The most difficult part of such a configuration is latching and locking.

If you want to be able to open both doors at the same time and for the doors to latch when closed and be able to be locked for privacy, it is necessary to install operating rods that control a latch bolt at the top and/or bottom of the doors either on the surface of the doors (cremone bolts) or hidden inside the door stiles.

These devices are very expensive. The photos you posted are probably of staged mockups advertising something in the photo and do not reflect a real bedroom double door set.

They are in my design, out of necessity, they are going into an attic bedroom with sloped ceilings that prevent a large door from opening completely.

My builder even suggested them - so I would have thought he'd say something about possible problems.

This post was edited by mdln on Sun, Oct 12, 14 at 10:01

Something else to consider is where the light switch would be inside the bedroom. If the doors swing into the bedroom, it would be behind a door as you enter the room, and that would be annoying.

Also, think about whether you want to open two doors when you're carrying laundry in or out of the bedroom.

We have french doors into our master suite. The opening is 36", and I don't think I would go narrower than that. 18" doors are pretty thin.

As for noise, security, etc., our doors aren't right off the living room and they actually lead into a hallway (bedroom on one side of the hallway, bath on the other).

I would not do it with 32" opening (2 16s). The reason is, your effective opening will be a couple inches smaller (if you look at an open door, you'll see the depth of the door doesn't move out of the doorway until completely, wide open. Now, multiply that by 2 doors).

*If* you decide you like that, you'll want to do it with 36" doorway.

mldn where are you putting a bed in that bedroom? if under the window does the window meet egress reqs?

can you post a photo of your plan? or at least of the area in question?

if you're willing to make small framing changes, i wonder if creating a corner entrance or a small alcove would be a better change for a more private doorway to the master.

agree with the other poster about those photos you posted. one of them is a french door set to the master bath from the bedroom. the other isn't a bedroom.

i think you'll want a lock and a more solid door, especially since it's right off the living room. i'd skip the french doors.

that said, if you're just really getting you heart set on an antique mirrored door finish to spice up the entrance to your bedroom, you could still do a single door like that with a regular doorknob lockset.

just swap the glass for antiqued mirror!

The swing edge of a door must be beveled and that is covered by the door stop in a single leaf door. In a pair of doors the bel causes a gap between the doors that will allow someone to see into the room as well as letting in light and sound.

To prevent this problem an vertical trim called an astragal is added to the edge of one of the doors and that requires the doors to be closed in sequence, one then the other.

So in addition to the expense of the hardware and unsightly top and bottom latch plates, only one of the doors can be opened by itself and one must be closed before the other.

These doors are usually used at an inner doorway rather than at the entrance to a suite.

32" is much too narrow but the advantage is that it will be easier to replace the pair of doors with a single door later.

Our house has 5, count 'me 5, sets of such doors. One set has an astrangal. These doors are all on the main level.
The widths range from 30 to 32 and 44"
- I can't speak to sound control because they are louvered doors.
- Most of them open completely flat so we still get the full width of the doorway. When the new furnace came the other day, they did have to take one basement door off the hinge, that's the first time that has happened.
- The light switch is behind two of them, we are used to it and especially on the narrower 15" kitchen door, it's not a problem, but why couldn't you specify that it be just beyond?
- If the master is right off the LR, I'm thinking that this isn't an active family house, so preschooler-proof latching probably is not an issue.
We have those little inset latches at the doorway top, where there's a matching bump on the door, so we can't lock the doors, we can open easily if our hands are full, and in fact with settling two of them don't really catch anymore. Tto keep the cats in or out, we stretch a rubber band across the door knobs. Do you need any stronger security than that!

- If the door is partially open it creates a little entry look.

I Like the way ours look and work, FWIW.

This post was edited by bpathome on Sun, Feb 9, 14 at 18:23

@ caben - yes, the window does meet egress requirements. Village already inspected/approved it.

@ bpathome - love the rubber band security feature!!! I need to try that.

Thanks for the responses.

Renovator8, thank you so much for the very clear descriptions of how double doors work. I did not think about those issues at all. So, are these issues the same for all double doors, even those that don't require locking? I think you've talked us out of doing it for the bedroom, but I wanted to do this for the pantry also, which would be french doors that swing outward. If they don't need to be locked and are not for a living space, would these same issues still apply?

Zone4newby, another great point about the light switches. That would really annoy me! And the laundry!

Bcool, how do you like living with the double doors? Do you open both or only one usually? Are light switches and laundry a pain?

