Log homes have undergone a revival. The once simple structures of early America have become elaborate. While the overall sense of a rusticity remains, the structures are also larger, more elegant and even imposing than their earlier incarnations. This refers to everything inside and out, including the doors and windows. In particular log home doors, while enhancing the overall architecture, can add a degree of grace and charm that was originally absent from the earliest roughhewn structures.
Solid Wood Doors: Common but Expensive
The most common type of door installed in a log house or home is made from wood. Such construction is solid. You should have no desire for wood veneers when your home is a log cabin. Your home demands solid wood doors. While they are the most expensive of the various types of doors, they also provide your log home with the greatest authenticity.
You need to give specific attention for this type of Log Home Doors to maintenance. If it is an exterior door, be sure to refinish it between 2 and 3 years after purchase. Without care and protective measures, a solid wood door is subject to expanding and contracting as well as warping and/or bowing. Interior doors also require care. The extent of this will depend upon your choice of wood.
How to Choose Log Home Doors
The material you choose for any of your log home doors depends upon a variety of factors. The most basic are:
* Authenticity: Unless you want to create a startling contrast, you select a door that is authentic to the era of your log home
* Architecture: The log home doors need to be in tune with the architecture of the residence. This is particularly valid when it concerns the entryway.
* Functionality: If the door is not purposeful in design and material, it is not fulfilling it major function
* Appearance: The color, character and nature of the wood will affect your preference for one type over another. Wood is a sensual material. How it looks, feels and smells may affect your choice
* Style: The style of the door may also influence your selection. Do you want paneled or a slab door? If panels, how many?
* Cost: Everyone has a budget. Some solid wood doors will be more expensive than others are. Hand carved and custom-made doors, for example, may be beyond your budget while a knotty alder off the shelf one will not.
Such characteristics will affect what type of door will grace the exterior and interior of your home. You may opt for a solid slab door made from butternut because you liked the color. You could also decide on pine because your log house is also of pine. In the end, you may not even be able to express why you chose oak for all your log home doors, you just did.
