Making your home look modern and stylish can be challenging. You need to consider all aspects of your decor, including your interior doors, to get the right feel. So which doors can help you to define this interior design style?

We explore what makes a modern door, and how you can use them to develop a contemporary aesthetic.  

Modern Interior Design: Creating a Contemporary Room 

‘Modern’ interior design style tends to be characterised by clean, sleek lines. While traditional styling is often quite ornate, contemporary rooms are minimal and simplistic. 

To build a modern room, choose for comfortable, sleek, and minimal furniture pieces. Consider using leather or natural fabrics with varied textures for upholstery. 

Avoid ornate furniture and choose pieces that fit the size of your room. Build in plenty of stylish storage options to prevent clutter. Focus on clean lines and simplicity, and take this through to your internal doors too. 

It’s easy to overlook the role of choosing the right door in your room, but it sets the tone as you enter and adds that finishing touch to your decor. The same principles apply, keep the design clean and understated. 

Choosing Contemporary Internal Doors

Before you can choose the right modern interior doors for your property, it’s useful to understand a bit more about them. 

What do they look like?

A modern door usually has a sleek design, featuring clean lines and minimal panels. These doors are tailored to complement today’s streamlined homes and lifestyles, and they often include simple and sophisticated glass features. 

There’s such a variety of contemporary styles on offer that one might look totally different to another. Even some door designs rooted in history can look great in a modern home. The modern heritage look has been popular recently, combining old and new for a chic and nostalgic finish. 

What are they made of?

Today’s contemporary internal doors still tend to be made of wood, but they use modern manufacturing processes to create sturdier, more cost-effective and better insulating products. 

Many modern interior doors have an engineered core, made from a mix of different wood that combines to add strength, durability and reduce the chance of warping or twisting. This goes for whatever style you choose (classic or contemporary), so there’s no need to worry that a traditional design won’t perform as well or last as long. 

The majority of our modern interior doors are sustainably sourced too. These days, everyone is much more aware of the effects on the environment, which is why we work with professional bodies like the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) to make sure our doors are being produced in an environmentally friendly way. Find out more here. 

The differences between modern and traditional doors

Traditional doors tend to be based on bygone styles, influenced by the Victorian and Georgian eras, the 1930s and 60s and more. The styles tended to feature more ornate detailing and panelling because they matched the decor of the times and were easy to construct.

As manufacturing processes improved, it became possible to create simpler designs in a more cost effective way. It has also become easier and safer to include glazing in doors, something that would be less common traditionally. As toughened safety glass is included in many internal doors, glass panels aren’t such a risk.

So, the main differences between traditional and modern doors are their level of simplicity, and the inclusion of glazing.  

Another difference between a modern door and a traditional door lies in the hardware. Modern doors typically feature angular, clean, metallic hardware, while traditional doors use more organic shapes and fewer metal finishes. When comparing modern and traditional doors, consider your handle type in terms of appearance and tactile experience.

What’s popular right now?

Many interior door designs never go out of style and can work well in any style of home. But if you really want to keep things current, here are the style and colour choices that will set your home apart. 

• Styles: 
  • The Shaker door is the most sought after contemporary interior door style. With 1 to 5+ panels and a straight edge between the stile and rail, it can be used in swing doors, pocket doors, and barn door formats for a modern look. 
  • Industrial style doors are also really popular for creating a contemporary feel. This might seem counter intuitive as they’re not a new design, but the glass panels and slim rails give them a distinctive appearance that works really well in contemporary homes. 
• Colours: 
  • black and grey are really popular colours for creating a modern look. Choosing doors in these colours helps to make them a focal point, drawing the eye and really pulling a room together.
  • Keeping things simple and clean, white can work wonders for contemporary style. It’s fresh and bright, and helps create that minimal look.
  • Bright colours can work really well too. Adding a bold splash of colour to create a feature door in one of this year’s popular vibrant shades can bring a room right up to date. 

Read our guide to choosing an internal door colour for a more in depth look at your choice of hue. 

Modernising Your Existing Doors: How To

If you want a contemporary home, replacing your doors with modern styles is usually the best option. If your budget really won’t stretch that far, then a quick update to your existing doors might help.

To modernise internal doors, consider replacing outdated hardware, such as handles and hinges, with sleek and contemporary options. Another alternative is to apply a fresh coat of paint or stain in a trendy color to give your doors a modern look. Additionally, adding decorative molding or trim can instantly update the appearance of your interior doors.

A Final Word on Making Your Choice

Selecting the right doors for your contemporary home deserves plenty of consideration. If your aim is to look as up to date and progressive as possible, look for interior doors that combine the following factors:

• Clean, sleek lines
• Minimal detailing
• Glazed panels
• A contemporary colour

However, the ultimate goal is to choose a design that complements your overall interior aesthetic. In some cases, a more traditional design can be the perfect counterpart to your modern styling.