Updating Interior Doors

It's been quiet over on the blog lately, and I'm so sorry for that! It's been a combination of being slammed with work, the nice Michigan weather, about 12 different running projects, and a case of writers' block.

We treated ourselves to a full Saturday off this past weekend - we spent the day brunching at a restaurant we've been wanting to try (Dime Store in Detroit for any of you locals), attending a Tiger's game, lunch at two iconic coney places (Lafayette and American), and we capped the day off with a party to celebrate a lifelong friend. It was so nice to get out and enjoy a weekend, but it always makes me feel guilty for not working on the house. Especially since we have our annual trip to Nashville coming up. (Which means y'all will get an update on my brother and sister-in-law's lake house!)

Curious as to who won the coney dog showdown?? Lipuma's. ha.

One of our goals for this year was to update our interior doors, bifolds and hardware. And I'm so excited to cross this one off our to-do list!

The doors original to the house were plain, hollow-core, and dingy with corroded brass knobs and hinges. They have definitely been well loved throughout their life.

Several of the door knobs had worn so bad that they no longer functioned properly. Which was a bit scary when you couldn't open the bathroom door to exit. It took a few tries to get the latch to open and we always hoped it didn't stop completely on our turn in the 'loo.

As for the door style... we already had that picked out. You got a glimpse of the door when we added a pantry to our kitchen during that whole-room renovation last year.

Yup, that's what we installed throughout the rest of the house. We just love those traditional style 5-paneled doors. I've been wanting them forever and I'm so excited to have some fancy-schmancy solid cores!

At this point, we focused on replacing just the interior swinging and bi-fold doors on our main level (we aren't even thinking of basement doors, and exterior doors are for another day). Here's what we are replacing at this time:

• 4 solid-core door slabs (guest bathroom + 3 bedrooms)
• 2 hollow-core door slabs (hallway coat closet)
• 2 hollow-core bi-folds (linen closet + family room closet)
• 2 sets of double hollow-core bi-folds (2 spare bedrooms)

We knew the fancy solid-core style would also boast a fancy price tag, but we felt it would be worth the extra pennies. Our little ranch has all hard-surface floors, so noise travels pretty well from room to room. While that's not much of an issue for us now, it may be in the future once there are more than two adults living here. In addition to our solid-core request, we also need the doors custom-sized. Because that's how our house rolls. #oldhousestyle

Like in the past, I gathered up 3 quotes for our custom doors from the following stores:

• Building supplier
• Local home improvement store
• Lowe's

The styles of the door varied slightly from store to store, but they were all consistently 5 'raised' paneled doors that were pre-primed, and all were special order. We would handle delivery, painting, installation, and hole cutting (for the handles).

I was hopeful that the local guys would win our business once again (like on the garage door and carpet). Until I got that first quote back and saw more digits than I expected.

• Building supply store - $2,600 <-----------whoa!
• Local home improvement store - $1,680  <--------not quite
• Lowe's - $874 <--------Sold!

Lowe's quoted us for the win! Of our interior door biz...

Lowe's was able to accommodate our special requests for custom sized door slabs (length, width, and depth) and they applied two savings programs which brought the doors into our three-digit budget. We got a free upgrade from hollow-core to solid-core on all of our swinging doors, and 10% chopped off the total order (with a direct mail coupon). AND we got all hinges routered out to our specs for free. I'm not sure if this is always free at Lowe's, but we had to pay at the other stores for this service.

Fast forward 4 weeks and our new doors were down in our basement propped up on 2x4's just waiting for a fresh coat of paint. I used my paint sprayer to lay on 3 coats of Benjamin Moore Simply White in semi-gloss (the same color as our trim) on each side.

 

While assessing the installation process, we noticed that our bathroom door wasn't fitting because the door jamb wasn't square. And the door wasn't going to bend for us.  That's when I called in the pros to hang the door slabs. We waited too long and spent too much money for me to hack this door to size. And a mistake on the door couldn't be covered with caulk. A few hours later our contractor sized up the doors, trimmed only one and hung them to the jambs.

Remember our office update? Here's the other side of the room now that we have doors! The trim was just installed and still needs to be painted. Other than that small fix, the office is done.

New doors make such an impact!  Take a look at our coat closet. One of the first things you see when you walk through the front door.

 

We kept the double door design, added new doors, hinges, and installed dummy knobs to match the rest of the hallway's hardware.

We decided to go with Baldwin knobs (from Home Depot) for all the interior doors since they'll likely be used daily throughout their life. The price tag to purchase each knob is a little higher, but we only needed 4 functional door knobs and 2 dummy knobs so it definitely didn't break the bank!

Baldwin makes a superior product, but just in case, they have a lifetime warranty which we've tested twice now on an exterior entry door. One of our door handles is 20 years old and was showing signs of wear. We reached out to Baldwin for two different parts and they sent us both free of charge (it works perfectly again).

I'm a fan of fantastic customer service - and Baldwin now has a customer for life. You can find the knobs that we purchased by visiting here.

We used oil-rubbed bronze cabinet pulls for the bifolds (from Lowe's).

I can't tell you how happy I am to have brand new interiors doors! I think we'll be loving these forever since they're so classic looking. What do you think? Do you have a favorite style of door?