Can you swing it?

Canadian residential designer Nita Hull of Homes That Flow instructs her clients to factor in all door swings. The full door swings (not just 45-degrees as shown on some home plans). And not just the primary doors accessing rooms, but all doors, including cabinet doors and appliance doors, too.

This can be extremely revealing. Do you have to jog out of the way if you are standing at the kitchen sink and want to open the dishwasher door? If you open the refrigerator door, can someone still pass by? If there’s a door into a private enclosed toilet space, do you have to be a contortionist to close that door once you’re in that space?

Thanks for the advice, Nita!