So I am moving into a new house in a couple weeks, and there is one thing I want to do right off the bat.

There is a small, half-bath off of one of the 2 "entertainment rooms". It is in the corner, so it is not really in the way of anything and doesn't bother me.

The problem is that the door swings in, into the small half-bathroom.

I'd like to change the door so that it swings out into the entertainment room.

I did a crappy drawing to show what it is now and how I want to change it.

What do you guys think?

Should I try to modify the door frame? I've seen videos where people re-cut the places for the hinges / strike plate, then fill where they were.

Or my other option is to install a new pre-hung door.

I have the same problem. I've only ever "fixed" one of them because the light-switch was BEHIND the door when it swung open and switching the door was easier that rewiring.

There are 3 or 4 ways of changing door swing that I know of.

#1 Take door & frame out and flip the other way. What is now the hinge side will be the latch side and the what is now the latch will be the hinge.
#2 Do as you said and re-cut hinge/latch recess into frame then fill in the old places. Note: you will also have to do this with the hinge recesses on the door and flip your latch plate around. This is what I did with my situation.
#3 Buy new door
#4 Switch door with another in your home that has the proper swing and the direction of swing is less important. I had considered this but I didn't have any good candidates for a swap like this.


#1 obviously doesn't fit with what you have and what you want so that is out unless you do #1 & #2.

If it's a split jamb the door stop could be glued to the jamb and in that case really not worth trying to save it.

The other possible concern is the door bevel on the current strike side.  If the door has a 5 degree bevel by the time you move it to the other side of the jamb and modify the bevel the void between the door and the jamb could be too large.

My wife bought a bigger toilet than what I had designed, so the door hit it when it was opened. We didn't want it to swing out into the hall, so we put it on a barn door track. We are happy with it.

On my 100 year old house, I removed the whole frame and turned it around.  Worked perfect.  I just had to repaint the door to match the rooms it now faced.

Did you move the light switch too?

Yeah, it was for bathroom remodel, so the whole room got rewired.  The way it was set up before; the door was hinged on the right (standing on the outside) and opened in, but would only open about 70 degrees before it hit the shitta bowl.  It sucked ass.  I popped the trim off and ran a sawzall down the nails that held the frame in and flipped it around, had in back in in about an hour of dicking around.

Make a pocket door

I'd suggest one of two options:

1. Take the door trim off, run a reciprocating saw between the jamb and frame to cut the nails, then flip the whole door and jamb around and reinstall.

2. Go to Home Depot and buy a solid core pre-hung door for $100 and install a new door.

I would really like to do this. However, the house is older with a newer addition. The bathroom is on the older section of the house, and the walls are plaster. To pull apart the walls and add a pocket door may be allot more work than normal due to the plaster.

The barn door is a really cool idea, and kinda fits with the style of the house. My only concern is that it doesnt look like there is a latch / door-handle. Can you add some kind of latch / lock to it?

At this point, I am seriously considering just buying a new door. My dad and I can easily knock it out in less than a day.

I added this door latch to ours. http://www.rockler.com/latch-and-strike-plate-for-rolling-barn-door