I would do an 8'-0" door with transom. make sure the door has a multi-point lock. 10' is too tall in my opinion and tough to come by without going custom. I my opinion 8' is more than enough, especially with a transom above. They are also tough to keep straight and from warping.

Here's an alternative idea I came up with for the entryway. It would be a 42x96 door with windows surrounding it, as shown. These windows would coordinate with the other windows in our home, which are black aluminum with drywall returns.

I also sketched out what I'd plan to do with the remaining space in the foyer. The floor plan snippet shows our foyer. (The pocket doors will be centered on the left wall, even though they are off-center in this floor plan snippet).

@millworkman - Thanks for your input. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the sketch I just posted. Instead of sidelights and a transom, I am thinking of doing regular windows to fill the space. What do you think? I'm nervous to trend away from the standard sidelights/transom, but at the same time want to do something unique...

How tall are you?

What is the minimum size door for you to physically walk through to get from the outside to inside a house?

In your sketch of the front door with windows, consider where you'd put light switches near the door so you don't have to step too far to turn on a light.

In the other two sketches, are those mirrors hung really high, above a door and another mirror? (Sorry, having a hard time reading the label.) Personally I'd rather see a really cool light fixture hung in that space. Maybe that's part of the plan, but I'm unclear on why you'd want a mirror that high.

@chicagoans - Great point about light switches. I hadn't thought of that.

Yes, those are mirrors. I just sketched something out quickly to help get a sense for the scale of the space. I just need to select doors/windows at this stage. Although... lighting will be up next. What would you have in mind for cool light fixtures?

@mark - When you said that 10' doors aren't practical, I was thinking you meant there's an issue with the use of the door. For instance, perhaps they're difficult to open. Is there a real issue, or do you just dislike them aesthetically?

I have a 10 ft front door, designed by my architect. The scale works very well with the rest of the design. My exterior house design is relatively simple and the 10 ft front door unit (single door plus 2 side lights) makes a statement.

High ceilings are very common and desired in warm climates.

The only negative is that there are no 10 ft doors you can order from a lumberyard catalog. The door was custom made and designed to meet local hurricane codes. I used the architect's elevation drawings to help me design the door with a local talented craftsman. It was also more than twice the cost of what my builder had allocated in the budget, but that wasn't unexpected!

The whole door unit is 8' 9" wide x 10' 3" high.

@chispa - I’m glad to hear your door worked out nicely! Would you be able to show a photo (either here or else message me privately)? It would be helpful to see it to get some inspiration.

How tall are you?

What is the minimum size door for you to physically walk through to get from the outside to inside a house?

Gene Simmons Vegas house with 4'x10' front door.

12' entry door

And 16' entry door in the Land of the Giants.

The door height that will look the best probably depends more on the exterior elevation than the interior. For the interior with a 15' tray ceiling, it won't really matter that much whether you go 8' or 10' in my opinion. I think both will look good from the inside, with the 8' being more practical and economical. How it looks from the outside will be more noticeable in terms of scale with the rest of the front of the house.

Where is the architects elevation of the front of the home, and WHY to a contrived tray ceiling, anywhere? Especially a tray with clipped corners in a square space?

@kit2022 I would want to see the entire front elevation before I can say much about the door and separate window layout. Typically I do not like that setup as it just does not seem cohesive to me. I would rather attached sidelites and transom

There is so much to consider…I’m not a pro, but just thinking about how I would make up my mind. Have you looked on line, identified a style of home similar to yours and found door combinations/styles that would work with the entrance itself/suit your home’s estectics and meet your needs.

The inside also has to be considered style wise, as its size could dwarf furniture and accessories. If your home suits something like below, the wide transom would work well with 15ft ceilings and the side lights being integrated into the design will make the door itself feel less overpowering and a wide transom will allow for a shorter door to be used as well.

Would suggest you nix the tray ceiling. Those were popular years ago but will date your house instantly.

@millworkman - Fair enough. Thank you. The elevations aren't quite finished, so I can't post those quite yet.

