Choosing Interior Doors: What's New on the Market?

With UNION, we explain what to consider when choosing interior doors, the advantages of hidden installation, and what new materials and decorative solutions exist on the market. After all, modern technologies endow interior doors with much greater capabilities than simply dividing or combining spaces.

Selecting the Design

All interior doors are primarily divided into hinged and sliding types based on their main function. Let's examine them in detail.

Hinged Doors

Based on installation method, hinged doors come in two types: hidden or with thresholds. The main difference is that doors with thresholds can be installed after finishing work.

If you choose doors with a hidden frame, walls must be specially prepared for installation. However, the result is completely different: such doors look much more stylish, and there are far more possibilities for space transformation with them.

With Thresholds. Thresholds are strips that close the gap between the edge of the door frame and the wall it adjoins. If the wall opening is non-standard—such as a wall thicker than the frame width—accessories are selected. These are special boards that are attached to the frame and fill in the missing volume.

Hidden Type. The absence of visible frames, thresholds, and hinges, along with a wide selection of finishes, makes hidden doors a convenient and minimalist solution.

Doors with hidden installation can be either ready for on-site finishing or fully operational.

Since such doors lack thresholds and can have various shapes, they can be installed almost anywhere—under a staircase or in a room with a slanted ceiling.

A "hidden" door can be painted or decorated to match the wall color and completely blend into the space. Alternatively, it can be accentuated—glass doors, veneer or enamel finishes.

Sliding Doors

Sliding interior doors are perhaps the most convenient way to zone a space. They make the area open, bright, and divide it into functional zones. Moreover, with a wide variety of materials, they can be matched to almost any interior style.

Sliding doors can consist of two, three, or more panels, each panel being up to 3 meters in height and 1.3 meters wide. This allows them to cover almost any opening. The door structure can be installed either within the opening or niche, or move along the wall or slide into it, without taking up extra space.

The mounting system can be visible or hidden—perfect for minimalist interiors. Let's explore this topic in more detail.

Doors with Visible Tracks

With this installation, a hanging mechanism is mounted above the opening, on which the door panel slides. The main advantage of suspended doors is convenience and ease of installation and operation. These doors can be mounted after finishing work in any opening or niche.

Doors with Hidden Tracks

This sliding mechanism is visually invisible: the hidden track, on which the door panel moves, is embedded in the ceiling. To install it, the opening must be specially prepared during rough construction.

Doors Inside the Wall

An interior door slides into a special cassette—penal—inside the wall. This type of door looks unique and saves significant space.

Installation of this type of door must also be planned in advance and walls prepared accordingly.

Magic Track

An impressive solution in the market for sliding interior doors: a special Magic track is mounted along the wall, behind the door panel, and is completely hidden from view, creating an effect of a door 'floating' in the air.

Selecting Material

The frame (sash) of all modern doors is made from either wood or aluminum—a strong and lightweight material. However, finishes vary: glass, veneer, stone, or enamel. What are their unique features?

Glass

Glass door panels do not require special maintenance: they can be easily cleaned with regular cleaning agents. A glass door can be tinted, painted in various colors with matte or glossy finishes, or have metallic reflections.

Enamel

Interior doors with enamel finish have many advantages: they are practical, easy to maintain, and resistant to external influences. In UNION, water-based lacquers and paints are used in manufacturing, making the doors completely safe for health and not harmful to the environment.

Veneer

Natural veneer is a thin slice of valuable wood species such as oak, walnut, beech, and others. Visually, such a door is indistinguishable from a solid wood door, but its weight is much less. Also, the price is significantly lower.

Stone

A 2020 trend, "stone doors" are made from ceramic granite, which under high pressure becomes especially durable and resistant to mechanical damage—scratches and chips.

This door looks exceptionally stylish! With a variety of colors and shades, it fits perfectly into modern interiors, loft style, or minimalist eco-interiors.

Paintable Door

When sold, the door panel and frame of such doors will be primed. It is assumed that after installation, the panel will be painted, covered with wallpaper, or decorated with plaster. These doors are often installed in a hidden frame.

Interesting Solutions

Planarity

A pleasant addition is the ability to install adjacent doors with different opening directions—OUT or IN. This is useful when room layout does not allow doors to open in one direction, but a uniform plane of doors and the wall is needed. This is known as planarity.

Planarity is a special aesthetic of minimalism, where the door panel and wall are in the same plane.

Invisible Hinges

Special hinges that are completely hidden in the frame and not visible from the outside—this makes the door panel and wall a single plane. The door opens easily to 180 degrees.

Double-Glazed

Despite all the advantages of glass doors, a double-glazed panel from FLY has even better sound insulation. It can be safely installed in a bedroom or children's room.

No Top Part of Frame

In this design, the door is mounted directly into the ceiling, without a top header, whether with thresholds or in a hidden frame. Many designers use this feature to emphasize and visually increase ceiling height in the room.

Aesthetics

Hidden Skirting Board

The door and wall can be in the same plane, and so can the skirting board. For this, it is mounted on a special aluminum profile embedded in the wall and does not protrude beyond it.

Handle in Profile Color

Elaborate handles and locks have taken a back seat, yielding to minimalist design. Modern technology allows even the handle to be made from the door panel material—be it wood or even stone. An original solution for interiors in loft or minimalist styles.

"Floating Door"

The door is installed in the opening with a mounting frame and special thresholds that leave a gap from the wall. LED lighting is mounted all around the perimeter of the door opening. This creates an illusion that the door is floating in the air.