It’s been a busy year for the custom wood door business! And a number of interesting trends have emerged over the last twelve months. What trends do we think will stick throughout 2020?
1. Gray Stains & Glazes
More people are choosing wood stains and glazes for their doors in the gray palette than ever before—from near-blacks to stone-grays to blue-tinged hues. While there is still a solid market for the traditional brown and red finish colors, grays have made a strong showing throughout 2019 and will likely continue to grow in popularity for years to come. These soft muted tones nicely complement contemporary gray-finished wood floors and furniture that are also trending.
In 2019, Sun Mountain developed a gray palette of stains and glazes that is part of its standard offering of pre-finish colors.
2. Simple Panel & Sticking Profiles
One of the most prominent door trends of the last twelve months that shows no sign of waning is square sticking applied to flat panels. A door’s panels (the large flat and wide components of the door) and sticking (the profiled edge of the door’s stiles and rails) are important components that help determine a door’s overall style. And the Modern style, punctuated with stripped-down details, continues to enjoy widespread popularity.
3. The Three-equal-panel Door
So, what is the most popular door design? Very possibly it’s the door with three equally spaced panels. Why is it so popular? Maybe it’s symmetry, or the “rule of three” that makes it visually compelling. Perhaps it’s the way the design lends itself to customization, allowing it to fit into many different architectural styles. Whatever the reason, all we know for certain is that hundreds of three-panel doors leave the Sun Mountain factory every month.
4. Arched Tops
A trend that seems to have developed in the last part of 2019, and which is expected to continue, is the resurgence of arched-topped doors. What was once reserved for homes built in the Mediterranean, European, and American Southwestern styles, arch-topped doors are now transcending those styles and showing up in unexpected places. And, this exciting trend goes beyond the front door. Arch-topped interior doors are filling whole houses, making a unique design statement.
5. Crossbucks
Crossbucks—those diagonal “braces” over a door’s panels—are spreading beyond the domestic barndoor (which, by the way, continues to be in high demand), and are being applied to interior doors in all manner of design settings. While the crossbuck definitely evokes its rustic, farmhouse roots, it seems to be equally at home in contemporary urban environments and grand traditional settings.