Wow - thanks for all the feedback! Still digesting it all but here's some random late-night thoughts. I do see his point about the doors. On our main floor (which is obviously heated and air conditioned) we have a few doors made from tongue and groove pine in the barn door style and they have warped and flexed -- in the summer, they swell and stick, in the winter, they warp. I consider it part of the charm of the house but I could definitely see how that much movement might cause problems on a sliding track. hoosiergirl - those look like the doors I found that are a thousand bucks a door! They are cool though! natal - those drapes look cool, but those openings are small. I can't picture 18 feet of drapes....that seems overwhelming to me. All the suggestions for built-ins and such would be wonderful, but we're pretty far along so I think it would be costly to change now. Besides, the things that are getting stored here aren't pretty (rubbermaid tubs full of thomas tracks and other random toys) so I definitely like the idea of closed doors. My kids are 6 and 9 so I'm thinking they shoudl be able to manage the doors without hurting themselves. And once we outgrow the need for this much toy storage, I plan to fill the closet up with christmas decorations and sporting equipment and other bulky ugly stuff anyhow. So anyhow, right now, my current thinking is to use 5 completely flat doors and one paneled one (I didn't want to confuse you in the original post, but one of the doors needs to have a grille in it because the dehumidifier will live in this closet as well. So I was thinking of cutting the middle panel out of the single flat panel door (thanks for the correct term bronwynsmom!) and replacing it with metal grille to allow for air circulation to the dehumidifier section of the closet. I was even thinking I could bolt two doors together into a 6 foot door (maybe even use wood putty to hide the "seam" down the middle - think that would work?). Then I'd have 3 6ft doors that I'd just paint with chalkboard paint for now. The plain flat door blanks are dirt cheap so I could try this approach for now and, if I wasn't happy with it, I guess I could try building my own barn doors later. There are two things that concern me about this plan though -- one is that the end door would actualy have one flat door and one paneled door bolted together (to allow for the air grille) - that might look dumb. Plus with the 6 foot doors, there will be alot of the area covered at any point in time -- one of the tracks is always going to have 12ft of door on it. Versus if I just hung the 3 ft doors alternating -- then I'd have each track with 9 ft, exposing an additional 3 ft with the doors all the way open. I suppose I could get around this by having 3 separate tracks instead of 2, but I'm not sure the door opening has the extra depth for that and we're hemmed in by ductwork so I don't know if we could make the space if we wanted to. I'm terrible with visualizing stuff like this in my head, so I think I need to draw it out on paper. Bronwynsmom -- the idea you describe about jointing two paneled door blanks together - can you explain it again? I've read your paragraph over and over and it sounds intriguing, but I'm not quite getting exactly what you're describing. Anyhow, thanks again for the feedback. I've got a few days to figure it out, so keep any ideas coming!

weedy- Thanks, the door moldings have been a worry to me. I have been thinking that the door would not clear if they were left on. I like the look of more modern/no casing, but that will be another day/another house... I am relieved to know the sliding door will pass over the moldings. Thank you OH- your home looks very nice- light, clean colors!

The barn doors completely cover the opening. Ideally you would have a two inch overlap on either side but I have some that have one inch on either side and they still look amazing. The photo that you have pictured just shows them opened. If you have room on either side of the door for them to slide open then you could have the doors on one rail; which is a lot cheaper. Otherwise you will need a bypass door which is more $$. I got my rails and doors for two closet at rusticahardware.com but I just installed another one today (partially done in my basement where my furnace is as there was no other option) These were significantly cheaper and I bought them at homedepot. Something new that they carry. I'll be making the doors tomorrow. Hope you decide to do it. I love the look!

Hi, I'm not sure if you will find something that will work, but here is a good site for Barn door hardware and other components that might work for your needs. Richelieu Specifically, bypass for heavy doors