Second, try to get a king size mattress or a large chest of drawers through only one leaf of a double door set. I would not try. I would simply open the other half. ;-) We have had double doors in previous homes and they are not difficult to use, but they mostly stay open. We are building a new home and will have double entry doors into our bedroom. Our opening is 36", but I wish we could have made them wider. Good news is that we rarely close our bedroom door. Closets will have the same double door widths. They only get closed when company is coming. The entrance to our bathroom has a pocket door. That will only be used if one of us is sleeping (it's DH) and the other wants to go ahead and get ready for the day (me.) There is a full door leading into the powder room of our bathroom that gets closed often.

I've had both. I prefer a single door for the bedroom and most other rooms. Double doors can cause problems with light switch placement, since they tend to block the immediate part of both bedroom walls. The switches often end up being well into the room in order to clear the doors. Incompetent or uncaring builders and electricians sometimes place the switches so that they are behind one of the opened doors, the worst place to have a switch. You have to watch out for this. In the end, though, it's what you want, not what everyone else is doing. If you are going for the grand entry, double doors will look better than a single door. Just make sure that whatever door(s) you chose, there is enough clearance to get the largest piece of furniture you are likely to ever own into the room. And remember, some king size pillow top mattresses will not bend around a corner. You have to have enough clearance to swing the hole thing into the bedroom. Furniture is one of the reasons we specified a double entry door for the house, even though we aren't using one on the bedroom.

We had double glass 6 pane doors on my husband’s office in our last house. We loved them, as he could be on his office with the doors closed (listening to music, or playing his guitar) and gave him, and me, a feeling of not being closed off in a room. Worked really well for us, and they were beautiful. As for the light switch. Our light switch was on the left wall, just past the door in “open” position. It was not behind the door. I think you will find that is normal on most double door situations. It was not awkward at all in practical use, even tho it may seem like it in thought.

Multiple thoughts, not all in line with the majority: - Five bedrooms is a huge house. The potential field of buyers who want the space and upkeep of a house that large (and who can afford it) is relatively small. More plainly, You're looking to build a house that only a small percentage of buyers can afford to buy. Wanting a thing and being able to afford a thing aren't the same. Your pool of resale buyers will be small, so selling could take a long time, or you might be forced to take less than you want. - Yes, people will like the idea of a "master up and a master down": live-in space for mom, space for a live-in nanny or elder care-giver. Plenty of reasons people would like the space. But the real question is, Will your resale buyer be willing to pay what it will cost you to build it? Personally, I think you'll attract plenty of interest, but you may not attract the necessary dollars at resale to make this worthwhile. - How old are these small children? By the time you finish building this house, they'll probably be at least a year older -- how long will you want to have bedrooms close by? - I'm a highly practical person: you're talking about a short time when kids are small. To save money, could you sleep in a "non-master" upstairs for this short time, then move downstairs? - How "master" do you see your "masters"? That is, when you say "master bedroom", are you envisioning a slightly larger room with a modest walk-in closet and a private 3-piece bath ... or does "master" to you mean a spacious room with a seating area, a massive closet and a luxury bath? The question isn't just, "Should I have two masters?" It's, "Just how much will I put into a master?" Your own vision of "how much" can make a world of difference in this question. - Don't overbuild for your neighborhood. Remember that the biggest, most expensive house in the neighborhood is "drawn down" by the more modest houses that surround it. - Summary: Don't be caught up in just whether this is a desirable idea -- it is. Consider first and foremost whether it is an economically viable idea.