The doors to the dining room had to be like that because the doors are so narrow - only 17" wide each. I'm not sure that the proposed doors could come in a different size. I think it goes according to the widths of the doors. The demilune is a good idea, but I don't think the style works in this room. However, clipped corners might. I think the biggest challenge now with or without the french doors, is how to put a tv plus sufficient storage on those two walls and have it look right. I think you suggested earlier something shorter and narrower and we will probably have to play with the space to figure it out. I stored photo albums, tv equipment, dishes, glassware, liquor, and a myriad assortment of tablecloths and linens in my previous cabinets. Though I realize I cannot recover quite as much space, it will be important to gain back as much as I can and still have it look attractive. Thanks for helping; it is VERY useful!

Pls post if you can recommend someone or a company that will do a good job! Thanks, Amina

I've received several emails asking for information about where I bought my doors, but I can't respond directly because the posters do not have their emails enabled through GardenWeb. Here is additional information: We purchased all of our doors and casings except for our front door through Viking Door in San Jose. It's the company that our general contractor uses, so it was easy to coordinate everything with them. We bought the front door and all windows ourselves from Greenhouses Etc in San Jose - it's a very small shop and their prices are good. Greenhouses, ETC 1085 S De Anza Blvd. San Jose, CA 95129 408-446-1224

If you want an entry area, put up a wall and have one. We have a home now where someone knocked out the wall between the nice entry and the living room and we basically put the wall back with a shoe bench and shelf arrangement (freestanding because we didn’t want to do construction work) because it just flows better that way. We also just looked at another house which we decided not to go for after much deliberation in part because if we opened it up to get much needed space, we’d end up with a big box with the front door entering right into everything, like a small apartment layout. Houses, especially houses with kids and lots of visitors, need some way to control the flow of traffic and direct people to where they should take off coats and boots and what have you. If you have room for a mud room, great, but if not - entry area is a necessity, IMO. And people are going to be beyond bored with HGTV style everything probably sooner rather than later - next year or the year after it’ll be some other designer and they will be putting walls up because everyone is sick of open plan and always being on display while cooking. If this is your forever home then do what you like and what feels good to you, not what’s popular on HGTV. (If you were going to flip the house then I might be saying something different.) Personally, if my front door were that close to my kitchen, I’d really really really want some kind of wall for privacy. Who wants all your mid-meal cooking mess to be on display to anyone who comes to the door?