Choosing the Right Doors – Sliding Closet Doors Can Make the Room

Closet organizers and design systems are a multi-million dollar industry. Many homeowners often spend hour after hour searching through websites, catalogs, and magazines to find what they feel is the perfect closet design for their home. Yet, sliding closet doors are usually overlooked. Most people simply ignore their closet doors when designing their closet improvement project. This is a common mistake you want to avoid. It doesn't make a lot of sense to spend time and money to perfect your closet just to have it marred by unsightly and impractical doors.



When you are considering the idea of updating the doors of your closet, there are some things you want to ask yourself first. For example, do you already have the right door for your closet? You might find as you are considering this, that a different door may work better, but don't just assume that's true. Another thing is what color would you like your door to be, and do you have a preference whether it's made with wood, vinyl or a different material? Lastly, what about decorative options, there may be any number to choose from depending on the type of door you have selected.



Getting your closet renovation project underway starts with taking the time to decide what kind of doors you will want to use on your new closets. There are four closet door styles used most commonly. The styles are: swinging, bifold, sliding and accordion. Each door style has its strengths and weaknesses that should be considered when selecting the door that will best suit your needs. A swinging door is a basic panel door that opens by swinging on hinges outward into the room. It provides easy access to everything in your closet, but it takes up a lot of space in the room in order to be opened. This greedy use of space has made these doors fairly unpopular except when used in very large rooms. Bifold closet doors are made of two narrow doors attached by hinges. Bifold doors open by folding against each other. These doors actually save a lot of space in rooms where they are used. The downfall for these doors is that they are often made with poor materials and can warp easily.



Accordion doors were quite popular for a time. However, they have since fallen from grace. These doors open by folding like a fan or accordion, hence the name. Accordion doors were a very good idea in concept. But the only way for builders to create and maintain the needed flexibility for the design to work properly is to use materials that tend to lack and real strength or durability. Because of this design flaw accordion doors are often not attractive and tend to break easily.



The most popular door for use with closet design systems is the sliding closet doors. They also tend to cost the most money, but most homeowners feel they are worth the extra cost. If you are going to spend money on custom closets, it does make sense to also go ahead and get the best doors for your closet too. Sliding doors move on a track that slides into the wall to open. They allow you to have easy access to the entire closet without taking up much space unlike the swinging door we discussed earlier. A lot of homeowners find the easy access to everything in the closet, plus the attractive appearance to be primary factors in choosing a closet door, making the sliding door a very popular choice in custom closet design.



Choosing the right style closet door for your budget, access needs and style preference is only the first step. Regardless of what type of door it is, bifold, sliding, or another style, you will also need to choose the color of the door and determine any preferences you might have for the material it's made from. If you wish to have doors that match or complement the colors of your room, you have two options to achieve this. The more flexible option is to go with wood because it can be painted if you decide to change the color later. Your second option is vinyl. Vinyl usually comes in a wide selection of colors. However, once you choose a color you're stuck with it until you're ready to get a new door. If you go with a paneled door, you may also have the option of using fabric, stencils or even mirrors to help your room look larger.



Whatever selection you make regarding your closet doors, it should be part of the planning process for your closet system design, not an afterthought, or forgotten about altogether. Sliding doors are generally very high quality and can give your room an entirely different look and feel. You will be spending both your time and money to redesign the inside of your closet, so you'll want to make sure you have the right doors in place to provide you easy access to it. It will make a huge difference between having a ho hum lack luster closet and a closet that makes you look forward to using it every morning.