Hardware Guide
French Door Hardware: What You Actually Need to Order
Every other guide explains what a dummy handle is. Almost none of them tell you how many to put in the cart. This one does — configuration by configuration.
How many handles do French doors need?
Most interior French door pairs need three pieces: one working set for the active panel, which covers both faces of that door, and two dummy handles for the inactive panel — one per visible face. Closet and pantry pairs approached from a single side need only two dummy handles in total.
Key Takeaways
- One panel works, one panel doesn't. Every French door pair has an active panel you walk through and an inactive panel held shut by bolts or a catch. Order hardware for each separately.
- "Double dummy" is not a product. It means two single dummies on the same door. OKUN sells them individually at $29.99, so you buy the count you need rather than a fixed set.
- Dummies don't need a bore hole. They surface-mount with concealed screws, which is why they work on glass-panelled and slab doors where a 2 1/8" bore would be a problem.
- Closet pairs are the cheapest case. No latch, one approach side, two dummy handles, roughly $60 for the pair.
- Mounting height is where pairs go wrong. The eye compares two panels directly, so a dummy set even slightly off from the active lever reads as a mistake.
Active panel, inactive panel
Nearly every question about French door hardware dissolves once you name the two panels correctly.
The active panel is the one you use. It swings daily, it carries the working mechanism, and it latches into the edge of its neighbour rather than into the frame. The inactive panel stays put. It's held closed by flush bolts at the top and bottom, by surface bolts on the face, or by a roller catch — and because it isn't operated, it doesn't need a mechanism at all. It needs something to hold onto and something that matches.
That second panel is where the dummy handle lives. Not as a compromise, and not to save money, but because a turning lever on a door that never opens is hardware pretending to do a job it doesn't have.
If the terms passage, privacy, and dummy aren't yet familiar, our complete guide to door knob and lever functions covers what each one does before you decide where it goes. The rest of this piece assumes you know the difference and just want the order sheet.
A pair of doors is one object. The hardware has to agree with itself.
What to order, by configuration
Six setups cover almost every interior French and double door in an American home. OKUN passage and privacy sets include hardware for both faces of a single door; dummy handles are sold per face.
| Your setup | Active panel | Inactive panel | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Room divider, no lock needed Living room to office, dining to kitchen |
1 passage set — $49.99 | 2 dummy handles — $59.98 | $109.97 |
| Room divider that must lock Home office, guest suite, primary bedroom |
1 privacy set — $59.99 | 2 dummy handles — $59.98 | $119.97 |
| Reach-in closet pair Approached from the room only |
1 dummy handle — $29.99 | 1 dummy handle — $29.99 | $59.98 |
| Pantry pair with catches Magnetic or roller catch holds both |
1 dummy handle — $29.99 | 1 dummy handle — $29.99 | $59.98 |
| Walk-in closet pair Deep enough to stand inside and shut |
1 passage set — $49.99 | 2 dummy handles — $59.98 | $109.97 |
| Bi-fold pair Folding panels, front face only |
1 dummy handle — $29.99 | 1 dummy handle — $29.99 | $59.98 |
Pricing reflects OKUN single-unit list prices across the door handle range. Collection choice doesn't change function or cost.
Single dummy or double dummy?
This is the question that stalls more carts than any other, and the answer is smaller than it looks. A single dummy is one handle on one face of a door. A double dummy is two handles on the same door, one per face. Same part, different quantity.
The confusion comes from brands that box them as separate SKUs, which makes them sound like distinct products with distinct mechanisms. They aren't. Ask one question instead: can someone reach this door from both sides?
- Both sides reachable — a room-divider pair, a walk-in closet you can stand inside — take two per panel.
- One side only — a reach-in closet, a shallow pantry, a bi-fold — take one per panel, on the room-facing face.
Because OKUN sells dummy levers individually, there's no set to break up and no spare piece in a drawer. You buy the count the doors need.
What holds the inactive panel shut
A dummy handle is a pull, not a fastener. Something else has to keep that second panel closed, and which mechanism you have determines nothing about the handle but everything about whether the pair feels solid.
- Flush bolts sit in the panel's edge and shoot into the header and floor. Invisible when closed, and the most common factory setup on pre-hung French doors.
- Surface bolts mount on the face. Easier to retrofit since nothing is cut into the door edge, and visible by design — worth matching to your handle finish.