Annie Deighnaugh, good point of light control. Noise I am not really worried about. I am only sleeping when everyone else is. :-) But I do like a dark room. Whether we did one door or two, if we did a mirrored glass I imagine light would still come through, right? I will have to think about that.

Maggiepie11, I love that door! Thanks for posting it. Although the concerns about light control especially resonate with me when considering a door with glass. I do agree now that french doors are not the best option. With the 32" door, I can try the glass door, and if I don't like it, move it to a different location.

Thank you everyone for the excellent advice. So much better than trying to decide on my own. Maybe french doors to the entrance to the master bathroom instead? With antique mirrored glass, of course! ;-)

If privacy and security are not issues double doors can open independently with any kind of pull handles and friction latches at the top.

Thank you, Renovator8.

bpathome, I would LOVE to see some of those doors! They sound lovely. may I ask which rooms have the narrow french doors in your house? Did you custom order them?

Even though I probably won't do them for the master anymore, I am still very interested in the master bathroom and the pantry. And maybe the coat closet. ;-)

We like them. Both doors are open probably 95%+ of the time. They do lock, but as Renovator said, you have to close one door before the other.

Oh, sky angel, they are original to this 1963 house, I love them but some people in the neighborhood I think have removed them.

The widest door at 44" is between the kitchen breakfast room and dining room, the narrowest is from the dining room to a, I don't know, family room? Playroom? Sun room? But the more common entry to that room is a wide opening from the kitchen/back hall/garage.

I'll try to attach a picture showing three at once. I'm standing in the kitchen. The 30" door on the right goes to the basement (see the security system?), the half open door is to the dining room, and through it you can see the closed 35.5" door to the living room. The narrow door to the sun room is opposite the living room door.

Wish I'd had stock in louvered doors when the house was built! To the right of the basement is a louvered pantry door, and upstairs there're double louvered doors into the bathroom closet, and I'm pretty sure the newer paneled bedroom and hall linen closet doors replaced louvered because, well, why not?

Oh, you can't see the security system, the rubber band is too small.

Oh, and if course they are on not French doors, just double doors. But in terms of width and functionality, just wanted to give my experience. I would love to change the living-dining room doors to French doors, would match the single French door in the DR to the back yard.

Noise I am not really worried about. I am only sleeping when everyone else is.

Even if you're sick or trying to nap?

I'm very sensitive to noise when I'm trying to sleep so it's a big issue for me...

While a lot of French door bolts are manual (the flip down kind one usually sees recessed in the edge of one of the doors), they make ones that lock into place only once the door with the operable handle closes across it. Conversely, it unlocks as soon as you open the door with the operable handle.

You could also add a ball catch on the door with the bolt to hold it shut until the other door is shut as well.

We have Double doors into our master bath (36" opening). We did it out of necessity so that a single wider door would not hit either bathroom vanity. It is ok for the bathroom. We have the locking mechanism on the top only, not the bottom.

I would not want this narrow door on my master entry. My master entry double door size is 48" and when the locked side is closed, the other side feels somewhat tight. I usually leave the locked side locked all of the time.

As for, the light switches...I made sure the electrician placed everything far enough out that when the door is open, nothing is behind the door. It doesn't look great, but I will get it right next time.

In this pic, you can see both doors, the locked one with the locking mechanism at the top and all of the ugly switches out of the way of the open door.

Let me know if you want a picture of the narrower, bathroom doors.

Hi Red_Lover,
Thank you for the picture. Your perspective helped us decide not to do the double doors on the master.
I would really like a picture of the master bathroom doors, if you don't mind.

cfvh,
Thanks for the info. We will look into those locking/closing mechanisms.

AnnieDeighnaugh,
We have a family room also that is a ways from the living room, so I don't think noise would be too much of a problem. Plus we sleep with fans. But I think there are enough other cons to prevent us from doing this with the master doors.

bpathome,
Thanks for the picture and detailed descriptions. I think french doors in the living room and dining room sound lovely. I couldn't see the "security system", but I bet it works great. :-)

bcool,
Thanks for adding your positive experience. I think we will do them with the master bathroom, which would also remain open most of the time except when in use. We wouldn't really need to lock those doors, and if we really needed someone to stay out, we could lock the master bedroom door.

Here you go. We usually leave our bathroom doors open most of the time and lock our bedroom doors. The doors beyond these doors are the closet doors and they are double doors that have "dummy" knobs. We leave them open all of the time.

