Right or left hand door – how do you distinguish between the direction of the door? Which ones are suitable and when?  

5 minutes

Right or left-hand door is a question that sooner or later arises as a decision to be made. It is one of the key ones for maintaining the logic of movement around the house and the comfort of the household members. Below we suggest how to find out about the types of doors, what to look for when choosing a right or left-handed interior door and how to approach the subject from a practical point of view so that the choice is made easily and efficiently and proves to be the right one. 

Right-hand vs. left-hand doors – how do you tell the difference?  

Choosing the right door seems not to be particularly complicated compared to other decisions to be made at the interior design stage. Meanwhile, it is important to remember that the convenience of everyday life in a domestic space depends on which door you decide on. A well-considered choice of door in terms of the direction and method of opening determines whether the space in the rooms will be optimally used, where light switches should be placed and whether doors in neighbouring rooms will not interfere with each other. We have put together a few tips to make it easier for you to understand the topic and make the best decisions. 

Door types left and right: doors opening outwards and inwards  

Depending on the direction and the way the door opens, we can distinguish between four available variants:  

  • right hand door opening outwards,  
  • right handed door opening inwards  
  • left handed door opening outwards  
  • left hand door opening inwards. 

When choosing a door for each room, you need to determine both the direction in which the door opens (you’ll read about how to do this in the next paragraph) and the way in which this is to be done – whether it should be an outward-opening door or an inward-opening door. Some decisions are easier to make because, for example, it is known that bathroom doors, including the popular Nemesia, Altamura and Magnolia models, must always open outwards (you can read about why this is regulated in this way by building law here: how to choose a bathroom door?). In flats, external doors often open inwards, but in houses they are more likely to open outwards. 

How do you check whether a door is right or left handed?  

Right or left handed doors – how do you tell them apart and check which one you need? To determine which direction the door will open properly, stand facing it in such a position that the door opens towards you. If, in this position, the hinges are on the left and the handle is on the right, it is a left-hand door. On the other hand, if the hinges are on the right and the handle is on the left, it is a right-hand door. 

What should you consider when choosing a right or left-hand door?  

When you are trying to make this decision, there are several things to consider:  

  • plan (at least initially) and map out the layout of the furniture in the room – choose doors so that they do not open directly onto a wardrobe or bed, and do not create a situation where the door cannot be opened freely because a piece of furniture blocks it,    
  • left or right handed doors have a direct influence on where light switches should be placed – the place for buttons is on the wall, which can be reached through the ajar door, not behind the door,    
  • ensure that doors in different rooms do not block each other when opening and closing,    
  • analyse the circulation paths in your home and choose door opening directions that are intuitive, practical and convenient for daily mobility and activities,  
  • when deciding on doors for small rooms, consider models that open outwards so as not to take up valuable space,    
  • in rooms where the entrance is directly from the corridor, doors opening inwards are most often installed in order not to accidentally hit the person who is near the door – this usually refers to bedrooms, study and children’s rooms; a common practice is to install the same or similar doors in
  • adjacent rooms in order not to introduce visual chaos but to ensure a coherent arrangement; consider the choice of universal wings – Podwojnik, Surmia or Laurencja – where you can choose between available colour variants,  
  • when choosing a door to be installed near a staircase, keep in mind that you should be able to use it in complete safety. 

When you are considering which side of the door to open, it is worth taking a walk (physically or on a piece of paper) around the flat and taking into account the purely practical aspect related to the directions of movement in this space: if you approach the room and the door leading to it from the right, you should choose the left-hand door, if you approach from the left, you should choose the right-hand door.  

Remember that all doors in our range come in both right and left-hand variants and can be opened both inwards and outwards. Thanks to this flexibility, you can realise every idea and design fantasy.