Entry Door Opening Direction

If you’re shopping for a new front entry door, one of the decisions you will have to make is which way do you want the door to open. Doors in showrooms are typically listed as right or left hand opening. But what does this mean? OK, I admit, I’ve had a running battle with dyslexia and still have various tricks to remember which way is right and left. So, I figured I qualified as a Door Opening Direction Idiot. Try as I might, looking at a diagram did not make any sense. I was convinced that a right opening door should open towards my right and a left opening door towards my left. Not so simple! Door opening direction remained an insoluble riddle to me until my husband did the door opening direction dance in front of me.

The first bit of information that you have to get, is that no matter where you are standing in relation to a door, it only opens one way. This confused the hell out of me because I expected it to be called something different whether you were coming in or going out. So now, we get to the door opening direction dance. Just imagine a person standing there instead of a door with their arms crossed across their chest. You pretend that their hand is the handle, so which hand do you reach for? If it’s their right hand, it’s a right opening door, if it’s their left hand – you get it, it’s a left opening door. The door remains classified as such, no matter whether you are coming in or going out through it. Mystery solved – all dyslexics feel free to breath a sigh of relief!

Now, with a double door, it’s basically the same principle. Even though both doors open, one door will open first and that door is the one that determines the left or right direction of the set. This detail determines where the hinges go and how the door installation will be done. Once you’ve got this straight you get to go on to ever more choices, of single or double door, straight top, eyebrow top or arched top, transom or sidelights or both, type of style of the iron work, type of glass and finally, type of finish. Whatever you choice, may you enter and exit with confidence and style!