Main door Vastu: direction and position
In Vastu the entrance is treated as the mouth of the house — the point through which everything enters. Which wall it is in matters, but where along that wall it sits matters just as much, and that is the part most plans get wrong.
Best entrance direction, by facing
| Plot facing | Put the door in | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| North | North wall, towards its north-east end | The far north-west end |
| East | East wall, towards its north-east end | The far south-east end |
| West | West wall, towards its north-west end | The far south-west end |
| South | South wall, towards its south-east end | The far south-west end |
The rule behind the table
Classical Vastu divides the boundary into 32 entrance positions, or padas, eight per side, each with a presiding deity and a favourable or unfavourable reading. The pattern that falls out of it is simple: on every wall, bias the door towards the north-east side of that wall, and stay out of the corner nearest the south-west.
That is why "south facing is unlucky" is a misreading. A south door in the south-east portion is fine. A south door hard against the south-west corner is the one the texts warn about.
Practical rules for the door itself
- The main door should be the largest door in the house, and should open inwards, clockwise.
- It should not face another door directly across a road, or a staircase coming straight down at it.
- Avoid a toilet directly above the entrance, and avoid the door opening under a beam.
- No dead tree, pole, or transformer directly in front of the entrance.
- Keep the entrance area lit, clean and uncluttered — the most repeated instruction in every Vastu text on entrances, and the easiest to follow.
- Threshold: a raised sill is traditional; it also keeps water and dust out, which is why it survived.
Check your own plan against this
Open the plan editor, set your plot size and the facing, and the Vastu checker marks each zone on the sheet — green where the room matches the convention, amber where it is borderline, red where it is wrong — with the reason written out next to it. Move the wall, and the check updates as you drag.
A note on how to use this
Vastu Shastra is a traditional Indian system of directional planning, not a building code. Plenty of its rules line up neatly with good tropical design — a south-east kitchen gets morning sun and keeps afternoon heat away from the living room, a north-east opening brings in soft light, heavy mass on the south-west shades the house through the hottest hours. Others are purely traditional.
Treat the checker in the editor the same way a structural engineer treats a rule of thumb: it tells you what the convention says, quickly, so you can decide what to follow and what to trade away. It will never stop you drawing the plan you want.
Frequently asked questions
Which direction should the main door face?
North, north-east and east are considered the most auspicious. West and south work too, provided the door sits in the favourable part of that wall — the north-west portion of a west wall, the south-east portion of a south wall.
Should the main door open inwards or outwards?
Inwards, and opening clockwise, so the door swings to welcome you into the house.
Is it bad if two doors face each other?
Two main doors directly facing each other across a passage or road is considered inauspicious. A slight offset is enough to resolve it.