When you are asking advice about how it will look…it is always a good to offer pictures of your situation…how big are the rooms ?…would sliding doors work better?..

How many doors will stay clsoed all of the time?

I would probably do one-panel to relate to the kitchen cabinets

That was my first thought, Pal. Two panels doesn't say Shaker to me. Three would seem to busy with five doors.

Re: picture - I'll try to get one. It's hard to get the full effect since the hall is small but L shaped. Place is currently gutted. Doors to stacked laundry and two closets across from laundry will likely be closed. Powder room and my husband's office will likely be open most of the time. I'm veering towards one panel too because the three on so many in a small space feels like it will be too busy. Just afraid all shaker will be too boring but maybe it's okay to be really simple

in such a small space.

Thank you all for your comments. No room for sliding doors - I wish.

Can you reuse the original doors?

I don’t want to use the original doors. They are six panel and feel too busy to me. And they are very basic quality so I wanted to upgrade.

Well, for whatever it's worth, my California bungalow hallway has single panel doors (original to the 1915 house). They are similar to shaker but not exactly that--not sure what the style is called, but it doesn't have the straight edge of Shaker along the panel edge (though the original cabinetry is all true Shaker style). The door style is pretty ubiquitous to 100-year-old homes in our part of California, though Shaker would probably give you a cleaner more modern look. You do also see three-panel interior doors, though I've never seen two-panel (at least not original).

The one thing I would say is that if you have doors that will be open most of the time, make sure the hallway is designed with good space for them to sit open, if they don't open into the rooms. We eventually took one of our doors off and just don't use it at this point because it was always in the way when open. (It was a door to the hallway itself from the public side of the house.)

I prefer solid slab doors. No panels, no trim like a shaker door. I don't want them to be a feature just blend into the wall. My MIL had raised panel doors,6 panels. I always thought it made the hall seem small and the doors looming. It was too much. Gave the house a very HEAVY vibe.

I would use bifold doors on the closets.

We recently had our upstairs reconfigured. There are four doors, one of which is a 5' wide opening to the laundry. The architect and contractor recommended we do something different there to avoid a small hall of nothing but doors.

We chose louvered bi-fold doors for the laundry. Not as quiet as solid doors, but air it out nicely. We ordered them custom from the independent lumber yard, the same thickness as regular doors. They are more substantial than those from the big box stores.

We have a 1956 MCM ranch with the typical hall and the bedrooms and bath off that hall we did all pixelated glass for the doors full panel it gives light into the hall and looks so much nicer than a hall of solid doors . The funny thing is no one ever thinks that they are not a good idea you see nothing through them just a bit of movement .

^^ good idea from @latifolia

You said the originals are pretty basic - assuming they’re not solid? I would make sure I wasn’t replacing solid doors with hollow core versions

Yes, the current doors are hollow core, pretty bottom of the line. Replacing with solid. Thinking about a lot of the suggestions above. Thanks everyone.

When was your house built? Are there any details to the home that are original, like the front door, fireplace, molding, trim. A lot of these will give you clues about the look to go for in your new door. Sounds like you are at least upgrading to a solid wood, which is great. I suspect that one panel with a shaker type trim is what will look best in this tight hallway with a lot of doors.

I recently ordered doors from TruStile. Got it unfinished and my contractor painted it the color I wanted. It is nice in that it has a bit of a classic, historic look but isn't specific to any era and isn't over the top or traditional looking. They were a great company to work with. Here is the door I got. (Had to get three doors as the former owner took the original 80 year old doors off most of the closets. WTF?)

https://www.trustile.com/interior-doors/ts-series/ts1000

Looking at Kendrah's link, now I know my doors are Roman ogee sticking with a flat panel. :)

Older homes had an overabundance of doors because they pre-dated central heating, so needed to be able to close off sections of the house (even in coastal CA, it gets cold enough in the winter that it's helpful to have heat). Our 1250 sf bungalow had 13 interior doors when it was first built. Over the years some of those doors have been taken out and small rooms combined or repurposed, but we still have some extraneous doors and doorways.

If this is an older home, I'd try to match to the original style, if you have a sense of what that was. If newer and you're just trying to get the overall look, there's lots of flexibility.

I agree on the match but at the moment, the entire thing is gutted so no need to match. Starting fresh. Thanks for taking the time to comment.