Last Updated on May 15, 2024

Door handing refers to the direction the door swings when it opens and from which side, left or right, that the door is hinged. You can determine your door’s handing by determining which hand you would use to open the door. If you naturally want to use your left hand, the door handing is left handed. If you naturally want to use your right hand, the door handing is right handed.
Why You Need to Know
If you plan on buying lever-style locks, door handing can be VERY important so that the lever is positioned in the proper orientation for your door. Although many new locksets are universal and can be installed on left hand or right hand doors, many specialized locksets (think decorative door hardware) and commercial locksets cannot.
Door handing helps with three things. It determines which side of the door lock will take the key, it makes sure the levers point toward the hinged side correctly, and it makes sure the door latch will latch correctly when the door is closed.
If your chosen door locks require door-handing information, it’s important that you request it correctly, as specialty hardware often has long lead times for shipping.
Determining Door Handing
The door-handing determination is always made from what would be considered ‘outside’ the door. The outside is the side where keys would be used if the door had a locking function.
So, on the front door, it’s from the outside of your home looking in. In a bedroom, bathroom, or pantry, it’s from the outside space of these rooms, looking in.
Left Hand Doors (LH)
Left-hand inswing doors swing into a room space with the door hinges on the left.
Left-hand outside swing doors swing outward (towards you) with the door hinges on the left. These are also referred to as left-hand reverse.
The ‘Reverse’ aspect refers to the latch portion of the hardware, ensuring the latch hits the strike plate correctly to allow the door to close.
Right Hand Doors (RH)
Right-hand inswing doors swing info the space with the hinges on the right.
Right-hand outswing doors, or right-hand-reverse (RHR) doors, swing towards you with the hinges on the right.