French Interior Doors
French interior doors are a pair of swinging leaves for a wide opening between rooms. Choose glass when you want light through, or solid panels when the room should close off.
How a French interior pair works
A French interior door is two slabs hung on opposite sides of one opening so they meet in the middle. Each leaf swings on its own hinges. One leaf can stay latched with flush bolts while the other is the door you use every day, or both can open when you need the full width for furniture or a party. In this catalog that configuration is double swing. It suits a living room to a dining room, a bedroom to a sitting room, or any framed opening that is too wide for a single door and has no wall cavity for a pocket door.
The pair should be ordered as one unit. Two unrelated slabs in the same finish still show different stiles, glass cuts, or hinge prep, and the meeting edge will not seal.
Glass, solid panels, and privacy
Divided or full-height glass is the classic French look because light moves between rooms even when the doors are shut. Frosted, reeded, or laminated glass keeps a bedroom, bath, or office from being a clear view into the next room. Solid panels are the quieter choice for a media room, a nursery, or a home office on a busy hall. Paint or veneer both leaves the same. A dark leaf against a white leaf reads as a mistake, not a design.
If the opening is a closet, glass is usually the wrong call. A barn door or a bifold gives you the opening without a pair of swings in a tight room.
Size, frame, and hardware
Measure the finished opening and split it across the two leaves, then leave room for the jamb, the astragal where the doors meet, and the hinge clearance. 80 inches is the common height. 96 inches is the taller size we build when the rest of the house is already at that height. Send the rough opening if the old doors are still in place. The old slab size is not the opening size.
Prehung pairs arrive with the frame and hinges set. Slab-only pairs are for a frame that is already square and sound. The active leaf takes a passage or privacy set. The inactive leaf takes flush bolts. Concealed hinges keep a modern pair from looking like a traditional French door. Dummy handles on a fixed leaf keep the two sides visually even.