STRUGGLING WITH THE flow of your furniture? Looking for ways to eke every inch of space out of your rooms perhaps for a desk, additional storage or a quiet corner? Want to make more of your open-plan space? Have a hallway that looks like a hotel corridor? Could be the positioning of an innocuous doorway is the cause.
Consider that a normal door opens to a radius of 2.5 – 3ft and takes up about 10sq ft of room space – room for that desk, bookcase or comfy chair. Press door-planning default and a traditional architraved space is what pops up but sometimes the more obscure alternatives such as the pocket or jib door would better serve your needs.
Pocket doors are inset into a hollow compartment, ideally within a wall, although they can be mounted in a “pocket” attached to the surrounding wall area and covered with ply. They are mounted on tracks and roll in and out of their housing. Their primary function is space-saving. Perfect for a box bedroom, small bathroom, laundry room or closet, they invariably make a room look bigger and you can use them to create a discreet division across an open-plan space.
Jib doors are set flush into a wall with special hinges and usually disguised to blend in with the surroundings with wallpaper, paneling and in some cases even behind a bookcase or shelving. Remove the doorway and once again the room looks larger. This method works well with modern interiors or Scandi-style and is the solution for a hallway that serves multiple rooms.
Both door types should be installed from planning stage. If you’re not planning renovation or new stud walls and changing doors is an afterthought, it is not difficult to have architraves removed and walls redecorated to accommodate a jib door. A pocket door takes a bit more planning for a retrofit. Checkout the situation of existing wiring, pipework, switches, sockets and radiators. Check whether your proposed wall is load bearing as this will need propping during installation. If your walls are solid you will have to consider an exterior fixing.
