Burning Question: Closet Quandary
When it comes to your bedroom closets, what closures tickle your fancy? Do you like sliding doors, swing out doors, french doors, pocket doors, track doors, or bi-fold doors? Perhaps you’re a no-doors-at-all kinda person and some billowy curtains or even an open nook work better for you?
We’re excited to hear where you stand on the issue. In fact, we whipped up this handy little poll to keep everything tabulated:
[poll id="22"]
We’d love to hear more about why you voted the way you did, so feel free to comment away with more details.
Image courtesy of Ermoumag.
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Funny that you just posted this! I was just coming on to search about closets. Actually though, my question is about under stairs closets. How the heck are you supposed to organize these things? I did a quick search through the archives to see if it’s already been addressed on here, but I couldn’t find anything.
Anything you’ve come across lately about organizing this kind of closet? I need a storage/organization solution bad!
Hey Megan,
We actually haven’t come across any solutions for your dilemma, but maybe reading through these comments after a few more come rolling in with help? Good luck!
xo,
s
We had an ugly folding plastic door on our closet when we moved in! Our house was built in the late 50′s. Because I didn’t have the time or money to install new doors, I hung a lovely curtain. That was 2 1/2 years ago and I still haven’t installed doors but I’m actually growing to love the curtain look!
Love your blog! :)
I think your survey is going to be swayed by the gorgeous curtain you have in the picture above it! :)
Do you know anything about the curtains in that picture?! I am swooning.
Sadly we don’t. But we included a source at the bottom of the post. Maybe there’s info over there?
xo,
s
I’d LOVE to get a pocket or an industrial looking track door for our closet. We took our door off the hinges a few months ago…
http://bontempsbeignet.blogspot.com/2010/06/keeping-my-ocd-in-closet.html
I ripped out a built in recessed window seat in our room because it was just hogging floor space and catching clutter, built a closet, and then hung drapes in the recessed area. I liked that they added softness and disguised the fact that it was a closet now, plus there’s still a window in there, and I sometimes like to let in that light. A door would have seemed awkward.
Besides pocket doors (which I just love because you’re never caught bumping into them when open), I also adore the curtain route. It would instantly add color, volume, and/or texture. Our house’s styling wouldn’t accommodate it now, but hopefully in the future we’ll have a place where it makes sense!
Thank You!! Thank You!! We recently bought a home with our kid’s rooms missing their closets doors & unfortunately trying to find 96″ high closet doors at a reasonable price has not been the easiest. Let alone without a truck can you imagine the difficulty in finding some and bringing them home??!?! I love to see the results of this poll and any diy ideas that everyone has done.
Totally depends in the type of closet! Currently, though, my husband and I both have swing-out six-panel doors on our walk-ins. Wouldn’t be adverse to pocket doors in the future, because I luuuuurve them. :-)
I have a full room that I turned into a dressing room, so all my clothes, shoes “hang out” I have open shelving and racks along the walls.
We currently have french doors on our closets and I love them!
I never thought of the curtains! That is a great idea and takes up no space!
Right now we have louvred bifold doors on most of our closets, by hopefully we will have something a little nicer soon, even if it’s just a different type of bifold door.
One whole wall of our bedroom is closets and they originally had dark wood bi-fold doors on all of them. Wall-to-ceiling doors was just too much, so we used your pvc pipe curtain rod idea and hung curtains all the way across!
Oooh I would LOVE French doors on my closet to display all of my TREASURES!! What a fabulous idea.. ;)
I never thought about what kind of closet door I like, but I can tell you which ones hate. I recently moved from a place with sliding doors and I can’t stand only seeing half of my closet at a time! I need to bask in all of my options at once!
My husband and I installed side-by-side closets with sliding doors. Although we appreciate the space-saving qualities of the doors, we wish we could see all of our clothing at once. In our ideal world, we each have a walk-in closet with a swing-out door. :)
We don’t have much room for anything but bi-fold doors, but I know ours should be updated as they really date the room (1952). In my ideal life, I’d have a rustic steel track door (or maybe chalkboard even) but I’d have to move into an industrial loft for that to really work. Any updated, modern bi-fold suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
(I’d shy away from curtains because we have two cats and a dog. Curtains are hair magnets.)
I like the space saving aspect of pocket doors, but I also like French doors. The closet in one of the last hotels I stayed at had French doors and when you opened them the light inside came on. I really loved that feature and I’m sure it’s simple enough to do.
We have curtains on all of our closets…but that choice was to save some cash. Honestly I think that it looks nicer, but when we go to sell the house I think we will have to buy doors. Ugh.
How uncanny – I was just having this conversation with my boyfriend last night :) My very small bedroom has two heavy, full-swing doors to the closet – and it’s not even a walk-in closet. It’s ridiculous and cheap and annoying.
I took the doors off last night, finally! Although I would love to install a sliding bi-fold system, I’m just going to put up some pretty billowy sheer curtains and be done with it. I won’t be in this place for long so it’s not really worth the time or money.
