Pocket doors are basically a no-lose proposition, they take up no floor space and it's better to have and not need them than the other way around.

One of the things I unexpectedly love about our current house is that the kitchen can be shut off completely from the dining room (we have an original swinging door). It is so nice to leave the vent hood running over the range and the dirty dishes stacked in the sink, and close that door behind me to sit down and eat.

I vote yes on the pocket doors!

I'm with crl for the same reasons.

Why try to make your house into something it is not? A 5 foot opening between rooms is a good compromise. I would go with pocket doors if closing it off is important to you.

I have always thought of pocket doors as having both. Open layout when you want, closed when you don't. I am actually surprised that they haven't already become the new standard because they seem to be the obvious answer to the open layout controversy.

I'd have loved to be able to do them in my remodel. It was too complicated because of cables, electrical, A/C ducts, switch placement on that wall, etc.

Pocket doors between Kitchen & DR have my vote, if you have the option.

Thanks for the comments so far. Here is a photo to help you visualize.

Photo was taken from dining room looking into the kitchen.

Note: The door located at the rear on the right hand-side will be removed and the kitchen window will become 6' wide.

If we go with the pocket doors we'll shrink down from a 11' opening to a 5' wide opening.

The doorway framing shown on the right, will be the one leading into the pantry.

{{gwi:2136140}}

Let me try posting this photo again.

For some reason I can't see your photo.

I just removed the wall between my kitchen/dining area as well. My home is only semi-open concept. Closets, an entry (walled off from dining room) and a fireplace wall in living room keep the kitchen/dining separate from the living room. So open concept works for me.

However, if it was more open to the rest of the house, I would have done a narrower opening with pocket doors. If the kitchen is totally open to the rest of the house, I think it's nice to be able to close things off.

So, yeah, another vote for pocket doors. Or a peninsula workspace along the wall with a big pass-thru that can be closed off with pocket doors. Either way, best of both worlds.

If you want a larger opening, you could have a deeper pocket (2+ tracks) with multiple doors.

For example, see photos and diagrams near top of page in the attached link.

Here is a link that might be useful: multi pass pocket door configurations

This post was edited by Oaktown on Mon, Jan 12, 15 at 14:11

This photo was taken from the dining room looking at the front door, newly exposed stairs, and living room in the distance. The pantry and coat closet will abut the wall of the stairwell.

Oaktown - I like the idea of a deeper pocket to gain a wider entry. Would there still be two movable doors and two immovable glass panels? I suggested this to the contractors and they seemed opposed to it because of the increase in cost.....

Thanks everybody for your useful input!

AujS, yes, I expect multi-pass doors will cost you additional $. I edited my prior post to add a link with some illustrations.

Good luck!

Oaktown - I like the idea of a deeper pocket to gain a wider entry. Would there still be two movable doors and two immovable glass panels? I suggested this to the contractors and they seemed opposed to it because of the increase in cost.....

Thanks everybody for your useful input!

i love a separate dining room and desparately wanted to close off our dining room with pocket doors but it was not to be given our space constraints. so i say go for it!

An alternative that gets you the wide opening but doors that close might be the approach I took to optionally closing off a sitting room from a dining room that had a >10' opening.

I bifold hinged 2 pairs of regular wood doors. I did it with divided light french doors which give enough separation and "muffle" the view into the sitting room. 30" doors, heavy duty hinges, reinforced door frame, meticulous carpenter. The 2 center doors can be open, each folded against it's pair that is hinged to the door frame, creating a 5' opening flanked by 30" french on each side. The doors hinged to the frame can then be opened creating a 10' opening. The open pairs are perpendicular to the wall. The door frame opening is over 10' to accommodate the door movement. I expected to have to adjust them to maintain alignment but it's been about 4 years and not been necessary. The doors are taller than standard - maybe 86".

Hi Judeny,

Do you have any photos of your doors and doorway available?

Thanks!

We lost our pocket door in our remodel. The door opening was only 28" and we opened it up 5 + feet. I miss it when the kids are in bed and we want to watch tv. The sound travels through our ranch house much easier now.

But, I love the bigger opening so much! Since you can have the best of both, I say go for it!

