Sliding Closet Door Ideas

If you are contemplating custom closets, then sliding doors are an important point for you to consider. Sliding doors are different from the conventional system of hinged doors. The prime advantage of sliding closet doors is that they can save valuable floor space while opening or closing the doors. The inconvenience of shifting the furniture every time you open or close a closet no longer exists if the sliding closet doors are incorporated in your custom closet design.

The sliding doors can be made with a variety of common materials like wood, plywood or glass. In some designs you can also have 'mirror' panels which will enhance the virtual space in the room. The sliding doors come in three custom closet designs. The multi panel doors, the by-pass doors, and the bi-fold doors are the three types of sliding doors that are available. To know what style will best fit your storage requirements, a foreknowledge of the different features of the different varieties is necessary. Sliding closet doors can add style and space to any room, wherever there is a closet.

Multifold doors are made of more than two similar panels of the door material. The panels of such sliding closet doors are inter-hinged to one another on their longest edges and function like an accordion with louvers. When the last panel is pulled, all the other panels pass over one another and get stacked in a corner, providing the most open space when fully opened. Multifold panels are best used when you are looking for smaller or medium sized custom closet option. The usual size range of the panels are from 10 to 40 inches per panel. When closed they resemble a series of vertical blinds.

Bypass closet doors are made up of only two panels. The panels of such sliding closet doors are placed in a track one along the other, with their flat surfaces sliding over one another. The panels slide over adjacent metal tracks placed along the outer framework of the closet. These panels save the maximum floor utility space when compared to the other two panels. But, the panels of such custom closet design have a certain drawback in not being fully open even when open. Even when the doors are fully open the closet is only half open since both panels slide to a side. Bypass panels are a feasible storage option in wider closet system designs, like the clothes wardrobe.

Bifold panels are a combination of multifold panels and bypass panels. It is actually a multifold with two panels like a by-pass. This combination of the designs enables the bifold closet doors to gather the best features of the other two types of sliding closet doors. Although, a closet system design with bifold panels take up a little more opening space than the other two types, yet the space used is much less than that of the hinged doors.

Sliding closet doors come with an additional advantage. They are one of the easiest do-it-yourself home improvement idea. DIY kits with pre assembled panels and the accessories are readily available in any home improvement store. The DIY feature enables the sliding closet doors to be even more cost-effective because of the savings in the installation money.