Pair of antique brass cranked pull handles mirrored on the meeting stiles of stained oak double front doors
Front door · Large and double doors

Door furniture sized for a grand entrance

Tall double doors need fittings with presence. Long cranked pulls, a doctor knocker and a wide letter plate in antique brass, scaled to suit the door rather than a standard terrace.

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The look
Fittings
Antique brass
Doors
Stained oak
Stonework
Bath stoneGravel
Garden
Box greenLead grey

A Georgian country house with a stone portico, a semicircular fanlight and a pair of tall stained oak doors. Antique brass suits the warm timber and pale stone, and every piece is a size up from a typical front door: 310mm pulls, a doctor knocker and a 331mm letter plate.

Up close
Symmetrical Bath stone Georgian country house with sash windows, a balustraded parapet and a columned portico around oak double doors, seen from a gravel drive lined with yew and box Antique brass doctor knocker on a raised and fielded panel of a stained oak front door below a fanlight Long antique brass letter plate, the end of a cranked pull and an antique brass covered oval escutcheon on a stained oak door Square antique brass bell push and house number 1 on a pale stone door surround beside a black and brass carriage lantern Black Labrador sitting on the top step beside tall oak double doors in a stone portico, showing the scale of the doors and their antique brass fittings Stone-floored entrance hall with a round mahogany table of white hydrangeas in front of the inside of tall oak double doors and a semicircular fanlight
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Antique brass for a pair of doors

Stained oak double front doors under a semicircular fanlight in a stone portico, with mirrored antique brass cranked pulls, a doctor knocker, letter plate, covered escutcheon, square bell push and house number 2 6 5 1 3 4
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Good to know

Getting the scale right

EraGeorgian, Regency and country house
Trend statusTimeless: for larger and double doors
Inspired byCountry house porticos and town mansions
SuitsDouble doors, oversized single doors and porticoed entrances

Why standard sizes look lost

Most front door furniture is designed for a door around two metres tall and 80cm wide. On a pair of tall doors, a 76mm knob or a 200mm pull looks undersized, almost like a cabinet fitting. Moving up a size, to a 310mm pull and a doctor knocker nearly 200mm long, keeps the hardware in proportion with the panels and the stonework around it.

How double doors are fitted

On a pair of doors one leaf stays fixed most of the time, bolted top and bottom, and the other opens daily. The working leaf carries the key entry, the letter plate and the knocker; a matching pull on each leaf keeps the pair symmetrical, so the entrance looks balanced from the drive.

Pulls or a centre knob

Long cranked pulls suit double doors because they sit neatly on the meeting stiles. On an oversized single door, a statement 89mm tiered centre knob does the same job with more presence than a standard knob. Either way, keep the knocker, letter plate and bell in the same antique brass.

Sizing guide

Pull length

As a rough rule, choose a pull about a seventh of the door's height: 250mm for a standard door, 310mm for doors around 2.2m or taller.

Knocker height

Fix the knocker at eye level, around 1.5m from the step, on the leaf that opens.

Letter plate width

A wide 331mm letter plate suits a broad middle rail and takes large post without folding.

Mind the fixed leaf

Pulls on both leaves should mirror each other in height and distance from the meeting edge, so check both before drilling.