Antiquated interior doors age a home

The idea of completely transforming and updating the interior doors of your home, without any on-site construction, paint cans or tarps littering your living spaces, may seem impossible.

But it is entirely possible and, believe it or not, it doesn't have to cost an arm and leg, says Chris Dufton, procurement manager for HomeStory, based in California, a company that manufactures replacement doors for residences.

Replacing doors to bedrooms, bathrooms and closets has always made a big difference in the look of a house. But until recently, the mess and expense involved served as a deterrent to making that change. Doors had to be cut, planed and then painted on site. It was a time-consuming and messy process.

That is no longer the case, however, Dufton says. HomeStory has taken a home renovation that used to involve lots of time and the hiring of a contractor, and transformed it into a task that only takes a couple of hours or days, depending on the number of doors involved.

Today, with almost no hassle, you can transform an entire home by replacing old, uninspiring doors with stylish new doors, thanks to major advances in technology, says Dufton.

Doors serve as a backdrop and help make your decor more cohesive, so replacing outdated interior doors within a home is, arguably, the neatest remodeling job a homeowner can do with the most overall impact.

For instance, busy-looking hallways filled with an abundance of six-panel doors can be made more contemporary and elegant by substituting calmer, less distracting two-panel doors.

Similarly, homes filled with 1960s and 1970s-era flat surface, or “flush,” doors can be enhanced and immeasurably upgraded with the substitution of doors using some sort of panel configuration.

HomeStory's door-measuring technology generates custom replacement doors by taking 13 precise digital measurements and capturing the geometry of the existing door frame. Using those measurements, new doors are uniquely milled on an automated machine and then painted, all in the factory rather than in a customer's house. Installed in minutes, the custom fitting doors close properly, preventing any drafts, making the home much quieter and more energy efficient.

Dufton says the precision manufacturing process allows HomeStory to update any home, regardless of when it was built. With HomeStory's technology, it is even able to accommodate the oldest of homes.

Doors can shift over time as a house settles and fixing the resulting ill-fitting doors once involved planing down the existing door and then repainting it on site. People also ran into problems when they replaced carpeting with hardwood floors, leaving them with large gaps at the bottoms of their doors. HomeStory can correct these issues.

And because the doors are painted in the factory, you won't see any brush or roller marks and installation is seamless. Delivery from the HighMark Digital factory in Lincoln, California, generally takes three to six weeks once the measurements are taken, although the company's most popular doors can often be quick-shipped in only three or four weeks.

HomeStory offers molded panel doors made of composite wood that come in a choice of hollow core or solid core versions. They also offer medium density fiberboard (MDF) doors, made by Tru Stile. These offer the heft and feel of real wood, but won't shrink, expand or warp like wood doors. They are also architecturally correct in their construction, eco-friendly and more affordable than wood. However, wooden, mirrored, bi-fold, bypass and glass-paned doors are also available from HomeStory.

Dufton says homeowners tend to choose solid core doors for hallways in order to cut down on noise and they sometimes choose to go with matching hollow core doors on closets in order to save money.

An almost infinite number of hardware choices for hinges and lock sets are also offered and homeowners may also choose to re-use the hardware they already have in order to economize.

Dufton says HomeStory offers eight shades of white, a black and a tan, as well as multiple styles of door to fit with any decor. Wood grain doors can also be sealed with a clear coat. A hot new trend, he says, is for people to mix their stained door frames with white doors, for an updated look.

Mirrored doors in which the mirrors are inlaid into the door, not just attached to it, are also very popular, especially for closets, and can be installed as bypass sliders, not just on hinges.

For more information, visit www.HomeStoryChicago.com or call (847) 258-3417.