Home Improvement

Soft-close Pocket Doors vs Sliding Barn Doors

Advantages and Drawbacks of Pocket Doors and Sliding Barn Doors

The popularity of traditional conventional sliding barn and pocket doors has made the door manufacturers broaden the scope of incorporating distinct types and designs of modern variants of the best pocket doors vs sliding doors. Whether we talk about pocket door vs barn door or any other, each option delivers advantages and drawbacks.

Pocket Doors vs Sliding Doors

The design trends today, residential or commercial, recall the yesteryear styles. Sliding barn doors have pioneered a pragmatic function found in the barn to various walk-in closets’ design layouts. Incorporating some advancements in sliding door hardware and modern stainless steel or iron tracks, they can create a contemporary design and be functional.

Soft-close pocket doors, on the other hand, were commonly used in Victorian homes. Often, this option was adapted to part formal seating areas or hallways. Today, the upgraded pocket doors are experiencing a new beginning.

sliding-pocket-door
Image credit: KN Crowder

These options are one of the best ways to infuse a spot in residential and commercial construction with architectural allure. Also, they can free up huge floor space. Nevertheless, learning the pros and cons of both options that KNCrowder.com has provided can help in choosing the right alternative.

Pros of Sliding Barn Doors

Sliding barn doors add personality, style, and functionality to a house. These easy-to-customize and install elements can precisely free up a considerable amount of floor space that is often obstructed by conventional doors.

However, sliding barn doors have become the most preferred alternative for smaller spaces, like walkways and bathrooms that can quickly get blocked by swinging doors.

Not only smaller spaces, but rather sliding doors are the best fit for also the big houses with open spaces to get a comfortable flow of natural air and light. It also offers the comfort of moving from one room to another or merely dividing one place into separate spaces.

What makes sliding barns the ideal fit for houses?

✓ Space

Sliding barn doors can fit into small spaces; this feature makes it the key reason to have. The usual swinging doors are prone to block walkways and damage walls with the doorknob since they require enough room to open. Indeed, barn doors need some space on the wall to open smoothly.

Nevertheless, they don’t require too much floor space like the swinging doors. They just lay flat against the walls when open. Sliding barns are practical, especially in small living spaces like apartments or condos, where you may need considerable space near the door to place counters or furniture.

✓ Functionality

Sliding barns are astonishingly functional. The doors embody lightweight materials. However, they are precisely easy to open and shut not only for tiny kids but also for busy big people who might have equipped hands.

The sliding barn doors offer more vacant space for yourself or to place your furniture through the doorway. They can make the narrow doorways in your small house more functional. If you have a bigger house, these doors can enhance the natural atmosphere if you leave them open and let the natural air get into the room.

✓ Design

Sliding barn doors are incredibly trendy, and you can easily style them to fit any aesthetic you wish to have. They go well with the rustic decor and furniture manufactured out of wood or metal, often painted with chalk paint.

Sliding barns are available in various styles, designs, and finishes, and you can customize them to your specific liking. Natural timber sliding door hardware and color look merely great in any rustic or natural-inspired setting. Their manageable and clean profile makes them a perfect fit in minimalist and modern houses.

What makes pocket doors the ideal fit for houses?

When it comes to pocket doors, people often get confused. The term “pocket” itself explains how the door could be. When fully open, the door slides and envelopes into the pocket fixed within the wall hole and wholly covered inside the wall.

You can install a single pocket door or double based on the hole’s size and the soft-door pocket door hardware. Nevertheless, pocket doors are sliding doors, but the system fixed onto the wall is different. Download Sliding Door Hardware & Track PDF.

✓ Space

Since the pocket doors do not open out into the room like the sliding or the regular flip-flap doors, they tend to be excellent space savers. Significantly, pocket doors are more prevalent in smaller houses, condos, studio apartments, etc.

This superhero of all door options exhibits that extra bit of storage space in various tiny furniture placement houses. However, if you are short on space, it is ideal to consider the best pocket doors.

✓ Functionality

Without a doubt, pocket doors are pound-friendly. Whether it is your self-build house or you are refurbishing the existing one. In any case, pocket doors are the perfect and beneficial investment that can create a considerable amount of flexible space.

You can also tailor your pocket doors to your personal style, construction of your house, and budget. You might get amazed to know that you can do lots with the space you have by having these creatively smart doors.

✓ Design

You might believe that pocket doors are far away from the trend. But, the truth is entirely different. Now the pocket doors are not the simple panels placed on a runner. They are available with different types of door designs.

Most door designs and styles are now suitable for pocket doors, whether solid or glazed, affordably stylish, have laminated paint, or are made of timber veneer. There are various sizes, finishes, and styles available. However, you don’t have to compromise to save space. You can choose any pocket door that fits your style and impression.

Cons of sliding barn doors and pocket doors

Sliding barns doors and pocket doors both are fantastic additions to various homes. Nevertheless, both options have different looks and functionality and also drawbacks.

Cons of sliding barn doors

Sliding barn doors do not offer acoustic privacy. Even if you choose the thickest solid option, it will not dampen sound, odors, and light from getting in the room. The option could be problematic, especially if you have it parting your office or bedroom from the playground or garden where your kids play most of the time.

You might regret having it at times you are working or sleeping, but if you are looking after the children, sliding barns are the best to have. They are incredible, especially when you have got extra tall space. But, based on the material, they can be heavier to roll specifically for tiny kids the elderly family members.

Cons of pocket doors

Pocket doors, as mentioned before, are similar to sliding doors. If we look at an example, they are indeed space savers in a small restroom or bathroom area. Looking at how they slide on the tracks within the wall cavity, they may not always seal as securely as the traditional door options. Nevertheless, homeowners can sometimes face issues.

Bottom line

Sliding barn doors and pocket doors both offer benefits and drawbacks. The right solution is to discuss your requirements with a reliable interior designer or contractor. Their experience and expertise can help you establish the right option that fits your style.

Sliding barns or pocket doors might not be the right suitable option for every homeowner. Nevertheless, if you are on the lookout for design, and fashion, or want to save some space for yourself or locate furniture, consider having the KNCrowder pocket doors installed with soft-door pocket door hardware.

Back to top button