- Roller or ball catches live in the top edge and hold by friction. Common on closet and pantry pairs, and the reason those setups can run dummies on both panels.
- Magnetic catches do the same job with a cleaner release and no click.
If the inactive panel currently rattles, the bolts or catch are the culprit — not the hardware you're about to buy. Sort that first, or the new levers will get blamed for an old problem.
The three mistakes worth avoiding
Mounting height drift
Measure the centre of the existing lever from the finished floor and match it exactly. US interior hardware sits near 36 inches, but the number matters less than the agreement between panels. On a single door nobody notices a half inch. On a pair, both handles sit in one field of view and the eye compares them instantly.
Lever orientation
OKUN passage and privacy sets are reversible, so handing is decided during installation rather than at checkout. Dummies have nothing to reverse — orientation is simply how you mount them. Point each lever so it sweeps toward its own door's opening edge, and the pair will read as mirrored rather than accidental.
Finish drift across the room
French doors are usually the most visible hardware in a room, which makes them a poor place to start a second finish. Whatever you choose here sets the tone for every door around it — a point our piece on 2026 minimalist hardware trends makes at length. All four OKUN finishes run across every collection, so the active set and the dummies come from the same finish batch.
Why the inactive panel deserves real hardware
There's a temptation to economise on the door that doesn't open. It's the wrong instinct, for a reason that has nothing to do with looks.
People grab whichever handle is closest. That means the dummy gets used — constantly — to pull the pair shut against its bolts. A lightweight lever on an exposed backplate loosens under that load and starts to wobble within a season. OKUN dummy levers use the same solid construction and the same concealed-mount rosette as the working sets, with no screws on the finished face. The distinction between architectural and builder-grade hardware, which our piece on proportion, profile, and restraint unpacks, applies just as much to the panel that never opens.
French doors themselves have carried this logic for three centuries — the form emerged in Renaissance France as a way to bring daylight deep into a room, and the broader history of door construction shows how consistently the paired-panel design has survived changes in glazing, framing, and fashion. The hardware is the one part that gets replaced. It's worth getting right.
Frequently Asked Questions
Most interior pairs need three pieces: one working set for the active panel, which covers both faces of that door, and two dummy handles for the inactive panel, one on each visible face. Closet and pantry pairs approached from one side need just two dummy handles total.
A single dummy is one non-turning handle on one face of a door. A double dummy is two of them, one on each face of the same door. The hardware is identical — the terms describe quantity, not two different products. OKUN sells dummy handles individually, so a double dummy is simply two.
The dummy goes on the inactive panel — the one held shut by flush bolts, surface bolts, or a roller catch. The active panel takes the working passage or privacy set. If both panels open equally often, either can be designated active; choose the one that suits your traffic flow.
No. Dummy handles surface-mount and need only small pilot holes for the screws, because there's no latch to pass through the door. This is why they suit glass-panelled French doors and slab closet doors where a full 2 1/8" bore would be impractical.
Working levers do, but OKUN passage and privacy sets are reversible for left- and right-hand installation, so handing is set during install rather than at purchase. Dummy handles have no mechanism to reverse — orientation is simply how you mount them.
Yes, if the pair is held shut by magnetic catches, roller catches, or bolts rather than a latch. This is common on pantry and closet pairs. You give up the ability to latch the doors closed, so it only works where catch hardware does that job instead.
Match the existing working handle exactly. Standard US interior hardware centres around 36" from the finished floor. On a pair, a dummy even a quarter inch off from the active lever reads as an error from across the room, because the eye compares the two directly.
Using OKUN pricing, a closet or pantry pair needing two dummy handles runs about $60. A room-divider pair with a passage set on the active panel and two dummies on the inactive panel comes to roughly $110, and a lockable pair using a privacy set instead is about $120 for the complete pair.
Keep Reading
- Passage, Privacy & Dummy: The Complete Guide — what each function does, room by room
- What Are Passage Door Knobs? — backsets, fit, and why most "doesn't fit" problems aren't
- Architectural vs. Builder-Grade — where the line actually sits
- OKUN vs. Baldwin, Schlage & Emtek — construction and materials compared
Designer hardware, honest prices.
Finish the pair properly — dummy levers for the inactive panel, working sets for the one you use.
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