Door upholstery options

In order for the door of your house to have a presentable and aesthetic appearance, you need to think about an element such as upholstery. Upholstery is not just a part of the door structure, it is the face of your home or apartment. Stores and salons offer a huge number of door surface finishes, and it is important not to get lost in this variety.

In order to confidently choose the ideal option, you must familiarize yourself in advance with all the intricacies of the process, the features of the installation and the range.

Some people buy a door made of solid material and do not fit it with a paneling. But others believe that putting an additional panel on the frame of the product is a necessity, due to the fact that upholstery has many advantages.

• The upholstery material creates a protective layer on the door device that protects the product from external influences. Not all materials are resistant to natural disasters, temperature and humidity extremes.

• Often, doors are exposed to mechanical stress - blows, contacts with cutting objects and other elements that can spoil the aesthetic appearance of the surface. In such cases, the sheathing takes a hit.

• It is much easier to change the panel in case of serious damage than to buy the door again.
• Paneling gives you the opportunity to avoid the expense of buying a new door if you decide to change the color and style of your interior. The coating will make the appearance of the door suitable for the new design of the room without extra financial costs.
• Solid material does not always look presentable. If at first wooden and metal doors really look solid and solid, then their surface is exposed to time and other factors - it tarnishes, rusts, loses its beautiful appearance. The upholstery is much easier to withstand the effects of time, parasites do not start in it, oxidation and other chemical processes do not occur.

• The upholstery is much easier to care for than the one-piece material. Solid wood or metal must be treated with special expensive solutions to remove dirt and create a protective layer. Artificial panels do not require as much care. Sometimes the dirt from their surface can be easily removed with a regular damp cloth, and in some cases the skin has the property of repelling dirt.
• An important advantage of cladding is a very rich choice of colors and textures of products. Among the panels, you can find models for absolutely any style. In case your preferences change frequently, you can choose a versatile design that will suit different design options.

• The upholstery material increases the level of sound insulation and thermal insulation of the room. An additional layer makes the door more airtight, saves from drafts. Also, you hear less noise from the entrance or street, and foreign smells do not enter the territory of your home through a dense door structure.
• Upholstery is a faithful assistant in creating an exclusive door model.Some sophisticated users want their door to look not only aesthetically pleasing, but also very original. Therefore, they order custom-made upholstery, thus creating a unique product.

The huge variety of door trims can be divided into two large groups:

It consists of panels of hard materials that do not deform when pressed and have a flat surface. This type is durable and resistant to mechanical stress. Such panels are used for both the inner and outer parts of the door.

To make the solid product last longer, the panel is treated with a special compound, especially if it is located from the side of the street or entrance. Solid materials are fixed to the door frame using self-tapping screws, which are located at the edges of the product, or special glue. After fastening, the caps of the self-tapping screws are masked with the help of special corners.

Depending on the structure, there are several types of hard upholstery:

• The porous coating has a rather elastic structure with low sound and thermal conductivity.
• A smooth coating is more resistant to deformation, in most cases it mimics natural materials.
• The structured model is created as an analogue of leather products. It has a relief characteristic of snakeskin and crocodile skin, which looks very expensive and luxurious.

The soft upholstery is completely different to the touch. It deforms when pressed, but then, due to its elasticity, it takes on its original shape. Such a coating creates more comfort in the room, it makes the atmosphere homey, but at the same time solid and noble.

The fixation of the product also occurs with the help of self-tapping screws and glue, but decorative nails are also often used, which are laid along the edges of the door or even form a peculiar pattern on its surface. Large mounts also create a kind of relief on the soft product, which gives additional comfort to the room.

To upholster a wooden door, it is important not to forget about such a nuance as removing the lock, hinge and peephole. If there is old upholstery on the door, then it is necessary to completely remove it and all traces of its attachment.

The choice of materials may vary.

The following are used as solid panels.

Laminate is a material consisting of three layers: a stabilizing layer made of cardboard with moisture-repelling elements, a base made of compressed fiberboard and textured paper with various designs and imitating natural materials. Such plates do not fade in the sun and do not lend themselves to external conditions, they are easy to install. Sheathing can be purchased at a very affordable price.

A special type of chipboard is MDF material. It is durable, durable and has a very aesthetic appearance. Such panels are suitable not only for entrance doors, but also for interior doors.

