Hi Athens! I sure hope it's going to look okay, because I'm doing pretty much the same thing. All of our exterior doors are full divided lights, including five sets of french doors. I'm not a big lever fan either, but according to the Marvin literature, the french doors require levers for the multi-point locks. So we'll have levers on all exterior doors and hexagonal glass knobs on the interior doors. I'm trying tie the two together by matching the metals as closely as possible and using simple rectangular back plates for all the door hardware.

I reassure myself by looking at our 1920's house which has hammered bronze knobs on the exterior doors and glass knobs on most, but not all of the interior doors. Our 20s house also has bronze hardware on the stained wood doors which are in the entry, living room, den, and dining room. It has nickel hardware on all the painted doors which are in the bedrooms and the kitchen/breakfast nook. I think it looks great.

I don't know anyone who uses anything besides a multi-point locking system on french doors so you will definitely be using levers there. We have the same set-up as you may...levers on french doors and knobs elsewhere. Looks fine. The doors are obviously quite different from your interior doors, so no worries about a design clash.

Using glass knobs around to highlight certain areas is a great idea.

I have levers on exterior doors and knobs on interior doors- it looks fine.

Not a lever person either.

I've never heard of french doors needing a lever--can someone explain? I currently have a knob on our exterior french doors, just the main side, and nothing on the other one. I didn't want levers because they're too easy for my 2 year old to open.

We did much like you are considering. Standard Georgian round on the upper level of the house, levers on all the exterior doors and on the main and lower level "standard" doors, then mixed in the gorgeous Emtek glass ones on the "special" doors. For us the glass ones went on the main floor powder room, front entry closet, and on the double french doors into the master bedroom. I like the variety.

Door hardware was a big topic of discussion at my architecture/design meeting today - but mainly we are trying to nail down the finish. My architect is feeling unlaquered brass, my designer is feeling antiqued nickel. We are ordering a sample of the actual lever we are considering in each finish to help make the decision.

We are doing levers, my husband and I really like them.

My architect said that our house is big enough that he would be fine with using a different finish in some areas of the house (like my husband's office area), or even one finish on the inside of the bathroom (to go with the faucet) vs the outside of the bathroom. But, we didn't talk about different styles because we all like the levers.

Hi Arkansasfarmchick. Many exterior french doors have multi-point locking systems which, in addition to the normal bolt at mid door, also have bolts that slide into the top and bottom jambs. This is supposed to help keep the doors tight to minimize air infiltration. To operate my doors, for example, you lift up on the door lever to engage the top and bottom locks and push down on the lever to operate the mid-point lock. (At least that's how I understand that they'll work -- my hardware isn't actually installed yet.) Do you know what kind of locks you have?

Sounds fine to me. In one home, I used the same Emtek sandcast knobs throughout, but switched to simpler less costly hinges in the basement.