that has at least a one-inch “throw”—that’s the length that the deadbolt extends out of the edge of the door. You also can buy attractive strike plates that are reinforced underneath with heavy-gauge metal and long screws—2.5 to 3 inches—to secure the plate to the wall framing and not just to the door jamb.
3. Upgrade interior doors. Lots of new homes come with plain, smooth, painted bedroom and bathroom doors. You can perk up your hallways by replacing them with paneled doors, or with solid-core doors for sound control, or with wood doors suitable for staining.
We hear from a lot of panicked homeowners who have bought new interior doors and can’t seem to get the door handles to match up with the latch holes or who have placed the hinges too high or too low and the door doesn’t quite fit the frame. Some tips:
- Don’t do this yourself. Even home-improvement contractors don’t order their own doors and hardware; they leave that to door hardware specialists. Your measurements have to be precise or your door won’t hang right.
- Call a door pro to come to your home, measure the door and figure out where to place the hardware. Or take your old door off the hinges and haul it to the door store so the pros can fix you up with exactly what you need to fit your new door into the place of the old one.
- If you invest in a wood door because you like the look of stained wood grain, hire a professional to install it and to stain it. Painting a paint-grade door is a fairly simple do-it-yourself job because it’s easy to hide your mistakes under caulk, putty and paint. But a stained wood door shows every drip and splatter. Protect your investment by investing just a little bit more in the finishing touches.
- For a rustic Southwest look, choose a hardwood knotty alder or knotty pine door. If you like a more contemporary look, cherry, maple and mahogany are popular—but high-end—choices.
4. Add trim around the door. Like a frame around a picture, case molding around a door makes it look more special and adds a finishing touch. Installing interior door trim is a fairly simple DIY job if you’re handy with a miter saw and nail gun, especially if you use an easy-to-cut composite product. If you want to use real wood that’s stained to show the grain, however, you might want to hire a pro to install and finish it.
5. Finish the job with baseboard molding. Select a style that matches the trim around the door.
6. Make sure the door that connects the garage to the house is fire-rated, has self-closing hinges and meets your city’s building codes.
Chances are, your home looks a lot like the other ones in your neighborhood. Make yours stand out by updating it with new doors and door hardware. A few simple upgrades can make your home more unique and special—and quieter and more secure.
For more do-it-yourself tips, go to rosieonthehouse.com. Rosie Romero is an Arizona contractor who has been in the Arizona home building and remodeling industry for 35 years. He has a radio program from 8-11 a.m. Saturdays on KAZM (780 AM) and KQNA (1130 AM).
