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French doors - too tall?

12 years ago

Hi. I just got a question from our builder. We were planning on having french doors open into our study. You will be able to these doors when you enter into the entrance. Our ceilings are 10' high. We asked for regular sized doors with a transom above, full glass inserts. The style we requested does not come in that size with matching glass above. It does come in an 8' door. The opening is 4' wide, so the doors would be 8' x 2' each. I just can't picture these and don't know if they would look funny being so tall and skinny. Any thoughts on whether or not that would be okay, or should we search for another style and go with the shorter doors with a transom above? Thanks!

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Comments (5)

bevangel_i_h8_h0uzz
12 years ago
It is not quite clear from your post whether the French doors are interior doors or exterior doors. (i.e., interior doors from the foyer into the study? Or exterior doors that you can see from the entry by looking through the study.)

If they are interior doors, the transom windows above would not have to be pre-made exterior grade windows. You could use standard height doors and have your builder frame and opening for a transom window above. Then the space for the transom can be trimmed out and a piece of glass or even a piece of stained glass artwork can inserted into the opening and held in place with shoe molding on both sides thus creating a non-operable transom window. We did that with our interior doors downstairs where the ceilings are 10' and it looks great.

If the French doors are exterior doors, I don't think a pair of 8'x2' doors would tend to look too tall and skinny because, with French doors, you eye tends to see the two doors as a single unit. But, it might depend on what else is near the opening.
gbsim1
12 years ago
I just bought this set of french doors at a salvage house and will be using them for the entry to our master closet and the ceilings in the area are 10'.

We'll be hanging them as exterior pocket doors with the track hidden behind a wooden "cornice."

The photo was taken in the office at the salvage place so this may not give you much idea of scale but they measure 102" (8.5') tall and are 24" wide.
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A track saw is simply a circular saw on a guide---still splinters if used incorrectly. Best/fastest way to shorten a door is still a circular saw, straight edge, and tape. Key to not having tear out is to not saw completely through the end of the cut. Stop short, reverse the saw direction, and finish the cut. I have a hand planer I used to narrow doors/shims/trim(cutting nin line with the grain or long ways). It would be easy to use it to shorten a door---but the same tear out occurs and reversing direction is very difficult. I use a circular saw/straight edge/tape and take a further step of making a scoring cut with a utility knife. And still change the direction of the cut at the end. Now, I also have a plywood finish blade(paid $30 at an Ace Hardware store for it about 15 years ago) which leaves a much cleaner cut than the usual rough cut circular saw blade. But, people paid me to install/modify doors, so I had to do a good job.
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chiefneil
12 years ago
I have French doors that are 6'x8', and one in my den that's 5'x8'.

Going down to a 4x8 size seems like it would be a little too narrow. And a little comical to consider actually squeezing through a 2' opening when you only open one side for ingress/egress.

What about just using a single door with glass and a sidelight?
dutty
12 years ago
In our current rental home we have a set of french doors that are 4x8 and I never noticed them feeling to thin or tall... they are in an alcove though so maybe that makes a difference.

(pardon the mess... we are purging and packing)
samana
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks, everyone. Sorry for waiting so long to reply but we've been buried in selections. We went with the tall doors and I'll post pictures when they are in.

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