Making a small house feel LARGER
In a small house everything plays its part from multitasking walls to storage packed furniture. The design of a small house is a carefully choreographed ballet in which every part of the house must play a part and play it well. No part is too small to be examined for best effect; this includes the door swing.
I am sure at one time you lived in a house in which there was one door that you loathed or wished you had the time to change its swing to better suite you. Whether that was just to swing in the opposite direction to swing out instead of in, vice-versa, etc. In a small house door swing is very important because door are large, moveable and you cannot block them. A door can be about 3 foot of floor space that cannot be used for anything else and given the placement of the door you may need more floor space to step back to open a door. An example of a bad door swing would be a door at the stairs that needs to swing out into the stairs to open. A person cannot walk up to the door and open, they must walk up grab the knob and walk down as they open the door. Bad idea and a safety hazard.
There are 3 exterior doors in our small house, 2 out-swing doors (They swing open to the outside) and one in-swing door. I opted for out-swing in the kitchen to save room since the kitchen is tight and I don’t want to dance around a large door every time someone comes in the backdoor. I have more room outside than I do inside. The same is true for the balcony door upstairs. It is less tight than the kitchen but there is more room outside than inside. The one in-swing door is the front door and this door took the most planning because it swung inside. However by changing the door swing from swinging toward the wall to away from the wall I created the feeling of a larger living room and formed an entry way complete with coat hooks and shoe storage.
As you can see from the images, having the door swing toward the way is most designers’ first instinct and with a larger house it would be beneficial. This swing gets the door out of the way. But in a small house having the door swing against the wall invites guests to step right into the living room making it feel smaller. Guests also miss the coat hooks and shoe storage that is now hidden behind the door and the living room, dining room even the kitchen become the new drop zone making a small house feel instantly cluttered and awkward.
By having the door swing away from the wall, the door becomes a wall and an entry is created. With the door serving as a wall guests walk right to the coat hooks and drop zone. This division gives the living room its own space, free of coats, and gives it a larger feeling. With the door as a temporary wall the traffic into the living room is rerouted and the furniture can be arrange in a conversational layout. The rest of the house benefits from the organization of the drop zone where shoes, book bags, coats and keys can be found.
There is also an added safety bonus. Having the door open away from the wall means when you open the door to greet strangers they cannot see directly into the main part of your house, only the wall.
Next time I will cover several different space saving interior door swing ideas including bookcase doors, barn doors and unconventional doors. Check back!
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