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Residential exterior doors should swing inward. While this cuts into your living space and prevents you from putting furniture near the inside of your door, it also means that the hinges will only be accessible from the interior. Hinges that sit on the outside of your home leave your property far less secure, as someone looking to get in could simply unscrew them and remove your door. Additionally, inswing exterior doors will be operable even if you have snow or other obstructions outside.

Many doors can be cut to size, but it depends on the door material. Solid wood doors are relatively easy to trim to a specific size, while hollow core and metal doors are trickier and can usually only be shaved down a little before you risk damaging them. If your door needs a lot of adjustment, it's best to order a custom size or have a pro do the resizing to make sure it holds up over time.

French doors that open to exterior spaces are often installed to swing inward, as this makes them more secure than outward-swinging doors, due to the interior hinges being inaccessible from the outside. For interior doors, it’s personal preference which direction to hang your doors, but it’s common to have them open into the larger of the two spaces they’re separating.

French doors can either open inward or outward, but because hinges are the mechanism for opening and closing, a single set of French doors will not be able to do both. Most French doors only open outward onto a patio, deck, or porch, while some only open inward if the outdoor space is limited and can’t accommodate the open doors.