Goodness. I love the picture for this post. I has given me a whole new idea for the ugly closets in our home. Gotta love you guys for always presenting new ideas to pretty up a home!
I picked bi-fold doors. Boring, I know, except they give me an excuse to buy lots of super-cute knobs at Anthropologie!
am struggling with the poll as i don’t understand all the different options and am in a bit of a hurry so no time to fall into the personal timetrap that is google imaging. i like whatever door allows me survey the entire contents of my wardrobe at once. and then it depends on the space i’m living in what’s practical. and i like lighting in my closets.
and as a first time commenter, just wanted to say congrats on the lovely home, family, blog and business!
Curtains are Quiet! They look pretty and they don’t make a sound. We had bi-fold doors on when we moved in but they squeeked really loud and my husband woke me up early every morning getting ready for work when he’d open the closet. The curtains solved that problem.
I would love to have swing out doors or something that allows full access, but do to a lack of space, we’re stuck with sliding doors. I do, however, like our mirrored doors-they are so convenient for getting ready: http://ourhumbleabowed.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/let-there-be-light/
We removed the closet door in our teeny tiny bedroom and replaced it with a white textured curtain on a brushed silver rod. I absolutely love it and it eliminates the awkwardness of opening a door into a room already stuffed with a bed and furniture.
Sadly, when our Realtor toured our home (we’re just putting it to market) one of the only aesthetic remarks he had was about putting the door back on. Hoping it’s not too much of a pain, as everything is already caulked, sanded, and painted.
To Megan (at the top),
If you’re looking to organize your closet, you could start by building shelving at the very back (it can be as deep as you need-maybe you have large items to store) and put your stuff on the shelves. Then add hooks to each side of the taller areas to store items or hang items from the ceiling. I have a post about closets that might give you some ideas. Go here to check it out: http://ourhumbleabowed.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/closet-case/
I’d be happy to help you more if you stop by.
I like the look of curtains, especially for kid’s closets (no pinched fingers, no excuse to not put things away), but when we sold our house, our realtor suggested that we reinstall the original sliding doors, because some buyers are turned off by doorless closets. Luckily, we had tucked ours away in the garage, and the bonus was that we got to take our curtains to the new house!
I love the look of dark Ikea closets with the aluminum sliding glass doors…alas, no Ikea nearby :(
Ideally I would Love Pocket doors, our current rental has sliding doors, which my hubby and I constantly are pushing back and forth to get to Our clothes, Plus the hanging rack is in the middle so it is impossible to actually See what you have in there… Swinging doors would work too but only if your room was big enough. Pockets would solve the whole problem for us!
I don’t usually care for curtains, but the ones in this phtograph are stunning. May make me change my mind!
I picked french doors but the image in my mind is the closet Big builds for Carrie in the first SATC movie.
In my life the closet door will likely always be a regular ol’ swing door or bi-fold.
Through a blog and website scavenger hunt I found info on the curtain! It is an inexpensive bedspread turned curtain! Here is the link.
http://www.houseandhome.com/design/photo-gallery-closets-dressing-rooms?photo=9
Amazing find! Thanks for the hunt and for sharing the link!
xo,
s
I have those double sliding doors where only one side is open at a time, and they are so stupid! The only time I need the closet doors closed is when we have visitors (which is rarely) and the rest of the time they just hinder access. Also, doors encourage messes. I took the doors off my cabinets in the kitchen and love that it makes everything easy to get out and put away.
I’m currently having closet dilemmas while piecing together ideas for our master bedroom renovation. We have two huge floor to ceiling closets that sit on the left and um (front?)wall of the room with bi-fold doors. One of them that can’t open unless our bedroom door is closed. And they’re just plain ugly(weird green/greyish color). To add to that, we’ve got a full wall of windows on the right side of the room and a small window on the back wall right above our bed. Super weird layout, but this is a traditional Japanese home and we’re renting.
I’d love to do curtains, but that seems like an awful lot of curtains in one room. There’s barely any wall space in there (which is good because the wall paper is a whole different can of worms). Ideas?
Anyone have ideas for Tara?
xo,
s
I currently have 6 panel bi-fold doors and 1 sliding door in a mud room closet that had to double as a pantry. I like the sliding door on the pantry as I usually only need to see one side (closet) or the other (pantry) at one time. I like the bi-fold doors as well for closet but had a house in which the doors were louvered. Hated that–really difficult to dust. If I had small children, I would worry about pinched fingers with the bi-folds though.
My daughter is moving into her first college dorm room this weekend and I’m keeping the curtain idea in mind!
I guess that each option has it’s virtues, but for our master bedroom I’ve seriously (in my head at least) been contemplating the barn door approach the only draw back being losing the wall space. Tough choice especially since the next closest option is a pocket door which can be an expensive route. Hmmmm…still need to give it more thought. Oh wouldn’t it be super cool if a barn door were desgined with some built in storage to it? I’m thinking something like a shoe or accessory storage system so you don’t have another of those not so pretty over the bag system. Maybe they exist, but for now I’m feeling original. Hmmm…I bet Anna at Knock Off Wood could make it work.