Can someone please help me find 36 inch double interior doors....I would like them mirrored but having hard time even finding these size doors

The first change we made to our plans was to change all interior doors from 32" to 36". He also insisted on a 48" single door going from garage into house. The movers loved us.

We have 36" frames with double doors going into the master bedroom, master bath and master closet. Also the pantry. None of these lock, but we don't have issues with this.

huneyb, we purchased all of our doors from a local building supply where the lumber came from. They were special order. I don't recall a brand. Are you searching for 36" door or 3/0 door? They are called 3/0 doors by the trades.

Here is a link that might be useful: 3/0 door search results

While they're lovely in a cottage-y kind of way, I would hate the light switch issue. I have several poorly-placed light switches in my current house, and while they aren't a huge problem, they're a constant irritation -- and that's the kind of thing I hope to avoid in our new house.

The lack of ability to lock the door wouldn't really bother me. I mean, we're talking about an interior door. No big deal.

Light and sound are a bit more of an issue. If you had even a small alcove or entry hall, I'd dismiss these -- but opening directly into the living room is a different story.

A 4' exterior door? Isn't it heavy and difficult to push open? I mean, I'm only 5' tall, and I'm trying to envision a door 80% wide as I am tall. I'm thinking of the old plantation house we visited in Charleston, SC -- the doors were made extra-wide to accommodate the ladies' hoop skirts.

Light switches are not a problem for us. We knew the doors were going there while building, so they were placed accordingly.

lol No, the door is not heavy, although our doors are thick, solid wood. All are hung on three hinges. It feels no different to open than the rest of our doors.

Where did you all find 36 x 80 french doors? We'd like them for our master bath because the door impedes entry into the water closet when both doors are open - it's a pain. I can't find the french door style anywhere and we don't want bi-fold doors on the master bath.

A real lumberyard or millwork supply house can get them with relative ease.

Thank you, Millworkman!

This is a late entry but I am working out this same problem and I found out that inside glass doors have to be tempered to comply with my local code...so mirrors would not work out .or be more expensive.

All doors interior or exterior need to be tempered glass. Perhaps you can get mirror and have safety backer applied (film) on the rear and it allows them to pass for safety glass.

Five year old thread...

Virgil, while true this is an old thread, those of us searching for similar info may have learned interesting things from it rather than asking the same questions all over again.

Yes, old thread often have good information. But adding a new response to a five year old thread may not be as good a strategy for a new poster as starting a new thread concerning the new issue.

Many folks, me included, really don't care to wade through five years of postings just to get to the most current posting.

And chances are, after five years, the original poster has figured out the situation by now.

Something to consider.

Valid points. It did give me something to think about as my plan currently calls for French doors into my master bedroom hall. :-) I still may have to use them as a regular door would open up against the door into the laundry room. And there is no place to use a pocket or barn door.

On second thought, I could put in a pocket door that slides into the living room wall, I just would have to move electrical outlets and probably not have floating shelves on that wall....

Double doors almost anywhere tend to be a bad idea.

Why?

First of all, it is seldom that both leafs are open. When they are both open it restricts access to the common location of electrical switches and perhaps furnishings.

Second, try to get a king size mattress or a large chest of drawers through only one leaf of a double door set.

But...double doors always look impressive on a floor plan and they usually photograph well. Sigh...!

Where did u you get the narrow f rench doors? We can’t find them anywhere

They are hard to find because they are rarely a good idea and they may have been discontinued seven years ago when this thread was started.

In my state the minimum width of a bedroom door is 30" so a double door would need to be 60" wide unless the hardware allows two 16" leafs to be unlocked by turning two knobs as described by Renovator 8. Top and/or bottom door bolts are not allowed in an egress path.

"Where did u you get the narrow f rench doors? We can’t find them anywhere"

Robert Fylypowycz, where exactly have you looked? A real lumber yard would have be able to order them.

Second, try to get a king size mattress or a large chest of drawers through only one leaf of a double door set.

I would not try. I would simply open the other half. ;-) We have had double doors in previous homes and they are not difficult to use, but they mostly stay open.

We are building a new home and will have double entry doors into our bedroom. Our opening is 36", but I wish we could have made them wider. Good news is that we rarely close our bedroom door.

Closets will have the same double door widths. They only get closed when company is coming.

The entrance to our bathroom has a pocket door. That will only be used if one of us is sleeping (it's DH) and the other wants to go ahead and get ready for the day (me.) There is a full door leading into the powder room of our bathroom that gets closed often.