Installing Closet Doors: One Room Challenge Week 6
This week we are tackling something that both the client and I believed would be a quick and easy project done in a few short hours (insert maniacal laugh). Boy, were we wrong!
When my client purchased her home, she quickly noticed that all her closet doors were missing. We have several running hypotheses on why the original doors were removed but now we are certain why they were never replaced.
Closet before
We measured the opening of the guest room closet and headed to Lowes with the intention of buying bifold doors to install. After about 15 minutes of trying to understand how the door measurements for bifold doors worked (what can I say I have never been a fan of math), we couldn’t understand why all the available doors were either going to be too small or too large. We asked for help from an employee who sent a manger over to answer our questions.
“Our closet opening measures 70.5 inches and 80 inches high”. The manager looks at all the doors and advises “Yeah that’s not a standard size”. We are very aware that with shipping times and the current back log of most things right now that ordering custom doors was neither in the budget, or the time frame we needed to finish by the ORC deadline.
Back to the drawing board. Since sliding doors can overlap somewhat, we decided this was our best option. Our local Lowes had a large selection of mirrored doors however I am personally not a fan, and since the client has a large dog and 3 cats, I knew the mirrors were going to be something that would require more cleaning from smudges and pet hair clinging to the mirrors. I also think mirrored doors can look dated very easily and I was avoiding that if at all possible. We settled on the only white sliding doors they had that worked for our closet size.
After struggling to strap the doors to the top of the vehicle (remember, I was under the assumption we would be leaving with bifold doors not two large sliders) we were on our way. Once inside we quickly opened the box only to realize the metal rail system for the top and bottom of the doors was too long and would require a hack saw to cut down, which we did not have.
Back to Lowes to get a saw. We attempted to saw the metal and it was not fun (think of the sound of nails on a chalk board X5). The white scratched off easily as the saw bounced around and we couldn’t find a good solution to hold the rail system still (we even tried sitting on it while the end hug off a stair and no dice). My husband later informed me we should have selected an additional blade that had smaller teeth, live and learn, I guess. We did eventually cut the railing for the floor.
We glued the floor rail to the tile as my experience with drilling through tile and concrete was zero. Also, I was well aware that we did not have the proper drill bits for tile and concrete and the risk of cracking the tile was very high. We used gorilla glue and it worked very well.
There was already an existing rail system attached to the top opening of the closet. After much debate over using the old rail or trying to cut the new rail (which due to the improper saw blade causing so many scratches, the white paint was coming off the new rail). We gave up and decided to use the old rail and save our time and energy.
Next, we inserted one door into the back rail. We found the door to be quite wobbly and sort of bowing out at the bottom. We re read the instructions and attempted to tighten the bottom wheel in hopes this would resolve the issue. The instructions advised tightening the wheel would raise the door up and prevent it from coming out of the rail system.
Adjustable wheel to secure door in rail system.
Once tightened the door was securely in the track however the wobbling was not fixed. We tried tightening the other screws on the door and nothing worked. The second door went in easily and we adjusted the remaining wheels to keep the doors in place. Here you can see how the door is not flush and sticks out despite our tightening the wheel as much as we could.
Door does not sit flush with closet frame.
Next, we decided to use a metal door handle instead of the plastic ones that came with the door, as they looked more expensive. Because the doors were so thin, we could not screw the handles in as directed and they were a little lose so we glued those in place.
We will eventually caulk around the upper railing to remove the gap between the rail and the frame. Also, once the doors were installed it was more apparent, as in many older homes, the opening was not perfectly square and there is a small gap on one side but not very noticeable.
As for the quality of the door I would not recommend this door. While it does look good from the outside it is basically constructed of thick cardboard. This door will easily dent, scratch and if it were installed in a child’s room one flying object will put a hole through it. Luckily for us this is a guest room that will only be used on occasion and most likely by adults. For the rest of the home the client will be using higher quality doors, even if that means ordering it and waiting for months for custom closet doors.
I cannot believe we only have two weeks left! This challenge has flown by and while it has had its ups and downs, I am so excited to see it all coming together and can’t wait for you all to see the final reveal. Please support the other designers who are participating in the ORC by following this link One Room Challenge. Com For those of you on social media use the hashtag #bhgorc and #oneroomchallenge to see all the rooms as they are now really taking shape!
