A)Make them the same height as the vestibule door.

B)Make then distinctly shorter than the vestibule door because they are closet doors and lower in the hierarchy of used, and they are also narrow

C)Leave them at eight feet.

I would probably do C, because they will balance each other and you won't then have to worry about the adjacent study door. The fanlight will also contribute height to the opening as a whole.

I would probably not do A, because then you have to decide what happens to the study door, which would then be the only 8 foot door.

I would not do B, because then everything would be a different size.

One option dh considered before architect and I talked him out of it, was to send the doors back and have new, arched topped doors with no transom. Besides the waste and significant cost...I really didn't want that. I wanted that pretty arched transom! Anyway, that's a thought if you want those doors 8'. But I wouldn't do it, especially not with your historic house.

It becomes an issue of starting and stopping points. If you change the closets, what about the study door? If you change the study door what about the dining room opening?, and so on.

Remember, the overall "opening height" will be almost ten feet, because of the fanlight.

I think it would be beautiful to have the front door and the vestibule door a matched set. Do you think the interior door will be as expensive as the exterior? The exterior door has to hold up to weather conditions and the glass and such needs to be insulated. What happens if you use and interior grade door and single pane glass? Should be a little less, I would think. (But one of the quotes I got to make a square operable window with a round spoked pattern in it to put in my bathroom where a window had been bricked up was $8000, so who knows)

The other thing you could do with the interior door is do a plain elliptical fanlight, or a tall square topped fanlight with simple vertical rectangular divisions, essentially filling the whole width and most of the height over the door with glass. Some of the vestibules in houses around here have the inner glassed door done in a slightly different "Order", or in a simpler manner than the outer.

Not to cloud the waters about the door but unless that inner door is going to be closed at all times, perhaps it should be a PAIR of glass doors so they can rest open somewhat symmetrically. That is another thing I've seen around here.

You have one more option with the closets, and that is to make the doors VERY simple, smaller and with cupboard like hardware, like cupboards, really, and match them to each other and treat them as part of the trim work rather than separate "doorways".

a pair of doors for the vestibule is a very interesting idea. would that mean we don't do side lites or transom and just a set of divided lite french doors?

we decided to do 3 panel doors on the closet doors, stained cherry. not sure what you mean by cupboard like hardware, but that sounds interesting. how does that work on very thick doors?

Yes, because the fanlight makes the door opening as a whole close to ten feet.

I would probably include the transom and the sidelites with the double doors. However, if you weren't matching the fanlights and just doing a rectangular transom on the inner you COULD have the inner double doors 8 feet and the rectangular transom could fill in the rest. You are not restricted to shortening the door to accomodate a stilted elliptical fanlight which is what I am assuming the problem was.

If your closet doors are going to essentially match the study door I would use the same hardware.

hmmn, ok. i have some thinking to do.

thanks for the great ideas.

Ah...why not do paired divided lite doors, 8 feet tall, like the study door, but with the addition of sidelites?

It is not quite as impressive as a double fanlight but it would solve a lot of issues. What to "match", sizes, budget, etc.

It would be a lot of pattern. I don't know that it is completely historic, but a fair amount of mirror was used by those who could afford it, to bounce the limited light around.

I put fake sidelights and a horizontal transom around the entry door to my apartment, mirrored them and applied a lead pattern based on the windows in the main stairwell. I was afraid it was going to be hokey, but it fools people into thinking you can see into the exterior hall, and people seem to like it. I think this picture is before the final perimeter lead was added.

The interior doors should coordinate with something, so I would probably make them the same style as the closet doors and the study door.

i'm leaning toward doing the closet doors in just three panel wood because i'm still nervous about all the "pattern" on the french doors, transom, side lites, checkered flooring, library door, etc.

The mirror idea, to me anyway, is only effective if you are doing it where you actually Couldn't or Wouldn't Want to have real windows.

I think the important thing to maintain with the number of openings that are adjacent here (5?), and the number of doors to be used here (5-6?) is some sort of consistency or logic behind the choices.

I think if you don't have a leaded surround right at the front, you probably should not do it on the inner doors because it adds another material. Likewise the solid doors should have some kind of pattern relationship with the other solid doors, and the doors with glazing should have some kind of pattern relationship with the other glazed doors...and ideally they should have a relationship with each other as well.

And for simplicity's sake (and budget) you could do this, as long as the lites in the transom work out vertical:
(horrible rendering). This skews a bit federal.

That's probably why the house I got this off of, mimicked the ellipse. This still looks stilted though, which is good.