“God is in the details.” Those words attributed to German-born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe are sound advice in both architecture and room design. Small, simple details can ultimately have a huge effect or impact.
For homeowners wanting to refresh or improve the look of their home, a few improvement categories embody that more than moulding and interior doors. With open-concept homes, those small details and doors are even better seen, and their impact similarly increases.
In many ways, interior doors and mouldings go together hand-in-glove, helping to create a unified look and aesthetic.
“Coordinated doors create balance, consistency and seamless flow throughout homes. Whether you are looking to maximize natural light with a French door or improve ventilation between closed spaces with a louvered door, thinking about your needs for the space can help you find the right door solution to make your space not only beautiful but also functional,” says Spencer Smith, Director of Innovation & Product at Metrie.
MODERN MINIMALISM
Mies van der Rohe is famous for another common maxim: “Less is more.” And in modern contemporary design that has certainly become true.
Homeowners are seeking out the elegance of simple Craftsman and minimalist aesthetics, Smith says. To that end, his company has released two new curated styles to its Option {M} series of interior doors and moulding combinations (straightforwardly named Craftsman and Minimalist.)
“Option {M} captures today’s most sought-after styles to transform ordinary rooms into your new favourite places,” Smith tells homeowners. “Build interiors that reflect your personality using our curated moulding and door solutions.”
Photo courtesy of Metrie
Photo courtesy of JELD-WEN
The minimalist trend is one echoed across moulding and door vendors, and, of course, other home improvement categories. Many cite minimalist décor as being calming, while others point to environmental friendliness and economics from limited waste.
“Before, but more so because of the pandemic, people are spending more time at home and looking at ways they can personalize their space and add design elements. Interior doors are a good place to start,” says Michael Macleod, National Account Manager at JELD-WEN of Canada.
He says his company is also seeing the contemporary shift towards modern minimalism as a strong trend. JELD-WEN answers that in the interior doors space through Shaker-style doors with sleek profiles and minimal hardware. He points to the company’s Madison and Monroe families of doors as prime examples.
BOLDER, CUSTOM INTERIOR DOORS
“Whether you’re doing a complete renovation or not, just replacing the door panels changes the whole look of the room. Add some paint, and all of the sudden, things look a lot different,” says Hardy
Photo courtesy of Alliance Door Products
Rahn, Director of Sales for Canada at Alliance Door Products. “And you’ve done it economically, without significant cost to your home at all.”
With that in mind, more homeowners are looking for custom designs for a unique, personalized look. “In new homes, the open design means you see more of the doors, so people want to personalize it.”
One of those areas of personalization is the use of bolder colours, he says, whether on the door slab or its accents.
On popular colours, Macleod notes, “People are looking to have more of a statement with their interior door as well, starting to see light green, earth tones, someone might want to put a bright yellow door in their hallway.” (Neutral and limited colour palettes also being part of the minimalist design aesthetic.)
The colours aren’t just because to create a modern Bohemian aesthetic but speak to, perhaps equally important trend: environmental friendliness.
“Homeowners are more eco-conscious, more particular about what they buy to use for their home. That’s why we recycle wood and minimize waste that goes into our doors. And you see that right from the makeup of the door to what colours are represented,” Macleod adds.
Also on the continued uptick in popularity are router-carved doors, says Rahn, like FineLine doors, as well as a trend towards wood veneers and stains. For those who need more functionality with their aesthetics, Rahn notes the continued growth in popularity of its VanAir line of doors, which optimize airflow and ventilation while still delivering a modern aesthetic, privacy and sound control.
A CASE FOR A NEW CLOSET
If the entry door is the home’s first impression, the entryway closet might be the second chance to impress.
Photo courtesy of Photo courtesy of JELD-WEN
Photo courtesy of JELD-WEN
In closet doors, options abound for homeowners looking to make an impression, suggests Tracy Cummings, National Sales Manager at Concept SGA Inc., creator of custom closet and interior doors based out of Terrebonne, Que.
Cummings says when all options are considered, the company offers 46,000 different doors. The Cadillac of their offerings, however, are aluminum frame closet doors developed about a decade ago out of its Florida warehouse facility. It’s a closet solution she says Concept SGA continues to build on and generate excitement.
“You know, we started with one profile in grey. We’ve added black and white, and we’ve added a second profile that’s a squarer, modern look that a lot of designers are looking for.”
“We’ve also added a bifold version of the aluminum frame door. The sales and demand on this product are just growing month by month,” she says, adding that condos and high-end projects are contributing to the interest. “Every two months, we’re readjusting our base inventory because the demand just keeps growing all the time.”
With new homes, Cummings notes that the raised ceilings, open concepts and wider planks on floors that are currently trending are leading to bigger, taller closets as well. This, too, is making aluminum a more solid material choice.
“The aluminum frame is so light we can go up to heights of 10’, so that becomes interesting in a lot of homes where we see more and more 10’ front and interior doors,” she says. “It makes the doors an option for those big, big homes.”
“And we do up to 18’ wide and 10’ high.”
Photo courtesy of Concept SGA
STAYING SLEEK AND MODERN
The modern contemporary, minimalist style being sported in interior doors is driving demand for the same from mouldings — and vice versa. It’s no surprise to Donna Gerrits, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Alexandria Moulding, with four decades in the industry.
“There’s a certain pattern where we see when a style changes in mouldings it changes in interior doors,” she notes. “Which comes first? The chicken or the egg? I’m not sure, but they are definitely aligned.”
The simple and straight style is increasing the use of S4S mouldings (“surface, four sides”) boards that have been surfaced on both faces and edges to result in flat and parallel surfaces.
That’s not to say modern mouldings are devoid of any complexity. There continues to be an interest in combining multiple profiles to build up an entirely new and unique decorative trim, Gerrits suggests.
With so many options, Alexandria has come to the rescue for homeowners by labelling all their marketing materials — from inspirational photos shared to displays — with a style the product will help them achieve: Victorian, Traditional, Modern and Eclectic.
“When you walk through bins of mouldings, sometimes it can be a little overwhelming because it’s a sea of white — since it’s always been primed,” she says. “We carry those colour-coded icons onto the bin labels, so you can go, ‘OK. I want a modern look, so I need to go towards those.’”
Photo courtesy of Alexandria Moulding
Photo courtesy of Alexandria Moulding
Photo courtesy of Alliance Door Products
Photo courtesy of Alexandria Moulding
“At least that narrows it down, and then it’s just a matter of determining sizes that you can need.”
Breaking the mould
One of the more exciting uses of moulding continues to be surface projects rather than traditional baseboards and trim, Gerrits notes. These treatments on feature walls and, increasingly, ceilings include projects like adding shiplap — three new types of which have recently been introduced by Alexandria and are “selling like crazy.”
Lately, Gerrits says, homeowners are striving to make these treatments pop even more with the addition of colours, moving away from whites to black, navy blue, dark green or charcoal grey. “It’s quite a nice touch and people are using them behind the bed, or fireplace, behind the dining room table or study. Even within cabinetry.”
“They’re really nice,” she says of the bolder shiplap treatments.
Smith says such wall treatments are a method of making a big impact without a lot of effort or investment. “Wall treatments can be created using a product like shiplap or even as simple as a 1×2 stick of moulding. In as little as a day and for a reasonable investment you can completely change the look of a room in your home.
“Whether you like the look of shiplap, geometric or modern designs you can use wall treatments to reflect your personal style – the possibilities are endless.” —