I get so many questions about setting up “Dutch Door” spreads, so many of you are tentative to cut into your journal pages, and I understand that – but honestly they are one of my favourite types of weekly spread!
What is a Dutch Door?
A Dutch Door (in the non-journal sense) is a door cut in half allowing half of the door to be opened, while the other half remains closed.
In a Bullet Journal context, Dutch Door describes a spread created where pages have been cut to allow sections of the page behind to be seen.
The benefit of doing this in a weekly spread is that it creates more room for daily entries, whilst still giving you an overview of the key weekly data.
The Vertical Dutch Door
To create a vertical Dutch Door you remove the strip down the far edge of your centre pages, creating a vertical door.
The spread has a weekly overview on the left hand side that can be seen regardless of how the centre page is turned. The spread was created using three key Oops a Daisy stencils: The MVP Stencil, Social Media Stencil and Fitness Stencil (for the water icons).
In the centre I have a half page for each day of the week. Each day has an area for the daily step count, a meal plan, water tracker and gratitude, plus a blank area for notes and to-do lists.
On the right hand side of the spread I placed my social media icons. I use these to track followers of @oopsadaisyuk on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest.
Here’s a video showing how I created another vertical Dutch Door spread with a fun cat theme!
Horizontal Dutch Door
The Horizontal Dutch Door involves cutting a strip across the top or bottom of the page.
Rather than removing this strip completely, I stick the “flap” down to the page behind it, this way you do not risk weakening the spine of your journal. You can see how I do this in this video…
Once you get the hang of the basics, there are so many ways you can tweak a Dutch Door to make fun and interesting spreads…
I’d love to see your interpretation of the Dutch Door spread. Tag me in your photos on Instagram @oopsadaisyuk with the hashtag #goingdutch.
