Would you have bedroom door opening into the hall rather than into the bedroom?

[SpaceTrain]

DH and I are in "discussions" about this at the moment. He wants to have the bedroom doors open into the hallway, so that they leave more space in the bedrooms. I think that it would be weird.

Any views from anyone else?

[BonsoirAnna]

It really doesn't matter - have the doors open into whichever space gives you more room and is easier.

My mother is very fond of changing the doors around, to good effect.

[ComeOVeneer]

As long as they don't stop people moving around the hall, or worse hit them on opening then fine. All ours open into the rooms, but are held open with doorstops so they are almost flat against the wall, not infringing on the room at all and leaving hallways wide open.

[BonsoirAnna]

And if you are really short of space, have you thought of sliding doors? They can look fabulous and modern.

[thumbwitch]

depends on the size of your hallway and how likely it is that someone will get twatted in the face by a suddenly-opening door.

All mine open into the bedroom (I think this is more usual) and it doesn't really cause space problems - but at my parents' house the smallest bedroom had the door reversed to open into the hall. It was at the end of the corridor though so no one was at risk of damage, and opened against the airing cupboard - however it did have potential to trap my sis in there by opening the airing cupboard door against her door [evil ]

[snickersnack]

If they open into the room against the wall, I think that's the best option. Into the hall would feel strange as surely it would get in the way of walking around? When we moved in to this house, all the doors opened into the room on the other side to the wall. That was both strange and stupid.

[AMumInScotland]

I think it used to be traditional to have the doors opening into the room to the side away from the wall - it gave people in the room time to stop what they were doing before anyone saw them . But opening against the wall is more convenient since you don't have to walk round the door that way.

Not sure how opening outward would help in most rooms - you need the same bit of space to walk into whichever way the door goes.

[SpaceTrain]

Ours will be a situation like thumbwitch describes. There will be three doors quite close together (including airing cupboard door) all opening into a thin, narrow hallway/corridor. (One room is right at the end of this).

I think this is what concerns me most. If it was a wide open space they were oprning into I wouldn't really care. But there is potential to "trap" the person in the end room by leaving the airing cupboard door open, or the child from the other bedroom opening their door deliberately.

[thumbwitch]

well spacetrain, in that case it rather depends on how well your DC get on!

[KingCanuteIAm]

I don't see how it will save you any space really, if they open against the wall into the room then they won't use any space when open. You don't put furniture in the space where the door opens in any case as you wouldn't have enough room to walk through IYSWIM.

It will also affect resale (although that may not be a consideration right now) I would expect most buyers to find it looks a bit strange.

[TigersEnglandChick]

I think that it sounds like it would be more of a PITA to have them opening outwards, tbh.

If possible I'd have them opening inwards with the hinges on the side nearest to the wall.

Like AMumInScotland says, you still need to keep some space free in the room to walk into, so the saving would be minimal.

[TigersEnglandChick]

x-posts with KingCanute - it seems many of us are in complete aggreement

[thumbwitch]

KingCanute, it does affect the space if it is a very narrow box room - because you can have overhanging things inside the room if the door opens outwards, whereas if it opens inwards and you have minimal space, the door takes up a tremendous amount of room, especially if it is not at the corner of a room (as in my parents' house e.g. - the door had about 2' to the left of it and about 3.5' to the right.)

[SpaceTrain]

One's still cooking in the womb thumbwitch....but I'd hazard a guess that at some point in their lives they would want to make use of the ability to trap the other one

Thanks for your thoughts on resale KingCanute. That was one of my worries, and you've used the same argument I have with DH that you still need room to walk into the bedroom - whether or not a door is opening in there!

Hopefully he'll see sense

[thumbwitch]

Spacetrain - perhaps it would be easier if only the smaller of the rooms had the door opening outwards - then the other one, opening inwards, couldn't be used to block the outwards-opening one by evil-minded sibs.
Just leaving the airing cupboard door as a potential blockade.

[samsonara]

Not sure if this would work for you but bi-fold doors are a space saving possibility
here

[KingCanuteIAm]

TW, I take your point re a box room. If one of the rooms were like that then yes I could see the argument to have that one door opening outwards. I still wouldn't do it for all of them myself!

[SpaceTrain]

Ooh, AMumInScotland - our house must be very raditional at the moment then, as NO doors open towards the wall. They all open to the side away from the wall.

[KingCanuteIAm]

This is a fantastic thread for x-posts!

[MrsMattie]

We re-hung (is that the right expression?) a door to open out into the hallway on our spare room. It has made a tiny room seem much bigger. Haven't done it for the other rooms, though., Considering doing it in our front room, too, as we have a massive hall, but a boxy front room.

[thumbwitch]

there is a theory about why doors do that - it's to alert the occupants of the room that someone is entering before the enterer can see what is happening in the room. Considered more "polite", I suppose.
All my doors at room corners open into the room, not against the wall (1910 house)
Also saves having dents in the wall from where the handle hits it...

[KingCanuteIAm]

My house is extended so all the original doors open into the room and all the new doors open onto the wall - which wouldn't be o odd if it were not for the fact that all the doors and arcitraves are new so the builder actually decided to hang them half and half

[SpaceTrain]

Great idea about the bi-folds Samsonara.

Tbh, they are not particularly small rooms that the doors are opening into. The smallest is around 10ft by 14ft. I think it's just DH being weird!

[MrsMattie]

Our house is 1910, too@thumbwitch