Modern Interior Doors in Canada

Canada has not had a long history and thus has not had time to go through all the phases of economic development when it comes to products such as interior doors, especially modern interior doors.  Under normal circumstances we see a development that goes from traditional towards the ultra-modern in any type of commodity or product such as interior doors.  However, the Modern Interior Door has not yet come to fruition in Canada.  Most Contemporary Interior Door suppliers are based out of Europe and that is why these interior doors are still called European Interior Doors here in Canada.  There has been a slight increase, however, in the last 10 years with more designers and architects being interested in modern interior doors in North America.

What needs to be done to market Modern Interior Doors better?

First and foremost, the big box stores such as Home Depot, Rona and Home Hardware need to start expanding their interior door selection to include more Modern Interior Door types.  Then the public will be exposed to these types of doors which will, in turn, make it easier for smaller manufacturers to start up.  Currently there is no exposure of the public to new styles of doors.  All they see is the same old traditionally cased door.  No wonder that they label anything else a European Interior Door.  They are just not associating the contemporary doors with Canada.  After the bigger stores carry modern doors for a few years, we could see smaller door manufacturers start up and produce real wood and laminated Modern Doors.  For a small manufacturer there needs to be enough interest, otherwise he will never sell enough doors to make it through the first few years of business.  But once he has 3 years under his belt, more and more companies will pop up that can create unique modern interior and frameless doors and the market will swing away from being purely traditional.

What can the Canadian government do to promote new modern interior door concepts?

By helping new start-up companies that focus on contemporary interior doors financially, the government of Canada could make sure that more and more companies have a chance to tap into the interior door market.  Or at least some existing traditional door companies will make the switch to include more modern door solutions.  So I hope that the powers to be in Canada take it to heart and start switching things up and steering away from the monotonous traditional approach to everything that has to do with building products and doors.

What can we, the consumer, do to promote new modern doors?

Of course we have to stop buying the existing traditional doors.  Then we can replace our old doors in the house with new frameless doors and  modern interior doors.  Once enough people do this we should see a higher percentage of modern doors being manufactured and sold.  That again will promote customer awareness and the circle closes.  But it all has to do with customers seeing the modern type of door wherever doors are being sold.  Otherwise it will not stick in their minds long enough to matter.