If you have a large mansion or a ranch style abode and you want to make an entrance, then you go with a double front door. If you are trying to take full advantage of a space that demands attention, then you do want to go with the double front door. But if you own a mobile home or a tiny house, you can forget about it.
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The double front door is a thing, but only for larger spaces. It would be an atrocity for you to install a double door in such a tiny place. You actually need the structure and frame to be able to install a two-door door in any home or building. So why is this popular? Well, here is a guess!
Ranch Style and McMansion Homes
In the Eighties, when soap operas were cool, so were ranch-style homes. It was also due to the election of Ronald Reagan, and since then, everyone wants to spread out their space like they are an urban cowboy. It is a status symbol, but also the Eighties popularized working from home in the earliest years.
Thanks to more families having greater wealth, they were able to build up a larger house to live in, and to work from. As a result, we now have McMansions that have been cropping up since the Nineties. These houses, too, benefit from having a double door entry. You simply cannot have just one door when your house has 13 bedrooms, now can you?
In Place of Large Gates
For homeowners who want to maintain that curb appeal but lack an actual curb, the doorway is the entry to the world. Here is where having a double front door can do a lot of good. A double door entry is going to be a focal point for new visitors. They won’t have any trouble figuring out where to go when they come over for coffee and pie, or for a board game night. This is a huge benefit for a household. After all, you want to be open and friendly, don’t you?
The use of double doors almost says you are a business owner. It’s something about the use of two doors that shouts to the world that your house is actually open now. When you start using two front doors, it is hard to go back to just one! This is also a great way to increase the look and presence of your home in a neighborhood. You don’t need a long, winding driveway that is perfectly paved and closed with a gate to say you live there.
For Seniors Who Need Accessibility
If you are someone who is over the age of 50 or you have a parent living at home with you, you are going to need to do some upgrading to the property. Most of the time, seniors end up using walkers or wheelchairs to increase their mobility due to age-related conditions. As a result, you need to be able to get a wheelchair through the front door. Unfortunately, single door frames are most often just not wide enough.
Source: Wayfair
The standard size of a door frame is 36 inches wide, which is going to double up when you get two doors. This makes for nearly five feet of space to be able to get inside. For someone with accessibility challenges, every bit of assistance helps. Along with having double doors for your entry, make sure to include hand rails and ramps to bypass stairs.
When to Say No to Double Doors
There are times when double doors are not efficient. Say you live in the Midwest where there are heavy winds and blizzards. This is where having double doors is not going to work! You can’t keep one door shut well enough to seal, much less two doors. As a result, you end up with frosty chills every time the wind kicks up some snow. The windy weather of the Midwest, including big cities like Chicago, is not made for handling a double door entry.
Here is where you are forced out of the world of two doors and back into the single door entryway. It simply will not work in the cold weather either due to the use of doorways that lack insulation. A doorway is an opening that cannot be closed or blocked with insulated materials, which is why most Midwestern homes would want to avoid double doors.
How to Tell Which Double Door to Open First
How do you know which of the two doors in a double door entry should be used for actually entering? Well, that is also the purpose of a double door. It causes you to pause and create a space between that moment and what is about to happen on the other side of the double doors. You also have a choice–which of the two doors is going to open? You risk a faux pas of opening the wrong door first and making a fool of yourself.
Source: Wayfair
Alas, according to Senior Care, “Weiner of Rockville wrote that he developed what he calls Weiner’s First Law: If there is a double door, one side is locked. He added: “The first corollary to Weiner’s First Law is: The side you try to go through first is the side that is locked.”
