In this podcast, Joe DeMarco from Perry Brothers Construction helps you learn all you need to know about choosing the right door for your modern shed. He explains the different types of shed doors and gives you advice on how many you should install, as well as helping you decide between single or double doors for your shed’s entrance.
Joe DeMarco: Hi. I’m Joe DeMarco, general manager of Perry Brothers Construction, a home renovation and remodeling company servicing the Newburyport area since 1975, who specializes in modern shed design.
Today we’ll be discussing all you need to know about choosing the right door for your modern shed, from planning the number of doors to install, to deciding between the different styles of shed doors available to you.
Should You Install A Single Or Double Door Entrance?
So the first question is, should you install a single or a double-door entrance? I think that depends on a lot of different factors. For example, what big equipment and furniture are you going to be bringing into your modern shed? If you have something like a home office shed, you’re going to be bringing in your desk and your lighting and your Zenbooth, some couches, and even chairs too. I mean, you might be hosting in-house meetings with your colleagues in your home office shed, so you’d be better off definitely having enough room for everybody, whether it’s Zoom or not.
I just saw this, the Apple Vision Pro, people are going to be having meetings with tiles around each other now. That’s going to be pretty wild. Basically, they’re just like iPads that are hovering around your room. Maybe you’re in a meeting with four people, you have these four different iPads hovering and looking at you, you’re doing the meeting, walking around doing laundry at the same time, and of course, you have your big dorky goggles on. Anyways, no seriously, shout out to Apple though, real cool.
But I would definitely recommend a double entrance door, just because it has a grander look to it, a grander, more elegant aesthetic. It makes it look like you’re going into a space castle. It could be like going into the future. It’s American retro-futurism. It has the look of something from the Jetsons. I mean, modern sheds are supposed to look space-age and cool, like they’re from the future. And I think a single door can achieve that, but a double door could just do it easier.
Maybe even something that’d be cool is to install an oval door or a circle door, like the ones that go into the Hobbit Huts in Lord of the Rings. And those circle doors can make it look like you’re going into a space pod or something, maybe a UFO.
And of course, there are some cons to a double door entrance. It’s mainly the cost. You’re buying two doors instead of one. That is totally understandable, but I do think the benefits outweigh the costs. I mean, besides the more room for activities and getting furniture in and out of your modern shed, just the wider doorway that a double door provides is a nice upgrade.
I mean, you’re also getting more natural lighting. So if you decide you’re not installing skylights on the roof of your modern shed, you can at least get extra lighting from the double-hung windows and the double door. You need more natural lighting coming through because the modern shed, it’s supposed to feel like you’re outside, but you’re in your home, but you’re outside. It should really feel symbiotic with the outside world.
How Many Doors Should Your Modern Shed Have?
And another question I’ve gotten asked a lot is how many doors should your modern shed have? And that really depends. I would say two, just so you could at least have a front and a back entrance in case of fires or emergencies. If a tree falls in your yard and blocks the front door of your modern shed, at least you can get out from the back. But you really only need one door if it’s just you and maybe you have a couple of small things that are going to be coming in and out through the doors.
Maybe you’re in a music shed and you just got some speakers and guitars coming through. Yeah, you’ll totally fit it. But if you made this a woodshop shed, then you’d need a wide enough doorway to get your table saws, ladders, stock, and other building materials through. I would definitely recommend a double-door entrance in that case. If anything, I would actually get a double-door entrance in the front and the back of your modern shed. That way you can pull the truck out back and bring all the materials in from there, rather than having to carry it from the truck all the way around to the front of the modern shed.
I remember one time back in the day, we built this modern shed in Merrimac Massachusetts, and the woman wanted to have a home office, but she was also a painter. So she had this idea that it was going to be like a tree house with a very fairytale rustic style to it. And the first floor was her home office. I think she worked in accounting or something. So it was just a desk and a couple of chairs and her printers and everything. And then the second floor had all of her paints and her canvases and everything, skylights, beautiful windows double hung.
And there was a spiraling staircase that went from the first floor to the second floor. It was made of this glazed wood, very beautiful. And on the side of the second-floor wall, there was another door. And when you opened it up, there was actually a ladder that went down to the base of the shed down to the ground and went right into her patio and garden area. So whenever she wanted to get a quick bite of inspiration, she just had to go down the ladder and enjoy the sunshine and take it all in.
What Are Some Different Types Of Modern Shed Doors?
And of course, another thing I get asked a lot too when people are deciding on what door to install for their modern shed is what are the different types of doors you can choose? I mean, for starters, you definitely want to think about things like soundproofing. You want adequate soundproofing.
