I don't know what would be considered so much current, but do know that builders go for the bifolds because they are generally cheaper. Depending on the size of the closet. bifolds can interfere with access quite a bit because they don't reveal the entire opening of the closet (if that makes sense). The best example I can give is my daughter's pantry. It's only about 24 inches wide and the bi-fold door takes up 6 inches of that which really aggravates her. However in our spare rooms we recently hung new doors ourselves and I opted for the bifolds with a partial louver in them. They're fine in that situation because they aren't used much and the opening is ample enough for our needs.

My first reaction to your question was go for function over form. Find the style door (sliding, bifold or double entry) that suites your needs first and then look at their design after that.

Thanks lukkirish, I have the same feeling about my bifolds as your daughter does...there are 16 shelves to the right and they are partly inaccessable..my friend has sliding and she says there is a centre part that is inaccessable. so if builders go with bifold then sliding must be a 'upgrade'.

I have bi-folds and slide and prefer the bi-fold. Both have side access issues, but at least with the bi-fold you have wide access to the center. I don't have glass shower doors, either, because I don't like the idea of having only half-access.

As for what's current, I have no idea.

What I have seen in most recent construction is regular swing-out double entry doors on closets. It's a more sophisticated look. But it also requires the room to be big enough to allow for the swing of the doors.

Our house is a 1950s design and has louvered bifolds. I never have been a fan of bifolds, but they work well in this house.

Our builder put in closet doors with the ball catches. They have a knob on the outside and look like a standard door, but you pull and push to open and close them. I can't say I'm a fan. The catches always seem to be either too loose or too tight and they are difficult to adjust. DS has already broken one within six months of us moving in. I really would have prefered bifolds.

Totally Confused

I have removed all slides in my house...anything that may protrude 1/4 inch blocks the slide....and you have to leave room for the thickness or both doors....if they are tall ( I also had them on the kitchen cupboards) they can come off the track and mar the finish on the front of the other door.
If I had my druthers it always would be single hinged doors.
I sure have never heard anyone even hint that a house is out dated because of the type of door on the closets.

Have you considered using French doors? We put them on the pantry and a hall closet. They give complete access.

oh those are lovely...but the room is 11X11 therefore no room for full swing out style.

Yes, in our area some builders use the french doors as well but they are considered an upgrade from the standard bifold. Like others have also said, I think both the slider and the bifold have their pros and cons. I think if you consider how the door(s) will function in the space before it's actual design, you'll have the best result.

My new construction has french doors. If you are worried that the room is too small for full opening doors, I would go with mirrored sliders. It would make your space look larger and bi-folds are constantly coming out of the tracks. They are a PITA

I've been dealing with this subject since I started a redesign of my closets. I never gave a thought to which is more fashionable; it comes down to what works better in the room. I'm considering a bifold with full access hardware for one closet where the opening is only 24 inches and a tri-pass for another closet. The Johnson Hardware site is good for ideas.

Here is a link that might be useful: Johnson Hardware

We have used 4 panel doors on all our interior doors - both closet and room entry doors. Some of the closets have french doors and others because of space constraints are triple sliders. We used heavy duty Johnson Hardware on the sliders and have been quite happy with it. I can't say that I love the bottom track but the function and the amount of interior access the hardware has given us makes up for it. If you are interested, I can post some pics.

I agree that french doors or even standard swing doors are most "up to date" right now, but are only practical where there is sufficient swing room for the doors. I consider bypass/sliding doors to visually be more up to date, but I don't consider bifold doors to be out of date. Both bypass and bifold have their own unique access issues: bypass/sliding had center and large item accessibility issues and bifold has edge accessibility issues. I also find that the bifold doors (at least in my current home) have cheap hardware and are difficult to get closed properly.

Interesting differences among builders and regions. Here in the midwest, my son's builder said bi-folds were an upgrade to French doors because of the tracking involved for bifolds; French doors require only hinges. I wonder what the real difference is.

Also, I'm knocking on wood, Jeannie01. In the 16 years we've had both bi-folds and sliders, my bi-folds have not once come off their tracks. That would be a PITA! Sorry you have to put up with that. I love the bi-folds.

I have the two bulky partition sliders which I loathe since I can only see inside half the closet at one time. They also can be noisy depending on who is your household is using them; sometimes I can hear them being slammed to the side by the less careful members because they are quite heavy. I was actually considering taking them off and putting up a curtain rod and some extra curtains I already have as a low cost solution. This may not appeal to you however, if you are not into a casual look like that.

I had never heard of johnson hardway graywings, thanks for the link and mileaday I would love to see pics if you have time. The access problem is one of the things I didn't like about the bifold. I realize that both have access problems but the bifold ones have the problem at a point in my closet that interfers. These are mainly my closet so if I hear them slamming someone is in my hidden chocolate stash and they better run!! lol

Sherman, if I remember correctly, one difference is height. It's been a while but I believe originally we were going to use regular doors for the office closet and the height of the bi-folds were shorter, which meant we would have needed to adjust the door framing.

Here are pictures of some of my closet doors - others are similar but different sizes. The triple silder is in a guest room but I have the same set-up with larger doors in my laundry room. Behind those doors are the washer, dryer, water softener and water heater all on a ten ft. wall. I don't have any furniture close to the larger pair of french doors. The closet is extra deep and when I open both doors, it's almost like having a walk in closet.

Is there room (in either adjoining wall) for a pocket door?

Since you asked what's new, I'm going to suggest the doors with an overhead track on the outside of the wall. You can use two, one on each side, if wall space is short.

This style door goes best with either very Modern or very Rustic decor. If you are going Traditional the look may not gel.

