French Door Design Ideas: Follow and Set Both Exterior and Interior French Door Design Trends

French doors are one of the most timelessly elegant options to link up your exterior and interior spaces. We’re going to share some ideas and tips that will show you why and inspire your own home improvement projects.

What are French Doors?

First things first, what are we actually talking about when we say “French doors”? It’s a term most of us know but might not use quite right.

French doors refer to a set of double doors with the hinges on the outer edges, which open from the middle. They’re also either fully or mostly glazed, explaining their other common name; French windows.

The “French” part of the name is explained by the original origin of the architectural features. They gained popularity in 17th and 18th century France, and the name stuck.

When it comes to connecting homes with their balconies, patios, and gardens, French doors are the most traditional choice. Today, however, you can also get both sliding and bifold doors. It’s a fairly common mistake to also call those options French doors, but while they’re still great choices, they’re not the same thing.

Design Advantages of French Doors

French doors have been gracing homes in one form or another for hundreds of years. So, what explains their enduring appeal? There are two principal design advantages of French doors that stand the test of time:

• Light – Generally stretching from floor-to-ceiling, French doors can flood a room with gorgeous natural light.
• Space – Whether connecting a room with a garden or two otherwise separate rooms, French doors create the illusion of more space overall.

The inherent French door design benefits are clear. What can you do, then, to make the most of them and ensure your French doors have the biggest aesthetic impact?

Exterior French Door Design Ideas

The traditional installation of French doors is as an exterior feature of your home, connecting a room or conservatory to your garden, patio, or balcony. There are loads of interesting design ideas for external French doors, and they start with how to choose the right doors to make the biggest aesthetic impact.

Choosing the Right Exterior French Doors

There are loads of modern French door designs and materials for you to choose from. Here are a few tips for making smart design choices that will really help your home to pop:

• Match your home’s existing features – When choosing your French doors, think about the other exterior design features of your home like your windows and cladding. Sleek and stylish doors matched perfectly to your aluminium windows, for example, can produce a marvellously modern aesthetic.
• Provide a counterpoint – Alternatively, you could choose a French door design or colour that makes a splash by offering something different. Think, simple and subtle doors twinned with busy cladding or bright attention-grabbing doors against a plainer backdrop.
• Choose the right amount of glass – Another big French door design choice to make is the amount and style of glazing. Traditional French doors had smaller glass panels separated by often ornate frames. More modern French door trends have been towards slimline frames and large glass panels. The right choice for you depends on personal taste and how much light you’d like to bring to the room.

Where and How to Install Exterior French Doors

Where and how you install exterior French doors can also make a big difference to their design impact. Some useful exterior French door design ideas in this area include:

• Pair your French doors with surrounding glazing – French doors don’t have to stand alone. If part of your design inspiration is to brighten up your home, then installing them alongside other glazing can really boost their impact. That might mean having other full height glass panels either side of the doors or fanlight-style panels above. The choice is yours.
• Create a Juliet balcony – Exterior French doors don’t have to be on the ground floor, either. A timelessly elegant balcony French door design can help you add a sense of Shakespearean drama to your property.
• Turn a courtyard into a style statement – If your home has a central courtyard, two pairs of French doors placed opposite one another can create a chic corridor effect. Making the external area a more natural extension of your home, it helps produce a feeling of greater space and connectivity.

Other Exterior French Door Design Ideas

It’s not just about which exterior French doors you choose or where and how you install them. How to style a French door once it’s in place makes a big difference, too. Here are a few French door styling tips to inspire you:

• Use both interior and exterior decoration – You want your French doors to provide a seamless transition from both inside to out and outside to in. So, think about complimentary decoration to place on both sides. Soft furnishings and blinds or curtains on the inside and plants and garden furniture on the outside can make a real difference.
• Match blinds or curtains to your French doors – When you are choosing your window furnishings, make sure they match your new French doors in overall aesthetic. A good rule of thumb is to pair blinds with modern French doors and curtains with more traditional alternatives.

Interior French Door Design Ideas

While when most people think about French doors, they are considering the external option, internal French doors can also make for stylish additions to any home. Here, too, you’ve got plenty of choices and avenues to help you make the most of them as a design feature.

Choosing the Right Interior French Doors

Your choice of materials and style are just as critical when it comes to internal French doors. Here are a few things to think about:

• Choose materials that give you finish alternatives – When making interior French door design choices, you need to think about the future as well as the present. Certain materials lend themselves to more than one finish option and that means you could change the look of your doors down the road if you choose to. High-quality oak internal doors, for instance, look great whether stained to exemplify the beauty of the wood or painted.
• Consider both light and privacy – Unlike exterior French doors, the interior option doesn’t always have as much glass. When choosing if you want full glass panels, smaller windows, or perhaps no glass at all, you need to balance your need to introduce light with privacy considerations.

Where and How to Install Interior French Doors

A set of interior French doors can look great connecting almost any pair of rooms in your home. Precisely where and how to install them, though, does make a difference. Here’s a couple of stylistic ideas:

• Use interior French doors to brighten a room – If a room in your home doesn’t get much natural light, connecting it to another with a brighter aspect is a smart interior design choice. French doors are the perfect way to let beautiful daylight flood more evenly through your home.
• Create a feeling of more space – Similarly, you can make the smaller rooms in your home feel more spacious by linking them with their larger neighbours. It’s a really effective way of making the most of the space you have.

Other Interior French Door Design Ideas

Once you’ve found the correct place for them and chosen the perfect interior French doors, there’s still a few more finishing touches to think about. Whether you want to follow modern French door trends or plough your own furrow, it pays to consider:

• Door furniture – The right handles and other door furniture can perfectly set off a pair of French doors. Consider the existing features of your rooms and whether you want your doors to blend in or stand out for best effect.
• All aesthetic aspects – In the course of day-to-day life, you’re likely to have your French doors both open and closed. Take that into account when making any design choices. How do the doors look in both scenarios? When they’re open, do they impact the appearance or feel of one room more than the other?

How Door Warehouse Can Help You Make the Most of Your French Door Design Ideas

Hopefully, you’re now bursting with French door design ideas. How, though, can you turn those big plans into reality? Well, that’s where Door Warehouse comes in. We’ve got a wide range of both exterior and interior French door options for you to choose from, as well as more than 30 years’ experience helping customers make their design dreams come true.

If you have a more unique installation in mind, we can expertly craft bespoke internal doors to your precise specifications. Otherwise, you can browse our extensive range, choose the perfect doors, and get professional door installation from our own team. It really is that simple.

Ready to Make Your French Door Design Ideas a Reality?

Take your first step toward introducing the latest French door design trends to your home. Get in touch with Door Warehouse today.