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4. Interior French Doors: Styles, Glass Options, Sizes And What They Cost

A home office off the front hall can be quiet or bright, and with a solid door it’s rarely both. Glass doors change that. The room closes for a call, and the hallway keeps the window light. Getting there takes a few decisions most people haven’t made before, from how many panes to how much floor the doors will need when they swing open.

Interior French doors are hinged doors with glass panes set in a wood or MDF frame, hung alone or as a pair to close off a room without blocking its light. Choosing them comes down to five decisions: single or double, the lite pattern, the glass, the size of your opening and your budget. One cost guide puts a basic installed single at about $750 to $1600 and a pair at about $1500 to $3200

Forshaw of St. Louis sells and installs TruStile interior doors, including its French Lite designs. The choices below apply whatever door you end up buying, and they’re the same ones we walk through with homeowners in our Frontenac and Ellisville showrooms.

What Interior French Doors Are, and When They Beat Other Options

Interior French doors are framed doors filled mostly with glass, divided into panes called lites, and hung on hinges like any other interior door. They’re the usual pick for a home office, a dining room, a den or a sunroom: anywhere you want the room to close without going dark.

They aren’t the only way to get glass between rooms. Pocket doors and barn doors solve some of the same problems, and each one asks something different of the room:

Door type	Floor space it needs	Privacy and sound	What the wall needs
Hinged French doors	Clear floor about as wide as each leaf, where it swings	Close against stops in a frame, so they seal better than a barn door	A standard framed opening
Pocket doors	None; the door slides into the wall	Closes inside the opening, with no swing to plan around	A hollow wall cavity beside the opening, which a retrofit may not allow
Barn doors	None in front; the door slides along the wall	Leave gaps at the edges, so sound and light pass	Open wall beside the opening for the door to slide over

A hinged pair is the best fit when you have the floor space and want the room to feel closed when the doors are shut. A pocket door fits a tight hallway where a swing would hit furniture, as long as the wall can take it. A barn door is the easiest to add to an existing opening, but it’s the weakest at keeping a phone call in the room.

Single or Double French Doors: How Each Works and the Space It Needs

A single French door is one glass leaf in a standard opening; a double door is two leaves meeting in the middle with no post between them. The single is simpler and fits where a regular interior door already hangs. The pair opens the whole wall, and that’s the look most people picture when they say French doors.

On a pair, one leaf is usually the active leaf, the one with the latch you open every day. The other is the inactive leaf, opened when you want the full width for moving furniture or opening a dining room to a party. Before you order, decide which leaf is active and which way the doors swing, into the room or out of it.

Swing space is the part people miss. Each leaf needs clear floor about equal to its own width where it swings, so a pair of 30-inch leaves sweeps about 30 inches into the room on each side. Keep furniture, floor registers and rugs out of that arc. A desk that sits where a door wants to open is the most common reason a pair gets swapped for a single, or for a pocket door.

Styles and Divided Lites

Style starts with the lite count, the number of glass panes in each leaf. A one-lite door is a single sheet of glass in a frame and reads modern and open. Ten or fifteen lites read traditional and give the door more texture. Most makers offer a long run in between, and TruStile’s French Lite designs go from one to 18 lites.

How those panes are divided matters as much as how many there are. There are three ways to do it:

• True divided lites: each pane is a separate piece of glass set into the wood bars, the way French doors were first built.
• Simulated divided lites: bars applied to the face of one larger pane, so it looks divided from the room.
• Grilles between the glass: bars sealed inside an insulated glass unit, flat on both faces and easy to clean.

The top of the door is another choice. Square tops are standard, and arched, radius and cathedral tops are available on some designs. If your ceiling can’t take a taller door, a glass transom above a standard-height pair gives a similar lift.

For current looks, designers point to slim black frames with a steel look, reeded glass for home offices, arched tops and tall 8-foot doors. Treat those as design opinions rather than rules. A pair that matches your house’s trim and other doors will age better than one that follows a trend.

Glass Options: Privacy, Light and Safety

The glass decides how much the room shows and how much light gets through. A door with clear glass passes the most light and hides nothing. A door with frosted glass blurs the view while still brightening the hallway, which makes it a frequent pick where privacy matters.

Between those two sits a wide range of textured glass:

• Clear glass: the most light and the full view; best where privacy doesn’t matter, like a dining room.
• Frosted glass: an even blur; light passes, shapes soften.
• Reeded glass: vertical ribs that break up the view, popular for offices.
• Seedy glass: small bubbles that give an older, handmade look.
• Rain and obscure glass: textured patterns with more privacy than reeded.

If you aren’t sure, look at samples in the room’s own light. Frosted glass that looks soft in a bright showroom can look flat in a hallway with no window.

Safety glass is the other half of the glass decision. Building codes treat glass in a swinging door as a hazardous location, which in most cases means safety glazing. Rules vary by code edition and city, so ask your dealer and your building department before you order. The FAQ below covers the exceptions.

Materials and Construction: MDF, Wood and Prehung vs Slab

MDF is the material for a painted door and wood is the material for a stained one. MDF holds paint smoothly and doesn’t show grain. Wood is chosen when you want the grain to show, and the species you pick moves the price.

Stock French doors come in molded, MDF and wood versions, in solid and hollow core. Made-to-order doors add choices in wood species, thickness and the profile of the bars around the glass.

The other decision is prehung or slab:

• Prehung: the doors arrive already hung in their frame. It costs more, but the install is simpler because the frame is set, shimmed and aligned as a unit.
• Slab: just the door leaves, to hang in a frame you already have. It works when the existing frame is square and sized to match.

