A clever space-saving feature in many homes in Britain and the US during the mid-19th Century, the pocket door is once again in demand. By sliding on a hardware track installed inside the adjacent wall structure, the pocket door “disappears” into the wall when it is open—saving up to 10 square feet of floor space. While a great solution for optimizing tight spaces, early hardware systems for this Victorian-era feature could be noisy and problematic. But, some 100 years later, the development of smooth, quiet, and reliable hardware systems has led to a pocket door revival.
In contemporary homes, pocket doors are a popular application for kitchen pantries, laundry facilities, and powder rooms—those spaces notoriously in need of space-saving innovations. But, they are also being used as statement features, for example, as a set of double pocket doors leading to the home’s stately library. And, pocket doors have transcended architectural styles, from sleek flush pocket doors to rustic stile-and-rail examples.
Some additional considerations related to pocket doors:
- A pocket door must have a square top that works with the frame and hardware mechanism; however, Sun Mountain offers myriad door designs with “top rail” arched tops that work well as pocket doors.
- In addition to manufacturing the doors, Sun Mountain also supplies pocket door hardware and frames, including high quality commercial grade options (from Christner Woodworkers). Generally, Sun Mountain does not pre-assemble hardware and frames, but rather sells these items as a kit for on-site assembly.
- If you’re including pocket doors in your home design, the pocket door frame and track need to be installed before the wall is sheetrocked (so design decisions and orders need to be made earlier in the process).
- Sun Mountain also manufactures the appropriate jamb material, splitting the jamb where the door recesses into the wall.
