Closet doors: bi-fold, bypass (sliding) or French?

[Anonymous]

Trying to assess the pros and cons of different types of doors for a new closet. What do you have? What do you prefer? With both bi-fold and bypass there will be parts of the closet that will be less difficult to access, and French doors will have a large swing into the bedroom.

Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

french hands down. The doors don't take up much room and it's not like you'd ever put furniture in front of a closet anyways. We're house hunting and this is a bonus that every realtor makes sure to show.

Then bifold (but the nice ones, not the slated)
Then maybe sliding. I hate sliding though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:french hands down. The doors don't take up much room and it's not like you'd ever put furniture in front of a closet anyways. We're house hunting and this is a bonus that every realtor makes sure to show.

Then bifold (but the nice ones, not the slated)
Then maybe sliding. I hate sliding though.

+1
French if you have room for it and they fit. Note that the hardware required for mounting the doors takes up room too. We couldn't use them because the closet width was about three doors and putting a place for the middle door hinge would have made it difficult to access.

Bifold, but get them custom made if you can, and use nice drawer pulls for handles.

I wouldn't use sliding doors, though I think I've seen some translucent panel type that weren't completely awful.

[Anonymous]

I have never had sliding doors that didn't eventual rock off the tracks .... Bifold are cheesy. French.

[Anonymous]

Definitely French. We just replaced them for the bifolds that came with the house. Much much happier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Definitely French. We just replaced them for the bifolds that came with the house. Much much happier.

Why did you replace them? Because you prefer the look or another reason?

[Anonymous]

French!!! The others ultimately have problems.

[Anonymous]

I'll be the naysayer here and go with sliding. As with anything, if they are cheaply done, you are going to have problems, but the ones in my house are 60 years old and going strong!

I personally find French doors to be a waste of space, and I find the divided lights plus curtains (so as to hide the contents of the closet) redundant.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks everyone. Let's assume that whichever option we get won't look cheesy. There are nice versions of each kind. We're looking at simple five paneled style that matches the rest of our house. E.g.

French:


Bi-fold:


Sliding:


Whether or not you like these particular designs, if aesthetics wasn't an issue, which would you pick? Is French still the top choice? (Thanks to the PP who mentioned that realtors always highlight it -- very interesting, I had no idea!)

[Anonymous]

French. We have them to match our three paneled doors and they look great, plus it's much easier to get into the whole closet than sliding would be, and bifold are always a pain.

[Anonymous]

Saw your pics. My answer is still French. They are SO much nicer.

A huge benefit to french that hasn't been mentioned is that you can always have hooks on the inside of the door or shoe racks or even a hanger hook.

I can't stand sliding because you can't see the closet all at once. And it gets hard to slide them back and forth if things fall down or get in the tracks. PITA!

[Anonymous]

Sliding. More effecient use of space and the ones in your pictures look terrific.

[Anonymous]

French. Bifold doors don't let you have access to the bit on the side (its just harder to get there). For some people sliding is harder to open.

[Anonymous]

French unless it impedes furniture placement or is in a narrow space. (Our bedroom's long but shallow so the footboard of the bed wouldn't easily clear french doors and we have bifold). I think the advantage if bifold is that you don't have to install tracks like for sliding doors - if you have hardwood floors or the tracks are going to be a pain to level, that may be an advantage.

[Anonymous]

We have three closets in our bedroom and each with different doors. The walk-in closet has a regular door, my husband's closet has French doors an we have a coat/linen closet with one bifold. Each serves its purpose - the French doors on my husband's closet allow him to see everything at once as he's getting dressed for work in the morning. The bifold allows us to have an extra closet in a corner of our bedroom near the eaves. I think both are fine, as is sliding if it's done well, although sliding are my least favorite.