There are several types of sheathing made of this fiber:

• Veneer finish. It is designed for a long service life. The main raw materials for such plates are oak, ash, birch, beech. Mahogany is a more expensive alternative.

• Painted MDF type - a more budgetary option, but it is not used for sheathing the outer part of doors due to its low strength. These products are perfect for interior door covering.
• For those who prefer solid and durable textures, the laminated MDF type... It is multi-layered, has high strength and exquisite decor, which is created using PVC film.

MDF, for all its strength, is not suitable for rooms with high humidity. His reaction to water is similar to that of products made from solid natural wood. The material is also susceptible to the claws of pets, so you should not purchase it for a home with cats or dogs.

Fiberboard has a significant price advantage. But in almost any room there is a high risk of damage to this material. Fiberboard is not resistant to mechanical damage and moisture.

There are also soft materials for door leaf sheathing.

• Leatherette very popular when cladding door structures. This option implies a dermantine layer in combination with a layer of insulation. When tightening the door with leatherette, self-tapping screws are used to fix the material on the canvas. Sometimes a pattern is created on the door surface with the help of special nails, they are needed in order to create a relief of a certain shape.

• A time-tested option for insulation - foam rubber... The advantage of this material is its cheap price. It can become the basis for creating a volumetric relief on the door, but foam rubber does not affect sound insulation in any way.

• For those who want to keep not only warmth in the apartment, but also to protect it from extraneous sounds, a modern analogue of foam rubber is suitable - penofolhaving a foil surface.

• A kind of dermantin - kozhvinyl... It is closer in appearance to natural leather, has an elastic structure and a noble appearance.

• Recycled leather for upholstery is a luxury item. The composition of this material includes crushed natural leather and polymer compounds, due to which the material becomes similar to latex. The appearance of the coating is very presentable; it is often complemented by decor in the form of embossing or unusual texture relief.

• The best leather material for upholstery on the outside of the door is eco-leather... It is a combination of polyurethane and artificial leather. Being resistant to almost all influences, including frost, such a coating will reliably protect your door and add additional comfort.

To make the process of door trimming easier, it is advisable to purchase a special kit for this procedure.

The kit includes the following components:

• foam rubber;
• dermantin;
• sealing rubber parts to protect against drafts;
• nails for decorating the door surface;

Another way to insulate doors is upholstery with felt. A layer of felt is able not only to keep warm in your home, but also to protect you from drafts penetrating through the cracks of the door frame.

Some are not afraid of mechanical stress on the door surface and supply the product with fabric inserts. But in this case, there is still a possibility of puffs and damage from sharp objects. For those who want to diligently protect the doorway from damage, a black silk cover is suitable. It is anti-vandal, withstands various influences and at the same time has a very attractive design.

For capital protection of the door surface from the effects of various external factors, including fire, thermofilm is used. It is attached with a special glue only to a perfectly flat door surface.

How to make upholstery of wooden doors, see the following video.

An equally wide variety of materials is offered for finishing metal door structures.

This material is more durable than wood, but to fix the panels, it is often necessary to spend additional time fixing special bars for self-tapping screws. Otherwise, the cladding is fixed with special glue, but this method of cladding is less reliable.

One of the materials for door decoration is drywall... It serves to seal not the door surface itself, but the slopes.

The appearance of a doorway with plasterboard looks laconic and neat, which will correspond to almost any style direction. The downside of the material is its instability to moisture, but there are varieties of gypsum board that have increased moisture resistance.

The front door is often sheathed with material such as ship plywood... Similar raw materials are used on the outside of the product. Ship plywood is very similar in appearance to natural wood; its surface is treated with a special frost-resistant varnish and stain. Truly quality plywood is usually double-sided, veneered, and has an adhesive backing that is resistant to high temperatures and moisture.

Doors can be trimmed from the inside hardboard, which is a thin fiberboard. Such material is quite dense in structure, one of its sides is usually decorative and front. A huge advantage of hardboard is the ability to easily cut panels of the desired size, ease of decoration and installation. This raw material usually has a democratic price.

Hardboard structures perform the function of temporary doors, but they can be installed on the side that faces the street or into the entrance, because the material is not afraid of street conditions.

In metal structures, as in wooden structures, it is used artificial leather for finishing the inside of doors. But when upholstering metal products, there is no need to leave a roller around the edges. To mask the cracks, a special tape is used, thanks to which, together with foam rubber or foam foam, additional noise insulation of the room is formed.

