Thanks, HB! The door I tested catches as it slides, much the way soft-close drawers do in the kitchen. It keeps it from slamming as it opens, or as it closes. It was just a nice feature to not have it slam if you didn't close it carefully. Wishing I knew about this when I did my mudroom to house door, as that gets way more abuse than the master bath door will.

We ordered the Johnson hardware with the soft close option. We are still in framing stage so not installed yet, but sitting our garage waiting for my husband to assemble it. I did a fair bit of research on the best hardware to use and Johnson kept coming up as a top and reliable option. It wasn't the cheapest option, but I'm willing to pay a bit more to get a pocket door that is actually pleasant to use. I hate pocket doors that don't slide smoothly.

Gthigpen, thank you for the input! Makes me feel good that you did a bunch of research and came to this conclusion. I'll look into that brand. When will you be installing your door?

kercove - It wont' be for a little while yet. We ordered the complete pocket door frame plus hardware, so we need to install the frame fairly soon since we're finishing up the interior framing in the next few days. But we don't have any of the interior doors yet to hang since we're still in roughing in stage. The pocket doors will be installed first because I want those in before sheet rock goes in. I figured it's easier to make adjustments when we can see what's happening inside the wall. I'll post back here after my DH assembles and installs the pocket door frame and tell you what we think so far.

Sounds great, thanks so much! Good luck with your project :)

Kercove,

You probably saw the Hawa system. Another one with the softclose is the Sugatsune. There is also the Ezy Jamb unit. These all have the open for soft close and soft open. I don't know if the Johnson Hardware has soft close capabilities. I have the Hawa sitting in my attic for a few pocket doors.

Just noticed that Johnson has softclose and open now.

Good luck!