Upgrading the exterior and interior doors in your property is a quick and easy way to elevate the look and feel of your space. And it may even increase the overall value of your home, helping you get the very best price for the place you’ve enjoyed living in for years.

If you’re hoping to sell your home in the near future, you may have been advised to update your exterior doors to increase your home’s value and add curb appeal. This could include opting for a stronger material, changing the colour of the door entirely or upgrading your rear entryway to a bi-fold, sliding or French door. 

But a lesser-known secret is that interior door replacements can also boost your asking price.

Here are a few things to consider when sprucing up your doorways to get the greatest impact possible.

Is it worth upgrading interior doors?

We recently spoke to Elaine Penhaul, founder of Lemon and Lime Interiors and author of Sell High, Sell Fast, which became an Amazon best seller in the real estate sector in the first few days after publishing.

When staging luxury homes to sell, her secret is to highlight the type of lifestyle potential buyers are looking for rather than the internal footprint and number of bedrooms.

A huge selling point is how well a property has been maintained over the years. If your internal doors have scratches from pets, have nicks or the paint is flaking, potential buyers could get a negative impression as to how well cared for the property is.

If your current doors have seen better days or are of low quality, it’s more than worth swapping these out for newer models. This is a simple tactic to increase your add value to your home.

Do interior doors impact the value of a house?

Yes they do. And even better, high quality, insulative doors will help keep the warmth in and the cold out, so you may find you have lower energy bills in the run up to selling your house.

How much value do new interior doors add?

That’s a difficult question to answer. If we look back at a home’s exterior doors and the value they add to your home, even the different styles of glass doors (french, bi-fold, sliding) have varying levels when it comes to how much value they add.

The same is true of interior doors. Unfortunately, simply stating that you’ve installed new doors isn’t enough. To get as much bang for your buck, there are certain ‘rules’ to follow.

Things to consider when choosing new internal doors

Before ordering any new doors as part of your home improvement project with the aim of increasing your adding value to your home, think about the following:

1) Consider the style of the property

When selling your house, it’s important to disconnect your tastes as much as possible. When it comes to upgrading your doors, bear in mind the era your home was built in.

If you’re living in a Victorian home, you should choose internal doors in the same style and invest in suitable door furniture.

Elaine Penhaul says in an exclusive interview with us:

If the doors don’t match the era, the style, or the value of the property, then it’s well worth considering changing them. There are very good reclamation places where you can buy original doors. There are also very good manufacturers that replicate the style of older doors, so all of that is completely possible.

I think that making sure internal doors both feel and look like they belong really does enhance the property.

Elaine Penhaul

Founder of Lemon and Lime Interiors

2) Cohesion is key

You’re looking for something that will add aesthetic appeal and looks like they all belong together. They don’t need to be an exact match, but you should definitely opt for similar internal doors.

For example, if you go for a natural-looking knotty pine wooden doors with large glass panels in your kitchen and living room, you wouldn’t want to do the same for your bathroom or bedroom. Instead, you could opt for a solid panel knotty pine door. There’s still a connection even though they aren’t an exact match.

So long as there is something that connects all of the doors in your home, whether that be material or colour, you can enjoy the fruit of your investment come sale day.

3) Think about versatility

Homes with open plan living spaces have been incredibly popular over the last decade. With that said, all the time spent at home during the pandemic has resulted in more people wanting seperate areas.

A great way to future-proof these ever changing trends is to install French, sliding or bi-fold interior doors. That way, a potential buyer will have the choice of closing off rooms when looking for privacy and opening them up when they want to entertain or increase natural light flow from room to room.

These doors are often available with large glass panels or solid wood doors, increasing or decreasing the separation effect even further.

4) Calculate a budget

When it comes to replacing doors, whether it be one or all of them, it’s important to budget so that the action has a positive impact on adding home value.

Elaine Penhaul recommends budgeting 1-3% of your asking price on fixing any household problems. The amount you spend on your doors comes under that.

At Express Doors Direct, we aim to help everybody invest in stunning doors without breaking the bank.

5) Think about fire doors

When replacing your doors, why not go one step further and install fire doors? You can plan the quickest exit strategy and install fire doors along the route.

Prospective buyers will have additional peace of mind knowing that the house they are interested in purchasing is as safe as possible.

Small fixes including replacing your interior doors can increase your asking price when it comes to selling your home. At Express Doors, we sell a range of stunning cost effective internal doors, all of which come with a 10-year guarantee and delivery in 3-7 working days.