…oops I meant to write over the door bag/pocket system…sorry.
Curtains make the space so lovely, especially when you can pull in a funky fabric! I have curtains over my closet doors but they are held by tension curtain rods over the door jams… I LOVE the way that these curtains are hung on rods all the way by ceiling- gives it some extra drama!
I selected curtains, it’s what we’ve done in our home here for several reasons. They are easy to switch out with the decor or find fabric to blend in with wall colors, if you don’t want them to standout. They provide easy full access & yet completely conceal & beautify the space when needed (like when company is coming). However I think different closet closures fit some closets better than others. If we had a coat closet I’d want swing out doors to add to the storage & organization capability and be sturdy enough for high use. Closets that double as crafting niches would also benefit from swing out doors. But I think curtains would work better for office styled closets. French doors would be beautiful in a room that already has French doors either leading to it or from it to the outside, ie: master bedrooms.
I think my ideal would be track doors, love ‘em. But that would also be in my dream home. (Much larger, plenty of wall space, etc.)
Good question and timely too! My husband finished our basement earlier this summer and I’m undecided as to curtains or bifold doors. ALSO in both my daughters rooms, like most have said previously, I’m getting frustrated not being able to see all their clothes at one time, but stil can’t make up my mind on curtains or bifold doors. There’s no space for the other options as their too close to the wall.
I think the decision (not an easy one) depends on the style you’re trying to achieve, space and money.
My apartment doesn’t have an actual closet, just some bars at the end of the hall and some sheer floor-to-ceiling curtains to separate. While I like the look for now, I think a solid door would look more polished and keep things really out of view.
Plus side of swing-out doors…you can use the inside of the door for more storage or hanging stuff!
We used to have bi-fold doors on the closets in our 1957 ranch, but those are gone now. One of the bedrooms (the nursery) still has the sliding mirror doors, which actually work well in that room (plus babies LOVE to look at themselves!). We recently installed Ikea’s sliding track panels for our master closet – they went up easily and look GREAT! And in my daughter’s room, I went with feminine flowered curtains on a basic white shower curtain rod. And ALL of our closets have versions of the Container Store’s elfa closet systems!
I picked pocket doors because those are my absolute favorites. But that being said, we have the swinging doors on ours.
I really dislike the sliding doors that come with most closets , you can only see half of the closet at once and the middle is total dead space. Plus my little guy constantly knocks them off the track, so annoying!
When we bought our house the closet doors had been removed, I was greatful for this since it saved me the trouble of doing it myself! I was able to repurpose the cute monkey shower curtain (fabric) my son used to have in his bathroom (he no longer has his own) and put it in his closet. It worked out great, it adds a lot of character to the room without me having to paint a mural and now he can open up the entire closet to accress his toys and clothes. Plus alot more fits on the shelves since I can put things right in the middle with no worries or mannuvering around the door.
I love the look! (although my mom hates it and makes it a point to remind me everytime she comes over, LOL)
Sadly, as much as I love curtains, my cats have a habit of ruining them with claw marks and sometimes even pulling them down! So my windows and closets will just have to be spruced up some other way until I can find a vet that can dissolve their claws rather than pulling them out, since it’s supposed to be much less painful.
in my ideal world, pocket doors. In my real world, bi-fold/accordian-esque doors. I love the ‘look’ and idea of curtains, but the reality I don’t like–which is that the doors are easier to clean than fabric and I’m afraid the fabric would collect too much dust and make my allergies crazy!
Well, I would pick a walk-in closet with a barn door if I could have all things. But at the very least, a nice pocket door that doesn’t take up floor space is my vote.
John and Sherry, you might not be able to answer this, but any idea what the gorgeous paint color is in this picture? (Or a close approximation?) Love it! (And the curtain covering the closet.)
Hey Cristina,
Benjamin Moore’s Light Pewter might be close. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
I have side by side closets each with two sliding doors. I also hate that I can’t see everything at once, not to mention the big dead zone in the middle. I feel like a bit of a dummy, but I just never thought of curtains. Love the softness they would bring into the room!
Laura refers to “your pvc pipe curtain rod idea” – searched but couldn’t find in your archive… can you help me find that?
thanks – love what you are doing!!!!
Hey Brenda,
That actually must have been another blog since we haven’t covered it, bit I bet if you google around you can find a nice tutorial. Happy hunting!
xo,
s
Ha – the house that we just bought has a whole variety of different, terrible closet solutions. From no doors, to sliding painted doors, to sliding mirrored doors, to sliding doors with a broken track. I really want to put curtains over the doorless closet in my daughter’s room, but my husband things curtains always look sloppy. If I were a stay-at-home mom maybe I’d take matters into my own hands, but sadly, that’s not the case. So now we live with the gaping open closet.