AujS I wish I had a picture to post but the doors are in my rental apartment which is occupied. It is kind of hard to picture. Try sketching it out.

The pairs of french doors are perfectly aligned with each other so that when one is folded against the other, the divided lights overlap exactly. Lowes carried the french doors in a standard size at a really reasonable price but I special ordered the same doors at Lowes to be exactly the width and height I wanted. The cost was not prohibitive. The heavy duty hinges, flush bolt and ball strike are Emtek that I ordered online from Simpsons Hardware.

Let me know if you have any questions about how they look or how it was done.

Here's another suggestion: What about a regular size doorway on each side so that the wall in the middle blocks the bulk of the view of kitchen? That way you have the doorways on either side for running back forth to kitchen as needed. It's worked well for us - no view of the kitchen when we have a big family dinner or company but it leaves both rooms still feeling "open".

Hard to tell if that would work with you layout without seeing the actual floor plan.

So, we're going with the pocket doors! First, the contractor suggested Jeld-Wen french doors with a lot of grids (mullions), but I wanted more glass and fewer grids (please see the attached picture). So, then he suggested Feather River doors, but after looking on-line it seems that people have complained a lot about this company. Can anyone suggest some quality,but not necessarily crazy-expensive interior door brands? Does anyone have experience with Lemieux or Simpson doors? Thanks!

This post was edited by AujS on Thu, Jan 22, 15 at 15:24

repeat posting

Here is a link that might be useful: Simpson door

This post was edited by AujS on Thu, Jan 22, 15 at 15:20

Oh, if I could do a wider opening and pocket doors between my kitchen and DR, I would. But I'm losing mine when we remodel. Like heidihausfrau, our pocket door between kitchen and DR is narrow; even narrower than hers, mine is only 27"! It's ridiculous.

We're widening the doorway to 31" or 32" (can't go wider than that). We had initially planned on installing another pocket door but since the wall that currently houses the pocket door can't accommodate a door any wider than we currently have (runs into exterior wall), we would have to switch the pocket door housing to the other side of the doorway, which meant changing the location of the light switches, tearing into the stairway support wall, changing the shelving in the pantry so that it wouldn't interfere with the pocket door ... in the end, we decided to nix adding a pocket door.

We're also widening the doorway between kitchen and hallway, from 29" (swing French door) to 47" (no door). We can't install double pocket doors, either one on each side or double-upped with bottom rail nor do we have room for swing doors (would block light switches, etc).

At first we weren't sure about going sans doors for both entries. We used the doors between kitchen and hallway and kitchen and DR when our kids were little but we hardly ever close them now. In fact, we took the hallway/kitchen doorway off its hinges months ago to see if we would miss it and we don't.

judeny: thanks for the great idea to do a hinged swing door! I had nixed going with a swing door because my DR is narrow enough as it is; I don't want a swing door eating up space (it would also have to swap sides so it would run along the wall between wall and table). But if I can do a hinged door like you did and keep it folded up against itself along the same wall the pocket door occupies now, I just might be able to install a door between kitchen and DR after all. (I wish you had pics to share with us.) Do you remember how far from the wall the door extends when it's folded against itself? TIA!

AujS, don't forget to plan for where your light switches will go on the pocket door wall. I'm sure you want them close to the opening so make sure your contractor knows so that he makes sure there's room for an electrical box to house the switches.

I know that Simpson makes good doors. The other's I can't speak to specifically, although I may actually have a Jen-Weld exterior in my house, but most of the complaints of Feather River are about their exterior doors, and that also accounts for most door manufacturers.

As with all things door, check any one you do buy for flatness and twist and store them properly before installing.

I may be misunderstanding your post, but JELD-WEN makes the door you wanted. Here is a link. Just check their website for interior doors.

I've had pocket doors in previous old homes. They were great. So great that I put a set in a new house I built a few years ago. I looked for a picture, but in my case I had my carpenter arch the doorway. It did cost extra money and it was a new build.

Here is a link that might be useful: Jeld-wen Interior Doors

HomeChef59 - I didn't even look at JELD-WEN to see whether this other style was an option. My contractor just immediately steered me toward the Feather River door once I said I wanted more glass. So, thank you, for sharing the link. Do you know how much this JELD-WEN door costs?