Here is a link that might be useful: Overhead Track

I took out the sliders in my bedroom and going to do the same with the office/art room. There are standard doors now. Very easy to install, the work was removing the slider hardware. I was amazed at how much more room the closet has and you aren't looking at half a closet. My house is small and these worked great, plenty of room to open.

The barn door style that dilly is referring to is another good option if you have ample space on one side of the closet to house the door when it's open.

Natal & Mileaday, I am looking for the French doors that are two on a standard closet door frame since my two very small walk-in closets had a door that opened in and blocked the second side of the closet unless I went in and closed it. I really want two doors that open outward in the tiny hallway between the doors of each closet (one on each side of the slim hallway.

I can't find this but Natal has what I want and Mileaday, your last picture is what I had in mind also.

Can you both share where you bought these type of doors and the measurements of yours?

Thank you!

Lynn, our general contractor made them. When we did the addition he matched all existing doors.

The pantry doors are 15 3/4" each.

The closet doors are 17 3/4" each.

Mine are just standard Jeld-Wen doors from a local supplier. They are either 16" or 18" each in place of a standard hinged 32" or 36" door. Sorry, but I've misplaced my tape measure. But they were a standard size in the catalogue. I've been quite happy with them and they worked out well with the amount of space we had available. Good luck with your project.

Thank you Natal and Mileaday for letting me know where you got your French Doors. I just measured my doorway again and it is only 24" wide so it is smaller than an normal doorway and I would need two 12" wide doors. I wonder if my neighbor who is moving had a contractor make the doors for her?

Let me look up Jeld-Wen doors and if they don't have my size, I will search one more time, and maybe have to call a contractor up.

I finally found the post to reply to since I was doing a search for French Doors and not Bi-Fold doors which is the title of this post and this post was not showing up.

If you have trouble finding them you could use a 24" wide bifold door and remove the hardware holding the pair together and install hinges on the other side of each door.

Palimpsest, I just visited my neighbor that is finally home since they are selling their house and she let me in to look at her doors on her 24" wide closets and they sure look like the Jeld-Wen 24" X 80" 6 Panel Molded Bifold door so I think you are right. They came with her house that she bought 6 years ago but now want to live closer to NYC to have less of a commute. I will ask Home Depot what they would charge to install them with a magnet in the center of the top of the door, take the hinges off the middle of the door and add hinges to the other side of the door as well as handles. Thank you for caring and helping.

We prefer the bifolds a LOT.
We do not put the bifold on a track at the top, so we can swing it out of the way.
To keep it from going into the closet, or pantry, there is a stop only at the top, The bottom of the bifold swings freely, and I do not have to worry about hurting my feet on any track, or getting dirt out of the track either.

We are also going to use these bifolds on our master closet. With french door style, 10 lights per panel. We are putting clerestory windows inside our walk in closet, going into a room bumpout which will lead to removal of a pair of windows and the loss of that light source. So we will still have the light, still have the wide closet opening, and we will have privacy as well with no curtains.

The bifold french style is sold by Home Depot. Check the brand Pinecroft, which they generally do not stock but do order for you.

Plus, you can always mount the doors with separate hinges on either side of a doorway, making them look like a real pair of french doors. I've done that before. Looked nice.

We are renovating and putting in pocket doors and a slider. I do not like bi-folds as they are noisy and can go off track. We put them along a basement wall and they do not line up well and come off the tracks at whim. I am sure the person who installed them did a sub par job, but the bottom line is I have had enough of them. I also feel that bi-fold doors look a little flimsy by comparison.
If anyone is door shopping and lives near a Habitat for Humanity Restore, you can find new and vintage doors for great prices, well below the big box stores. I wish I had found that out sooner, but have a new laundry room 34" louver door, brand new in shrink wrap, which will be finished pocket door style by adding the hardware. It cost us $35 last week at our Restore. They also have bi-fold doors there, but each store has different items at different times.
If I did not do sliders or pocket doors, I'd consider split swinging saloon type doors (full height).

Moccasinlanding, I did check online the Pinecroft brand and I will visit Home Depot to discuss if they can install the doors in a French Door style like I want. Thank you!

I see they have the shutter kind, raised panels or mirrors. Which do you prefer and which do others on this list prefer?

I am trying to replace bifold doors on my master bedroom closet. They were removed by the previous owner, probably because they were falling off the track or sticking etc. etc. as they often do. But I can't find a bifold door to fit a 96" wide closet, 78 " high. Each door needs to be 24" wide. Will I have to settle for 3 piece sliding panels or does anyone have a better alternative. I have a custom fitted closet so would prefer to open the doors wide instead of always having 1/3 of the closet hidden from view with the sliding panel. I also like the look of bifold when closed.

I'm shopping for bifold doors as well. If you don't want to go custom, you may be able to buy 96x80 (4 panels) and then have an inch cut off each panel top and bottom. One thing I would highly recommend is not using the hardware that may come with the door and instead buy it from Johnson Hardware - it's higher quality. I'm probably going to go with the 1601 full access bifold door hardware. Home depot appears to sell a door that is 24x78: Home depot door

Mine are two sliders. I've hated them since we bought the house 14 years ago! I hate them because I can only access one side of my closet at a time and the other side is like a dark cave. I've always thought of just taking them out and putting a shower or curtain rod across the top and using two drapes so that I could have the doorway wide open when I'm trying to select my clothes. Would that be crazy!?

A very casual look, but definitely not crazy-- functionality for you is most important consideration in my opinion.

I replaced my bifold linen closet door in my bedroom with a curtain, partly because I have so much fabric that I got at work. The fabric I used is a silk damask, and I lined with with a grosgrain silk the same color, as that is what I happened to have. It's a bit stiff, but I still like it better than the door. The door tended to get stuck on the carpet.