So that the door trim does not look boring and trivial, special reliefs and patterns are created on it.

In the decoration of artificial leather, decorative nails are used, with the help of which the following patterns can be created on the surface of the sheathing:

• rectangles are created using small nails. In such a pattern, rectangular joints are deliberately emphasized;
• diamond trimmed dermantine is the most popular design option. They can have the same size over the entire surface, or they can be different in size. Small rhombs can often be seen in the upper and lower parts, while in the central part they intersect with large ones;
• sometimes a drawing is created without reference to geometry. The process takes place by creating any silhouette from nails. They are located both in a straight and staggered manner;
• sometimes the relief is focused only on the central part of the door piece, while the rest of the area remains smooth. Otherwise, the nails are placed in stripes, and there is an alternation of embossed and smooth areas.

For hard upholstery material, the following types of patterns are characteristic:

• rectangular elements are the basic decorative details of a hard surface. They can not only be an independent relief, but also include additional patterns.Similar patterns can be found both in the size of the entire door panel and on one lower part of the product;
• an arched silhouette is often created on the top of the door. It can be a solid element, or it can be divided into equal sections;
• sometimes the relief of the door is represented by elements of various shapes that form a rectangle. This asymmetrical design looks very creative.

In order for the door trim to last longer and always have a presentable appearance, it is necessary to properly care for it.

The primary factor in the choice of cleaning and care products is the material with which the door panels are finished.

• Natural wood can be cleaned with talcum powder, raw potato halves, or a mixture of white clay and vinegar essence. All products can leave light streaks, so a flannel cloth should be used to polish the surface.

• For MDF and chipboard surfaces, different cleaning agents are used, depending on the nature of the contamination. Stubborn stains, such as paint, are best removed with a solvent. You can make your own less toxic remedy by mixing citric acid with vinegar or by dissolving baking soda in water.

• PVC is cleaned with a special mixture of liquid soap and dish detergent.
• For a painted surface, vinegar essence 9% is suitable, after which the surface must be wiped with a damp cloth.
• The laminated surface is cleaned with an alcohol solution, acetone or citric acid with vinegar.

• Products made of artificial leather may not withstand the effects of caustic substances, therefore it is best to clean them with special products that have a gentle composition, but effectively deal with dirt.

In order for your doorway trim to look original and beautiful, you can borrow options from a number of design ideas.

• A door with a brushed panel will create a vintage atmosphere. It can be decorated with fabric inserts, patches in the same style and other decorative elements.
• To give the room a bohemian feel, you can decorate the plain door covering with exclusive decorative pearl and bead rivets. They will look elegant, especially if you make up an original drawing from them. The main feature is the presence of contrast between the rivets and the door panel.
• During festive periods, you can decorate the door with symbolic attributes - mistletoe wreaths, ribbons, bows, flowers. But this option will look more appropriate in private houses than in ordinary apartments.

• A basket of flowers can be used as a permanent eye-catching element for a door facade. This technique looks especially good on wooden textures. The flat basket is fixed with glue or self-tapping screws to the top of the door, and flowers are placed in it, making a pleasant impression on everyone who comes to the apartment.

• To emphasize the ethnic motive in the design of the room, the door covering is provided with various inserts made of fabric and natural materials. Quirky mats or weaves are often used to decorate a doorway in combination with vegetation.
• Painting the door strips white in contrast to the main shade of the panels will be a very original solution for your home.
• Colored glass can become an element of decoration of the inner part of the door. Colored figures, patterns and ornaments are often made from it.

• To add an element of antiquity to the door, it is equipped with stucco molding. Typically, this decor is applicable to a perfectly flat surface.
• The Scandinavian style is characterized by the equipment of the door with metal parts. They look great even on wood panels and add solidity to the entire doorway.
• For baroque and rococo, light wood carvings are typical. Panel details can be painted gold or bronze to create an element of ostentatious luxury.
• Sometimes the inner surface of the door is decorated with exclusive or thematic images. For example, for a Japanese-style hallway, colored door panels with hieroglyphs or symbols of Japanese culture can be used.

Whichever door you choose for your home, remember that upholstery is always a good addition to it. A well-chosen design, material and decor will make your door surface look luxurious. An ideal cladding will delight you and your guests for a long time, so its choice should be taken seriously and thoroughly.