Bifold Doors For The Kitchen

Internal bifold doors offer a popular and elegant means of breaking down the barriers between the various parts of your home and introducing that all-important sense of space.  One of their biggest assets is their flexibility; they come in a range of configurations and can be used almost anywhere in the home.  In this article, let’s take a look at how they might fit into your kitchen setup.

If you're considering installing bifolding doors in other areas of your home, take a look a our guides on Bifolding Doors for the Living Room and Bifolding Doors for the Bedroom.

Why Install Bifold Doors for the Kitchen?

There are many reasons why internal bifolds are perfect for kitchens; here's why:

• Customisable sizes
• Customisable functions (can open inwards or outwards)
• Modern design
• Creating the feel of a larger space
• Merging rooms together and closing them off for comfort and privacy
• They come in range of materials, styles, and colours

Let's take a deeper look at these benefits:

The single most considerable advantage that bi-fold doors have over their more traditional counterparts is their sheer size.  Their unique design means that they can be made far larger than other sorts of door.  A bi-fold door consists of several panels, each of which is tethered to its neighbours via hinges.  The entire door can thereby collapse or expand in a concertina.  Each panel is attached to a rail so that the door can move only along a single plane of motion, and so that the weight of the door isn’t entirely concentrated at one end.

This design means that the entire door needn’t swing outward, and thus allows it to be made five, six, or even seven metres wide without having to clear an enormous space inside the home.  As such, the bi-fold door is often used for creating a temporary divide between one room and another – or even between the interior of a property and the garden.

If you have a spare wall in your kitchen that you’d like to open out directly onto the patio, then kitchen bi-folding doors will allow for this.  Such an arrangement is a perfect match for those summer barbecues when you find yourself constantly retreating from the garden to the kitchen to retrieve another glass of punch or a bowl of Waldorf salad.  The same virtues apply also to interior bi-fold doors which link the kitchen to the dining area or living room:  if you’re hosting a dinner party, or just serving an evening meal, then being able to easily move between the kitchen and the dining area is sure to make life that little bit easier – and spillages far less frequent.

At the same time, however, there might be instances where you’d prefer those in the dining or living area weren’t able to see the state (or contents) of the kitchen.  If you’d rather your guests remained unaware that the walls of your kitchen are spattered with bolognese sauce, then a folding door with blinds equipped might prove an attractive option.

Bifold Kitchen Doors:  Creating and Saving Space

As we’ve mentioned, folding doors consume less space than traditional ones, as they need less room to swing out into.  This virtue allows them to be made far larger – but it’s also a welcome development for smaller doors, in spaces where there isn’t much room for manoeuvre.

If you’ve got a pantry in the corner of your kitchen where space is at a premium, you might find that an ordinary outward-opening door takes up more room than it’s worth.  A folding door, therefore, represents an attractive alternative; bifold doors for kitchen pantry entrances are a great means of maximising the space in your kitchen.  You won’t need to worry so much about blocking the pantry door, and thus you’ll be able to arrange the furniture in your kitchen in almost any manner you see fit.

If your kitchen is a little on the cosy side, then a set of bifold doors for pantry storage needn’t be the extent of your space-saving measures.  There are several different ways to extract that little bit more room from your storage area – and even if you’ve got room to spare, a little more is always going to be welcome.  Try making use of the backs of cupboard doors to hang spice racks or pot lids, or mount your knives onto the wall rather than on the counter.

Kitchen Bifolding Doors:  What Material is best?

Now that we’ve established the merits of the folding door in the kitchen, we’re still left with the question of what precise sort of door you’re going to go for.

It’s worth first noting that your decision will be influenced largely by your own personal taste.  If you’ve got your heart set on a given material, then it’s probably best that you go for it.  Similarly, we should consider context.  If all of the cabinets, tiles, and surfaces in your kitchen match a given scheme, then, generally speaking, so too should your door.

For many kitchen owners, solid-wood doors offer an aesthetic that other materials simply can’t match.  They come with a higher price tag, but for the money, you’ll get superior longevity and durability.  If you’re shopping on a budget, then you’ll want to instead consider a wood-effect veneer.  These sorts of doors pair an inexpensive core with a thin layer of real wood on the surface, to give the impression of solid wood at a fraction of the price. 

uPVC doors tend to be the cheaper option.  But since plastic isn’t as strong as timber or aluminium, such doors tend to have thicker frames, which means less glass and less light for your kitchen.   The opposite is true of an aluminium door – the material is strong, and thus the frame can be made thinner.  Aluminium doors, however, tend to offer a colder and more clinical aesthetic that not all kitchens provide a match with.

In Conclusion

Bi-folding doors for a kitchen are a fantastic option, thanks to their flexibility, space-saving nature and sheer size.  But as we’ve seen, there’s a tremendous amount of variety within the category, and so you’ll be able to tailor your choice precisely to the kitchen you have in mind.  If you’ve ever wanted the benefits of a joined kitchen space, but you’d still like the ability to erect a temporary divide at a moment’s notice, then a large folding door will serve admirably – but if you’re looking to save space around your pantry door, a smaller one will do just as well.