Plantation shutters for French doors: handles, clearance and measuring

Updated October 22, 2026

The short version: each door gets its own shutter panel, mounted on the door itself, so the shutter opens and closes with the door. Measure each door separately. Tell us where the handle sits and how far it sticks out, and we confirm how the panel clears it before anything is made.

How shutters work on a French door

A sliding patio door needs panels that move out of the way: bypass panels on a track, or bifolds that fold to the sides. A hinged French door is different. The shutter rides on the door, covering its glass, and swings with it. Nothing has to be pushed aside before you walk through, and the door works exactly as it does now. One retailer, The Shutter Store, describes the same approach: shutters that “mount directly to the door using an outside mount frame”, and it advises “Always use a 4-sided frame for French doors”^[1].

The handle is the hard part

A window has nothing on its glass. A door has a handle, often a lock, and sometimes a deadbolt, all near the edge where the shutter frame wants to sit. Three things decide whether it works:

• Where the handle sits. A handle on the door’s edge stile, beside the glass, is the easy case: the panel covers the glass and stops short of it. A handle that sits over the glass area itself leaves little room for a frame.
• How far it sticks out. Measure from the face of the door to the front of the handle. Louvers need room to tilt, so a shallow clearance limits the louver size, the same check we run on any window with a crank or a lock.
• Lever or knob. A lever handle sticks out further but is easy to use with a panel beside it. A round knob is harder to grip if a frame sits close to it.

Some sellers solve this with a notch. The Shutter Store offers “custom cut-outs to work around the hardware” as a “French Door Cut-out” option^[1]. Whatever the method, the panel has to clear the hardware without leaving a gap of open glass you’ll notice from the room. We work that out from your measurements and confirm it with you; we don’t guess.

Measuring a French door

1. Treat each door on its own. Pairs are rarely identical. Add them to the designer as two windows, named something like “French door left” and “French door right”.
2. Measure the glass area of each door. Width at the top, middle and bottom; height at the left, centre and right. Write down the smallest of each, to the nearest 1/8 inch or millimetre.
3. Check the trim around the glass. Raised glazing beads or grilles stand proud of the door face. The Shutter Store’s guide makes the same point: the frame shouldn’t overlap “any projecting trim surrounding the glass”^[1].
4. Measure the handle. Its distance from the edge of the glass, its height from the floor, and how far it sticks out from the door face. Do the same for a lock or deadbolt.
5. Note which way the doors swing. A door that opens into the room carries the panel into the room; check it still clears the wall, a door stop or furniture.

Put the handle details in the notes for each door. The full method for every opening is on how to measure.

Weight, hinges and the door itself

This section is our reasoning, not a test result.

• A shutter adds weight to the door. The door’s own hinges carry it. If the door already sags or rubs, tighten or fix the hinges first; a shutter won’t cure it, and will make it more noticeable.
• You are screwing into the door. Wood doors take wood screws well. Steel and fibreglass doors need screws made for them, and some have thin skins over a foam core, so drive screws into the solid edge stiles where you can.
• Doors get used more than windows. A door shutter is opened, closed and bumped far more often than a window shutter. Solid wood takes knocks better than a hollow plastic panel, and a scuff on painted poplar can be touched up.

Before you drill: the door’s own warranty

A window frame is part of the house. A door is a product with its own warranty, and door warranties list what they don’t cover. Therma-Tru’s owner’s manual, for example, excludes “Any painting, staining, scratching or other alteration” of a Therma-Tru factory-applied exterior coating, and says aftermarket films or tints applied to the glass “will void this Limited Warranty”^[3]. Those lines are about the outside face and the glass, not screws on the inside, but they show how specific these terms are. Find your own door’s warranty, read what it says about alterations, and ask the door maker if it isn’t clear. Some door makers also sell doors with blinds sealed between the panes; Therma-Tru’s manual has a care section for its internal blinds^[3]. If your doors already have them, you may not need a shutter at all.

Which louver and tilt for a door

• Louver size. A door’s handle is the depth limit, the same way a crank is on a casement. The tilting louver reaches about half its width back toward the glass when fully open, so 2½ in louvers need the least room and 4½ in the most. Pick the size the shallower handle allows, and use it on both doors so they line up.
• Tilt rod. A front rod sits on the room side where you can reach it. A back rod sits on the glass side, which on a door is also where the panel meets the door face, so check its clearance. Hidden tilt has no rod at all.
• Divider rail. On a tall door, a divider rail across the middle lets the top louvers stay open for light while the bottom ones close for privacy. If the handle sits at the height where a rail would fall, mention it in the notes.

What a pair costs

One door has one panel: the designer suggests 1 panel for a 22 in wide glass area. Live prices from our price list for a pair of doors with glass about 22 × 64 in, in the basic build (flat moulding, paint stage 1, 3½ in louvers), before tax and shipping:

Measure your own glass, not the door: the shutter covers the glass area. Paint upgrades, colour matches and moulding levels change the price, and the designer shows each one as you choose it.

Your doors, at a glance

In winter

Glass doors are big windows. Cornell Cooperative Extension says that “In a typical single family home, 25% to 35% of the heat is lost through windows”^[2]. Closing the louvers at night slows the cold air that rolls off the glass, though no one has published a rated figure for louvered shutters. What the research says

When a French door shutter isn’t the right choice

• The handle or lock sits over the glass, with no stile beside it to clear.
• The doors open against a wall or cabinet with no room for the extra thickness.
• The door is out of square or sagging badly and you aren’t ready to fix it first.

For a sliding glass door instead, see bypass and bifold panels. For a French door that passes these checks, design your shutters and price both doors in a few minutes.