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?

[noddyholder]

You do need a decent hall space.It means that as you open the door you see the whole room before you go in.The door can obscure part of the view and also dictates where furniture goes.

[Metatron]

I recently bought a ball race kit to change our downstairs loo door which opened into the narrow hall.It did my head in blocking the hall, kids leaving it open etc.

Sliding door a much neater option.

[noddyholder]

I do this in most properties i develop in all the rooms usually if the hall allows it.makes a huge difference to the space and feel.

[TigersEnglandChick]

Those are not small rooms!
Deffo being weird

[thumbwitch]

oh in that case Spacetrain he is defo just being weird! My parents' box room is about 7' by 7.5' - that's why it made such a difference!

mrsmattie - it's a good age isn't it (if you like it of course!)

[SpaceTrain]

Oh good!! I can now go and tell him that he has been pronounced weird on Mumsnet

[SpaceTrain]

LOL at your builder KingCanute- maybe he was respecting tradition.

And I am now thinking of all the naughty things that previous generations must have been getting up to in the rooms of their houses to ne to be forewarned before anyone entered

[KingCanuteIAm]

Ahh, if they are that big then I would say he is bing a bit odd about it

[MrsMattie]

Our house is 1910, too@thumbwitch

[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!

[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

[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...

[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.

[KingCanuteIAm]

This is a fantastic thread for x-posts!

[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]

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!

[samsonara]

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

[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.

[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]

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.)

[TigersEnglandChick]

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

[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.

[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.

[thumbwitch]

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

[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.