@norwood architects - Thanks for the input. We have trays throughout the house. I was thinking of painting them colors (like muted blue in the dining area, pale pink in a girl's room, wallpaper in a play room) in an attempt to add some personality to our house. But maybe I should think harder about other ways to accomplish that.

@T T - Thank you. Our elevations aren't quite finished yet, but I'll post them once they're complete.

@Maureen - Thanks for your thoughts. Those are nice photos, especially the first one.

Is privacy a concern at all? I admit that I sometimes run around my house in my underwear, and I have always thought that if I had windows near the front door, they would have to be frosted. We hope to build a new house in the next five years, and I am seriously thinking about what I want the front door to look like. I love my neighbors, but they don’t need to see me running around in my underwear.

@kit2022, my architect had included a tray ceiling in the master bedroom when we first started the design and I had him remove it. I don't love tray ceilings and in FL they were way overdone as a way to add "interest" to nearly every ceiling. I don't have a single tray ceiling in my new house. I used beams in the main rooms and any room that didn't get beams got a nice beefy simple cove molding.

Trays in colors.....mirrors.......

I suggest you get a designer on board and soon. Unless you want the home that can never be sold.

Have an experienced designer "help you think" a LOT harder, and inform ways to make a comfortable and beautiful home. You're on a bad track. Get someone unafraid to use the "No" word with you : ) , since it seems your architect will give you whatever you want.

That, can be the worst thing to ever happen to a house. Trust me on this fact.

The best build entails a great architect, a pro kitchen/bath designer. the interior designer, and the builder. It is a team with one good vision. The last thing it can be is a crowd source of a door with no front elevation present, and tray details from nearly three decades past.

If ideas like 10-foot doors and 15-foot trays are being tossed around, I would add a good HVAC designer to your design/build team.

Better odds on winning the lottery than finding a good HVAC designer! Specially for a larger home with several zones. So many HVAC designers who do the same stuff they have done for the past 40 years.

We did a more complex system for better zone separation and better efficiency and we are having things fixed/redesigned from the original, supposedly very good design!

@Jan Moyer - I want to reassure you that we are building this house for us, not for you

I am certain you are!

Once you have your floor plan finalized, your architect should go over the plans with you and you should work together to come up with an Electrical and Reflected Ceiling Plan.

These aren't things that should be figured out at the last minute when the house is framed out and you do a walk-through with the electrician before he starts the rough electrical.

For the comfort of your 9'6" guests?

No, no point in such a tall door, and -- if you go that direction -- you'll need to match other things to it. I think you'll be sad if you go down that rabbit hole.

FWIW, our current build has an 8' entry door into an open three-floor grand stair foyer with a 24' high ceiling.

Our heating designer kept pushing for tray ceilings to hide ductwork. Instead, we're opting to place ducts in natural room use divisions in the first floor open plan layout.

Door selection is completely dependent upon the architecture and front elevation of the house.

I lived with 8' doors for a few months and realized that all doors should be 8' tall and all ceilings 9-10'. Now, I'm back with 80" doors I almost feel I should duck my head to pass through.

If you do a ten foot front door I would make sure your doorbell plays the theme from Jurassic Park.

While it's clear some people aren't a fan of a 10 ft door, the scare tactics aren't helpful. You can get a 10' wood door in the $3-4k range. Iron doors will start at around $4k, and while the price depends on the style and details, most custom shops would build you an iron door for under $10k. Yes, you can spend a lot more than that on a front door, but the same could be said if it was 8' tall instead of 10'.

In addition to the extra cost of buying a 10' door of an appropriate style, the extra cost of installing it, the extra cost of maintaining it, the effect of the exchange of air each time it opens, the extra weight of it, there is a human scale factor. The disportioncate relationship of a person of normal size next to a door that is almost twice the height of the person creates an emotion, and usually a negative emotion since the majority of doors in the world are much less, usually in the range of 6'-8" to 8'-0". I think we can safely assume all the other doors in the house are not 10' tall.