If the old frame is out of square, prehung is the easier route (our guide to prehung versus slab interior doors goes deeper). A slab saves money only if the frame is still true.

Sizes and Measuring Your Opening

Common interior French door leaves are 30, 32 or 36 inches wide by 80 inches tall. A pair of 30-inch leaves is nominally 60 inches wide, a pair of 32s is 64 and a pair of 36s is 72. Exact sizes vary by maker, so check the spec for the door you’re pricing.

The rough opening, the framed hole in the wall, is bigger than the door. A prehung pair typically needs a rough opening about 2 inches wider and 2-1/2 inches taller than the nominal door size. Confirm it against the maker’s spec before you cut or reframe anything.

The jamb also has to match your wall. Jamb width equals the finished wall thickness: commonly 4-9/16 inches for a 2-by-4 wall with half-inch drywall and 6-9/16 inches for a 2-by-6 wall. Older plaster walls are often a different thickness, so measure yours.

To measure an existing opening, take the trim off first, then:

1. Measure the width stud to stud at the top, middle and bottom, and use the smallest number.
2. Measure the height from the floor to the header at both sides, and use the smaller one.
3. Measure both diagonals; if they match, the opening is square.
4. Note the wall thickness, which way the doors should swing and which leaf you want active.

Bring those numbers to a dealer and you’ll get a quote on the right door instead of a guess.

What Interior French Doors Cost

Interior French doors cost a few hundred dollars for a basic installed single and several thousand for a custom pair. One cost guide estimates a basic installed single at about $200 to $800 and a double at about $400 to $1,600. Custom pairs can run $3,000 to $8,000 or more, according to contractor and design-studio estimates. These are third-party figures, not Forshaw prices.

What moves the price the most:

• Wood and glass: stain-grade wood costs more than MDF, and specialty glass costs more than clear.
• Custom sizing: a made-to-order size costs more than a stock one.
• Prehung or slab: prehung costs more up front and saves time at install.
• Trim work: new casing on both sides of the wall adds to the job.
• A new opening: cutting or widening a wall for a pair is framing and drywall work, on top of the doors.

Two quotes that look far apart are often for different jobs. One may be a slab in the old frame, and the other a prehung pair with new trim on both sides. Line them up item by item before comparing totals.

TruStile French Lite Doors at Forshaw

TruStile’s French Lite series is the interior French door line we sell, and it’s built to order. TruStile describes it as “100 classic French door designs in one- to 18-lite configurations.” TruStile has been part of the Marvin family since 2015 and sells through dealers like Forshaw.

What’s confirmed about the series:

• True divided lites: each piece of glass is hand-inserted into the bars.
• Tops: square, arch, radius and cathedral, depending on the model.
• Thickness: 1-3/8, 1-3/4 or 2-1/4 inches on the four-lite FL450.
• Material: MDF for paint-grade doors and wood for stain-grade, from a long species list.
• Bar profiles: a range that includes Roman Ogee, Cove & Bead and Quarter Bead.
• Glass: clear, frosted, reeded, seedy, rain, obscure and many more, though TruStile notes not every style suits every application.
• Size: MDF doors go up to 48 by 120 inches, made to order, which leaves room for a tall pair.

TruStile doesn’t publish a price list. One engineering explainer estimates primed MDF TruStile slabs at roughly $500 to $1,000 and stain-grade wood at $1,000 to $1,500. Treat that as an outside estimate; your quote depends on the design, glass and size.

TruStile French Lite fits when:

• You want true divided lites and a bar profile that matches the trim in an older house.
• The opening is an odd size, or you want a pair taller than 80 inches.
• You want a specific glass, like reeded for an office or seedy for an older look.

A stock pair can be the better buy when the opening is a standard size and the room is a basement, a rental or a closet. When a room doesn’t need a made-to-order door, we say so.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much room do you need for French doors?

For a pair of 30-inch leaves, plan on about 30 inches of clear floor in front of each leaf, plus a rough opening around 62 by 82-1/2 inches for a prehung 60-inch pair. If the wall beside the opening is short, check that each leaf can open fully without hitting a corner or a light switch. Where that space isn’t there, a single leaf or doors that swing the other way may fit better.

How much do French doors typically cost?

A double door often costs about 1.5 to 2.5 times a single in the same style, by rough contractor estimates, so a pair doesn’t simply double the bill. If you’re torn between the two, ask for a single and a pair priced side by side for your opening.

Do interior French doors need tempered glass?

Often, and your building department has the final word. The 2021 International Residential Code, section R308.4.1, as Boulder County’s building department reproduces it, says glazing in “fixed and operable panels of swinging, sliding and bifold doors shall be considered to be a hazardous location.” There are two exceptions: openings too small for a 3-inch sphere to pass through, and decorative glazing. Safety glass in a hazardous location also has to carry an identifying mark, and your building department decides what counts as decorative.

Can a French door be a front door?

Only if it’s an exterior-rated French door system. Interior French doors are usually about 1-3/8 inches thick and have no weatherstripping, sealed sill or security hardware. Exterior doors are commonly about 1-3/4 inches thick, with sealed thresholds and safety glass. Forshaw’s exterior doors come from Marvin and TruStile, and an entry door is a separate conversation from an interior pair. If you’re weighing another brand, we also cover Renewal by Andersen doors.

See French Doors in Person

Glass and bar profiles are hard to judge on a screen. Come by our Frontenac showroom at 825 S. Lindbergh Blvd or our Ellisville showroom at 15977 Manchester Rd, and bring your opening measurements and a photo of the room. We install the doors we sell, and you’ll leave with an itemized, written quote to take home. Planning window work as well? Our Marvin windows in St. Louis page has the details.

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