Do you have pocket doors in your house?! Pocket doors are a fantastic way to create separation and privacy in small spaces like bathrooms. When I was growing up my grandparents had them and for some reason (probably because they were different than normal doors) I loved them. I loved their slide-y-ness. I loved their cute name (because isn’t pocket one of the cutest words in the english language?!) At the time I didn’t realize the space saving magic that was happening. But guys, my love for pocket doors runs deeper as an adult than it did as a child!
For those that are unfamiliar, a pocket door is a slab door that slides away into a recess in the wall as opposed to opening with hinges. When we were working on the floor plan for the Merc there were some serious quirks that we had to deal with. Putting a small half bath at the end of our wide hallway was one of them.
The hallway starts out super wide at 7′ (inspired by my friend Whitney’s historic wide hallways) and then where the bathroom is, it narrows to 3.5′. Half bathrooms are so small, you never want to add an inward swinging door. Picture walking in, shoving yourself against the sink and thinking alllll of the skinny thoughts you can muster, and narrowly closing the door. ALL WHILE NEEDING TO GO TO THE BATHROOM. Not a great scenario. Because of the width of our hallway, an outward swinging door would have been not great either. So a pocket door it was!!
The most important thing that you need to know is that the pocket door frame needs to be installed while they are framing the walls. Because we didn’t have our doors at that point we bought a standard size frame at Home Depot and then just ordered the door slab to be installed later. Don’t make the mistake that I made with our closet doors! In the picture below, see how the wall is framed like a giant doorway without studs reaching to the floor? That is step one of framing for a pocket door!
One quirky thing about pocket doors is that when you’re hanging something on the wall that the door lives inside it needs to be a surface job. Otherwise you might screw your door open. Or shut. Or put it in just deep enough that it will scratch the paint off when your door is sliding. Or like Court, you might be nailing on a piece of trim and have it go into the door. ??♀️ Not a huge deal but I had some big plans for towel racks on the pocket wall in our main bathroom that have to change now.
The other problem with pocket doors is that if there is an issue and the rolling mechanism breaks you have to take out the sheetrock to fix it. I had originally wanted to put a massive pocket door in our entryway (where we put the giant folding door) but after learning that little bit of info changed my plans.
I’m still on the hunt for locks and handles, so if you have any that you love I want to hear about them!!
You can get all of the info on our interior doors from Home Depot in this post!
I also love pocket doors and have been considering them for when we build a house someday. I never even thought about not being able to hang things on the wall or ripping apart the wall to fix them! I’m so glad I read this now I will double think where I put them. Your House is going to be so beautiful I am having so much fun following along.
So to replace a pocket door I would have to pull off the sheet rock on the wall? This is something I have always wondered and researched before but couldn’t find an answer to. Our home has several hollow core sliders and I’m a real door kinda girl. So am I stuck with them unless I want to do a major renovation? Yours are beautiful by the way!
It depends on the age of the pocket door and how it was installed. Generally trim around the door is what keeps the door within the track. The opening for the door is bigger than the door once the trim is removed. If it’s an old door from the 50’s they generally are only a single track and are well known to fall off of the track. If you want to prevent that from happening- Yes you would need to open the wall in order to replace the track. If you don’t want to replace the track and just update the door, then now- only removing the trim should give you enough room to pull the door out and replace it with a new style. Keep in mind that the old tracks don’t support a lot of weight, so you might want to consider hollow core.
The framing for a pocket door does not have to be limited to the frame provided by the manufacturer. You could always build a larger frame around it so that you may be able to accommodate, for example, a light switch, an outlet or even artwork that you want to place on the walls enclosing the door without doing the door any harm.
Yes, pocket doors have many functional issues.Sometimes they fall off their tracks, difficult to roll, problematic to lock and make noise if not regularly lubricated. I have faced most of these problems.
We have a pocket door for our 1/2 bath as well. How do you hang artwork?!? COMMAND STRIPS!!!! I also use them to hand artwork on tile in the bathroom and kitchen. The package lets you know how much weight the strips can hold. I have yet to find a piece of artwork on the floor. They are wonderful 🙂
Command Strips are seriously the greatest thing ever. I used them for everrrrryyyyything lol
We installed a pocket door in a bathroom and are so glad that we did; such a space saver. We have had towel bars on the wall for 15 years without a problem. I think they are screwed into the wood framing for the door. Only one problem has arisen over the years. The door dropped lower to the floor, but the fix was easy (thank you internet). We just had to remove the trim molding to access the inner hardware to raise the door. Good luck with yours. The Merc looks fantastic!
we went with Emteck: https://www.build.com/emtek-2114/s1203994?uid=2887156
Was easy to install, and works great. Love the locking one too.