Perhaps the OP wishes to create a first impression at the entrance of the house, but I for one feel there are better ways than having an abnormal door height.

I find often, in the chase for "unique" , or in some cases drama, or whatever is in your mind to do?

You must ask...... why?

There is a lot of why here, minus the elevation we aren't seeing.

There is the why of clipped tray ceiling, highlighted in color and a trip down memory lane of decades past, especially in conjunction with any 10 foot door, eight foot door, and absurd on a pivot door.

The worst words in the English language could well be "whatever you want" as it applies to the design of anything.

Pro's almost always defer to other skilled trades in the business. An architect may defer to a structural engineer, an interior designer to a pro kd, an electrician.

It's a bit astounding that a home owner would think they've a better way on something they might do once, twice, or three times......in an entire lifetime.

@T T - Thanks for the info regarding door prices. Yes, I've done a little scouting and have been able to find plenty of 10' doors in that price range.

@chicagoans - Thanks! I love that light fixture in your entry! The way it disperses light is gorgeous. I'd say it was well-worth whatever you paid for it (:

@kit2022, my whole door unit (wood, glass, 5-point locking mechanism, engineering/hurricane rated, hardware) and installation was $20K. My builder had penciled in $8K for a basic 8' door unit.

We also got a rough quote from Marvin Coastline (Marvin had bought out a door company in FL) and I think that was around $25K, but they had a much more modern look than I was looking for and they couldn't duplicate the architect's design. We also got a quote for 4 garage doors from Marvin Coastline and that quote was $92K! Yeah, we didn't go with those! The kicker was that for that price, they didn't recommend that the garage doors face the full sun ... which is hard to do for many in FL!

Is this 'architect' that "suggested a 42x120" door with sidelights and a transom overhead" the same 'architect' that designed the mountainous house from a previous discussion?

Mark, if you look at kit2020's user name and look at her discussions, this house in Florida is the only one she has posted about. No mountains in FL!

There are mountains in Florida made every day. Then the tide comes in and washes them back to being prairie again.

I was referring to the house design being deep and the high and wide hip roof resembling a mountain.

The OP's door selection may work out fine, but as I read the original post again I realize a 42x120" door with a sidelight on each side and a transom above it will have to have a structurally reinforced door jambs and door header and mullions to handle the forces of such a large/heavy door over time. A door that size may have a lot of momentum behind it, maybe more than the frame can handle.

Up 'till now I didn't think it was possible to spend $20,000 on a door!

@chispa - Thanks for the info. Wow, $92k for garage doors, huh? I'm not a fan of Marvin's coastline collection either. Too modern for my taste as well.

If you can’t have the Doors of Durin, what’s the point in a 10’ door?

So many comments from people who have never designed or built a door! My 10 ft door design had an engineering review and stamp to meet hurricane codes which was $1500 and included in the door price. No need for "lots of steel" in my design.

Most important is finding the best craftsman to design and build the door. I interviewed 3 in my area and when I found out that one of them was the one that had built a large very intricate Moroccan inspired wood front door in my neighborhood 12 years earlier and it still looked amazing, it was easy to make my decision. He was slow and we had to keep prodding him, but he makes amazing stuff with wood.

@T T, yes you get it too! The large triple window in my dining room, next to the foyer, also has a 10' header, so it ties into the door height. The architect designed the house to be taller in the "middle". As you come forward the windows and roof lines step down gradually.

Isn't the point of using an architect to come up with a house that suits the lot, location and the homeowners? I never knew I needed a 10 ft door, but after the architect designed it that way, there was no other option that looked right. My Marvin window distributor tried to sell me one of his 8 ft doors and told me it would look the same! No, it wouldn't and I'm glad I put the effort to build exactly what the architect designed. Wasn't that the whole point of hiring the architect?

My friend built a ADU in his backyard and became obsessed with ceiling height. He thought 'the more the better'. He ended up doing 12 foot ceilings in a small space and it feels terrible being in that room, kind of like being in an elevator shaft. He hates it now since adjusting speakers, changing lights and resetting smoke alarms becomes a life threatening endeavor not to mention having to store a huge ladder necessary to get up to that height.... sometimes in the middle of the night.

