For another example, pretend you’re walking into an attached bathroom from a bedroom. The side of the door facing you in the bedroom is the outside.
Exterior doors on homes are almost always inswing doors.
The handedness (also called handing) of a door is not related to your own left or right hands or which side of the door the knob is located.
If you used your left hand and didn’t have to move to open the door, you have a left-handed inswing door. If you used your left hand and you had to step out of the way to open the door you have a left-handed outswing door. If you used your right hand and didn’t have to move to open the door, you have a right-handed inswing door. If you used your right hand and you had to step out of the way to open the door, you have a right-handed outswing door.
If the door is left-handed and opens outward, call it a left-handed outswing door or a left-handed reverse door. If the door is right-handed and opens outward, call it a right-handed outswing door or a right-handed reverse door.
The handedness of a lever is the direction that the end of the lever points (almost always toward the hinges). Installing a lever that’s wrong-handed means you might have to pull the lever up to open the door, or the lever may stick out the wrong way over the door frame. Circular door knobs are reversible and you can turn most of them either way to open a door.
