Bifold Doors For The Bedroom

If you’re looking for an entranceway that’ll really make an impact in your bedroom, then a large, interior bi-fold door is sure to do the trick.  Such a door will make an excellent choice for adjoining a bedroom with a hallway or living room, or even a wardrobe or balcony.  Let’s take a look at the technology and how it might fit into your bedroom.

Why Should I Install Bifold Doors in the Bedroom?

Perhaps the most compelling reason to prefer bifold doors for bedroom arrangements is the amount of space the design can offer.  In contrast with other varieties of a door, a bi-fold door can spread over six metres or more, effectively creating a temporary wall.  Unlike more traditional sliding doors, which stack behind one another, folding doors collapse into a concertina that when fully contracted takes up less room than a single panel.

As such, you’ll be able to create extra space on a whim, combining the bedroom with, say, an adjoining private living room or hallway.  Since folding doors can collapse completely, you’ll have all the more room to play with.

One feature that bi-fold doors for the bedroom have in common with sliding doors is their transparency.  Folding doors are often heavily glazed, in order to allow more light to pass from one space to another and to ensure a superior sense of space.  But in the bedroom, this might not be so desirable – after all, you may want some privacy whilst you’re in there, particularly if you’re sharing the house with people with different schedules.  There’s nothing more likely to interrupt a good lie-in than the knowledge that the person watching television in the next room could be watching you.

Clearly, some means of blocking the glazing is required if it is placed between another living space that isn’t private.  In this regard, there are two main options.  You might opt for opaque glass, which will allow light to pass through, but diffuse it along the way so that it’s impossible to see through the glass.  Alternatively, you might decide that a set of curtains or blinds are the more attractive option.

Since folding doors expand outwards as they fold away, hanging a single set of curtains on one side is generally inadvisable.  When the door folds back, it’ll push against the curtains, which is sure to be bothersome.  A better alternative is to hang blinds from each of the panels.  That way you’ll be able to move the door back and forth even whilst the curtains are drawn. Find out more on how to dress bifold doors in our detailed article.  

If your bedroom is attached to an en-suite bathroom, you might decide that a folding door will make a great means of bridging the two rooms.  This is a setting where frosted glass might be more appropriate – as your bathroom is an area where privacy is even more important.  Glass opacity is typically described by manufacturers as a percentage – with 0% being transparent and 100% being opaque.  The frosting effect is achieved either at factory level by blasting the surface of the glass with sand, or by applying a special spray-on finish to the glass after it’s been installed.  The latter is the more flexible option, as it’ll allow you to see how the door looks when it’s entirely transparent, and then build the glass’s opacity with a few layers of spray-on frosting.

Few homes will come with en-suite bathrooms large enough to justify a room-dividing folding door – but in spaces where you don’t have much room to spare, a smaller folding door might prove useful.  This option is even more popular when it comes to covering up wardrobes.

Can I Save Space with Bifold Wardrobe Doors?

Folding doors make a very popular means of covering a wardrobe.  They won’t swing outward as far as a traditional door, which means that you’ll be able to open them and look inside without stepping backward away from the door, and without clearing a space in front of the wardrobe.

If your wardrobe is slightly larger, then the same space-saving virtues still apply; if you lack sufficient room around the edge of your bed, then folding doors will offer an elegant means of maximising your living space.

If you’ve got a small wardrobe, then a single narrow pair of bi-folding doors will be all that’s needed to cover them.  The door will expand just half the width of the door, making it a great solution if your wardrobe is just a metre or so from the edge of your bed.  If you’ve got a slightly larger space to cover, then you might consider a wardrobe door made from four narrow panels.  These can either all attach to one side of the door, or they can be evenly split so that they extend from both sides of the frame and meet in the centre, in a so-called ‘French-fold’ arrangement.  Select the design that best matches your personal taste and the way that your room is arranged.

The only drawback a folding door has compared to a more traditional one is its complexity.  If you’re prone to slamming your wardrobe door, then you might accidentally remove it from the rail – particularly if it hasn’t been properly installed.  You’ll then have to spend time getting it back into position.  While this eventuality can be annoying, it’s one that can be quite easily avoided; just be sure that you get the door properly installed, and that you treat it with respect once it’s in position.

In Conclusion

Folding doors come in all manner of shapes, sizes, and materials.  Most, if not all of them can be put to use in the bedroom – whether it’s to connect to an adjacent room or balcony, or to provide access to your wardrobe!