In my experience, folks have been, on the average, happier with Sliding Doors than they are French doors. They hold up better long term as well make better use of the interior space.

Do you go in/out of these doors often? If yes, I would replace them with quality french doors. I have both at my home and it's very easy to go in/out the french doors and a PITA to open and close the sliders. (maybe my sliders are cheap). If you choose french doors, ask yourself if you need to move furniture into/out of the doors or not. We have 2 sets of double 36" wide french doors and one set of double 32" wide. Unless you need the doors to open to move furniture in/out, I prefer the kind where the opening door wraps around a fixed door to having both open up, but that's just because with ours, the hinges don't allow both to swing around and lie flat against the exterior wall. So look into the hinge type if you choose french doors. In the end, either will be beautiful as your view is great.

Karen - thanks - we won’t be moving furniture in/out and will be going in and out a lot in the set that’s in the dining room but not likely in and out in the set that’s in the Master Bedroom - but we’ll want to do either both sliders or both French, as they’re a “matching set” from the back of the house - but those are good things to think about!

Any considerations for venting?

@ WOW LTD - Yes, for sure on venting - it will be challenging with French doors - easy to put a screen door with a sliding patio door, but much harder to screen a French door - and we’re in Colorado, so summers are very warm and I’d love to not use the AC if we don’t have to!

I agree with the minimum slider size being 6'. We got a smaller one and I curse it every time I have to turn sideways to get through it if I have anything in my arms. And we are not large sized people. In reality, the opening on our 5' wide door is about 24" max when you take into account framing and the fact that structure for the door means the sliding panel doesn't slide right into the frame on the far side.

If you like the look of the french door more than a slider and you want a screen, then you can get a double door, with one fixed panel and one side that opens and the screen can then be at rest on the fixed side when not in use. Hinge is in the middle of the two panels. The swinging panel on ours will fold right back against the fixed panel. This maximizes the doorway and means you don't have to account for door swing with two doors. The screen is on the exterior. I couldn't find a picture showing that.

Here is an example:

fixed panel french door - Google Search · More Info

Thanks MV! Alas, we don’t have 6’ to put in a sliding door, so I guess that option is out - glad you good folks keyed me in on that! I will see if I can find the option for a screen on the French door option!

Another option is a retractable screen for French doors. We have some really old retractable screens on our house and I'm not impressed but I assume that newer models are much better than the ones we have which are like closer to 20 years old.

Looking at your picture and seeing the view, I would take out the door and the windows and replace it with a large 4 panel sliding door or a folding door. I would not just replace the French door with a sliding door - the width to walk through will be to narrow. However, a sliding door is cheaper than a double French door. Best of Luck on your project and let us know what you guys decided.

I have both sliders & French doors.

I find the sliders a bit more difficult to go in & out of; plus only half of it is really a useable opening.

The downside of the French doors is that you need room for the doors when they are open, but I love how much more open they feel compared to a slider.

If needing a screen is your deal breaker - my French doors have screen sliders in front of them. Puts it back to only being able to use half of that doorway to go in & out, but I personally feel that French doors are more attractive than sliders are and feel more open than sliders when they are open; the downside is they let in less light when they are closed.

IMO a lot depends on the style of your home. I agree that replacing all the doors and windows to provide a larger expanse of doorway would be the prefect answer but if you do not have 6’ IMO the french doors are better and you can find much better quality doors too.There are phantom screens for french doors BTW

Thanks everyone for the excellent suggestions! Still looking at all our options, but screens are almost a ‘must’ - keep all the little critters out while getting to enjoy the fresh air - so that may well be a deciding factor. Thanks Patricia Colwell - I’ll also look into the phantom screens!

I like to use French doors and rarely if ever use sliders, personal preference because I like the way they look and how the hardware looks when closed and the handsets are side-by-side and the hinges are on the edges. Lever hardware is preferable to knob or sliding hardware IMHO, ease of use. Inswing preferable to outswing. One exception to true French doors where both open was last year when I ordered one side operable and the other side fixed, with dummy hardware on the fixed side. This reason was this was a longtime guesthouse bedroom where some guests did not understand the 5 point lock or latches. I would find people added rubber bands to hold the doors closed by binding the handles together, and once found a hook&eye attached to the interior to (unsuccessfully) keep the doors closed. Guests are sometimes older and have enough to get used to in a new place without a lesson on how to close the doors, I want visits to be as stress free as possible (and for me not to worry about water damage if a set of doors went unchecked).

If you need more door space then sliding doors is a viable option.

will you want blinds or curtains? french doors are better for blinds or shades (which could be attached). if you want big floor length drapes, sliding doors will be better.

one downside to french doors is that they're really easy to push open. like, even a larger dog or gusty wind can do it. you'll need a sliding bolt lock on the floor or frame to prevent it. not a big deal if you plan on usually using just one door most of the time, just something to consider.

I like the look of french doors but actually prefer sliders, simply because you can't normally place an interior door mat or rug to wipe feet with a french door.

ILoveMod - we are actually not doing any window treatments - we are lucky enough not to have any neighbors that are close enough - and we’re at the end of the street on almost 4 acres (that backs up to 170 acres of open space - our private property is the only way to access that open space) - we ended up with sliders because of the screen factor - they were delivered yesterday (along with 25 new windows) - I know it will be a bit more of a squeeze than if we had 6’ (and believe me, I would have loved to do a huge panel - just not in the budget)! As for the comment on not being able to put a rug in front of French doors - the “hole” in front of that door? The guy who built the house put inset “pebble” tile (a “faux” rug) there - hurt your feet to even step on it! One of the first things to go!!

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Candace,
Would love to see a photo of what you got