You could start out with at least a hollow core door. So basically you have a wooden frame and then a honeycomb board inside, which is basically a fiberboard, and it does pretty well with the soundproofing. It’s definitely not as good as a solid core door because these are just more expensive hardwoods and they’re a lot denser and thicker, and inside they would have medium-high density fiberboard, rather than low-density fiberboard which would be going into the hollow core door style.
You want to get a door that’s at least maybe 1 ⅜” thick. I would even go 2” inches thick. Especially if you’re building a music studio shed, you’re going to be doing a lot of mixing and mastering and you’re going to have speakers blasting pretty loud or people coming over to record their bands. I mean, you definitely want to have a 2” thick entrance door. Soundproof doors are very important to the success of a modern shed project.
But also too, I mean you need to think about weatherproofing the door as well. So you want to use, and this helps with soundproofing as well, just plenty of weather stripping all across your door, and make sure there’s adequate insulation inside too, whether it’s spray foam or different types of particle boards and fiberglass insulation, whatever’s in there basically.
So you need to make sure this door is weatherproofed and soundproofed, that’s for sure. But styles of shed doors, I mean, I prefer artisan-made doors, things that the door master makes himself, you know, unique to his style, very artsy looking and it can really fit the aesthetic of whatever you’re trying to go for. Like I said, when the woman did the Treehouse shed, she had this door designed to make it look like her backyard shed was coming out of a Harry Potter novel or something like that.
I mean, you can also go for a garage-style shed door. So you just pull it up and down. It’s maybe steel or whatever, and it’s just like your garage. You could even build a modern shed to hold your car. I mean, I guess that’s a garage shed, but it’s still a modern shed.
Mediterranean Castel doors are really cool. They got a castle look to them. They look like they come right out of Italy. They have steel handles that you can pound on when knocking, you know with the rings coming out of the lion’s nose.
Also, if you’re in an old townhouse, say in Ipswich, Massachusetts, your house might have been built in the 1600s, 1700s, or 1800s. You can get doors that will match the aesthetic of your historical home. So you just get a shed door that’s still thick and provides enough insulation when sealed, but also has maybe a little splintery look to it. A witchy hollow wood look.
You could also think about pet doors as well. If you got a dog or some cats and you’re working in the shed office and you want them to be able to come visit you while they’re hanging out in the fenced-in yard give them a way to always come in and say hi. That’s going to be really great for your productivity as well because when you’re at peace, you work better.
What Are Some Color Ideas For Modern Shed Doors?
The last thing I’d want to discuss just for the fun of it would be what are some color ideas for modern shed doors that everyone could consider, and I tried to come up with some colors that people may or not be aware of.
So for starters, warehouse-primed white looks like a shark’s tooth. It looks clean, it looks like you’re using teeth whitening strips on it every day. Pretty bright.
But you could also go with iron gray. It’s more of your dwarven-styled iron. It looks like the color of a medieval helm or chest plate.
You could go with Pearl Gray, just like our friends down in Atlantis. Beautiful, more of a lighter gray.
Arctic white, it’s got a gray-white look, like the fur of a snowy wolf.
Barnyard red, of course, like your typical barn where you’d see those big red doors, very bright and in your face. And I like that for sure.
You can get a rich espresso-color door, something that’s a little dark around the edges and perks you up.
Timber bark makes it feel like you’re living in the muggy swamps down south.
Cobblestone, weathered moss. Weathered moss is pretty cool. It definitely fits in with the marshes and nature around here in Ipswich.
We got lime green, very, very bright. Makes me think of the eighties. Alternative music, all that stuff. Dark olive green, great for the Italians, we like to have an olive with everything of course, whether it’s in our martinis or in the pesto dish next to the prosciutto. I love my olives for sure.
Also, you can go with a sweet potato color, that would be pretty cool, so it looks like yams.
Ebony black, Onyx black, those are all really powerful colors. And of course you got your fire red, your navel blue. Of course, fireproof, sunset, orange, and Forsythia as well, which is just a beautiful yellow flower plant that smells like buttercups and really would look great on a shed door, especially if it’s a garden shed.
Choose The Right Door With Perry Brothers Construction
Well, I hope everyone got something to help them better understand their options when it comes to choosing a door for your modern shed. Have you really felt inspired by any of these ideas and would like to speak with a modern shed design specialist to further sort through your options, give Perry Brothers Construction a call at (781) 233-7511.
Bill Perry the owner of Perry Brothers Construction will personally sit down and talk through the entire design plan for your modern shed, giving you his best tips and tricks for designing the perfect shed for your family and home. Thank you guys and gals.