I lived with 8 foot doors and it feels good and manageable. I like 10 foot ceilings too. Once you go above that height I think it plays into the memories of childhood and being small and helpless.. at least with me. Massive doors feel unmanageable to me and more likely to be dangerous to even fix a hinge. I think that 'human scale' is important in design, unless you are used to being taken care of and hire people to adjust your speakers.

Sigh!

No, never felt small and helpless as a child. Love open spaces. I take my kayak out into the Gulf ... you definitely feel small then, but never helpless.

I'm a small (and not that young) person and have no problem pulling out my lightweight 10 ft stepladder. I even re-painted several rooms with 12 ft ceilings when I didn't like the first color I had given to the builder. Never felt my life was threatened. Got a good glutes workout going up and down that ladder for several days! I adjust my own speakers, change my own light bulbs and can even hang and wire up a chandelier.

Some people like low ceilings and some like high ceilings. Neither is right or wrong. Isn't it great we are free to make these different design choices to go with our different personalities and individual needs/wants.

The Wall Street Journal had a great article recently about a global design phenomenon that the pandemic brought on. People retreating into small tight spaces in their homes to relax. "Why Americans Want a ‘Snug,’ a Special Room That’s an ‘Instant Magic Pill’ of Comfort. As sprawling, noisy open-concept floor plans prove divisive, some homeowners are adopting the British snug- a small, comfy, den-like space where a television doesn't dominate the decor or the vibe."

“SMALL ROOMS set the mind on the right path. Large ones cause it to go astray,” wrote Leonardo da Vinci 500 years ago. And though open-concept floor plans have dominated home design for half a century, designers and their customers are recognizing the old polymath was on to something. A capacious living-dining-kitchen room can feel lonely and uninviting, even unmooring." I totally get it.

15ft ceilings are quite a bit higher than 12ft.

Anyone who works in medicine knows how dangerous ladders can be. You might not feel your life is threatened but that has more to do with phobias and mental state. Falls kill pretty commonly and I would be surprised if you didn't know someone who has died from a fall or had a serious head injury. Probably not most of the time from interior ladders but they are still certainly a risk - especially for 15 ft ceilings. That being said - there are 10 year smoke detectors and most LED lights last near forever. - so I do think those maintenance concerns are a non issue.

I am honestly not sure that it is great that some people can afford to build do much worthless airspace while most young people can't afford to buy a home with 8ft ceilings.

As far as the cost - isn't some of the concern also with all the glass around it in one description? . Sidelights and transom were proposed somewhere. This maybe somewhat costly since glass isn't exactly strong.

I know there will always be disagreement but I really do need to call out physics. Tall ceilings were helpful in warm climates before air conditioning. Now it is more air to cool down, more heat gain through the walls and more solar gain to pull out for the entire lifespan of the house. If the tall ceilings allow you to open up the house for most of the year and life with fans, then it doesn't matter. This might be true in the arid west.

I find it interesting that anyone who has no problem spending $20,000 on a door (I still can't get over that) is up on a 12' ladder in a danger zone repainting to save a little money. Or maybe the absurd door cost IS the reason they're up there.

Some of us like painting, have the ability to paint well and like to get projects done right away instead of waiting on someone else's schedule. Nothing to do with saving money!

Painting is a great DIY instant gratification project!

Why is the door cost absurd? Sure I would have liked it for free, but that is the going rate for a local woodworking pro to make a large hurricane rated custom door unit. I guess I should have told him his door costs are absurd and he doesn't deserve to make a good living making a hand crafted product!

Have you built a house lately? Cost are high for everything these days.

@chispa - I agree, painting is so much fun! I've repainted my daughter's room four times in the past year. With her help, of course. We love being messy and creative together. I also have many fond memories painting and repainting walls and furniture with my mom growing up.

And yes! There [clap] are [clap] no [clap] right or wrong answers when it comes to design choices!