Ways to open the door to more remodeling sales

EIOMEOWNERS will spend approxinarely $56 billion Ilon home improvement this year. How many of these dollars will end up in your cash registers?

Exterior and interic doors, windows and skyligbts will account for a sizeable chunk of toal home improvement expenditures. Fashion decorators are suggesting decorative interior doors as a quick, affordable way to dress up a home. You can become part of this trend by inventorying elegant, ready-to-finish doors for every room in the house.

French doors are no longer just a passage to the patio or terrace. Avant-garde designers recommend using them between dining rooms and living rooms or to close off a den. The combination of wood and brass with beveled, grooved, etched and frosted glass panels adds flair while allowing light to flow between roorns. Doors with colored glass or mirror inserts, louvers m raised wood panels are also high style.

Decorative doors come in both bifold and single panel styles. The bifold, which has two panels hinged to each other, takes up less space and can give the appearance of a decorative screen when left partially open. This style is especially effective when used in pairs fr the large openings often found between a living room and dining room.

"Selling up witl fashion is the only way to survive," emphasizes Bob Mickle, a former #, door buyer for a major retailer, now senior vice president, marketing and sales, at Wing Industries, Inc., Dallas, Tx. '"There is money o be made with interior doors. They're a totally neglected category which must be exposed to the consumer."

To make consumers more aware of decorative doors and what they can do to spice up decor, he suggests operating displays combined with large colored photographs of rooms using doos as fashion items. Display signs must include infomration about price, special orders and delivery time, which he recommends limiting to no longer than a week. Take-home literature describing all styles available and their uses is essential.

A video dramatizing fashionable ways to use decorative doors and their easy installation is another way to capture buyer anention, Mickle poins out. Decorative door clinics can also "take the bi-fold out of tbe closeL"

Retailers who display a vuiety of price points can profit. Low end doors start at about $59 with high end products peaking close to $250. Because there is less competition for decorative doors, mark-up can be in the 35%4O7o range, Mickle advises.

Sales people must be ready to make fashion doors intriguing to customers searching for a way to dress up their homes. "Recommend frosted glass panels to provide privacy while allowing more light to flow into a room," a decorator suggests. "Sress Oat decorative glass docs can create int€resting texnres in a long hallarxy. Foint oqt that lo'rared dmn allow air to circulate, especially when used to close off pantries or laundry roorns of to separate sections of a mastef bath."

Replacing dull closet dmrs with decorative glass or louvered or minored doors will make a roorn soem lrger md b'rigbter, deorators maintain. Divided lite French doon offer classic elegance and have a hght, airy appeal when us€d to s€parate two rqms. Cafe doqs re both practical and good looking ways to divide dining rooms and kirchens, dressing rooms and baths or hallways and fanily roorns.

Careful measuring before ordering is the rick to successfully installing a decorative door, Mickte warns rerrilers. customers must do this precisely if tbey are going to insall the doors Oemselves. Installation requires only a screwdriver and an electric drill, but stor€s rh4t offer installation service may find many homeowners want to hire the work done for them. Most interiu doors come with glass pre-masked with plastic filnu ready fc paint or stain.

Story at a Glance

How to sell fashion doors for remodeling ... glossary of interior door styles and suggestions for using them ways to display, stimulate interest and sell measuring and installation tips.