Barn Door Hardware for Closets

Do you get along with your closet? You know, you want to spend time around it,  you’re getting what you need out of the relationship. It’s working for you. My closet and I have never gotten along well. I’ve tried to fix the relationship. Originally, the storage “system” was just a few simple bars as the closet was once used by a young boy. I thought that was the problem, as the bars didn’t accommodate my wardrobe well. So I replaced them with the Elfa system from The Container Store, similar to this with lots of double rows of bars for hanging tops and pants:

With that, I thought the relationship problems would end. But we’re in troubled waters again. I’m on the verge of breaking up. I rarely visit the closet any more. My clothes are gravitating to a freestanding hanging rack, the ironing board, a chair …

How did it get to this?

My husband’s clothes fill our master bedroom walk-in closet. So I took over another bedroom’s closet. It’s a reach-in closet running along one wall, about 10-feet wide, with four sliding doors. The sliding doors are the problem.

Those doors make blood pressure rise! I swear, you can feel it. They cause many issues — you can only see a 2 1/2-foot slice of the closet at any time, and the rest is very dark. Often the outfits I want to put together are blocked by two different doors. I never was a fan of that game show where you have to guess what’s behind Door #1, 2 and 3, and I’m especially not now!

The doors have got to go. I don’t want the folding door look, it reminds me of the 1970s. So my imagination created another solution:

What about attaching fabric panels to barn door hardware?

What about it? Could it work? Barn door hardware could be attached above the closet. I’d need at least a 10-foot length of it …

A few styles found at Rustica Hardware:

Found at re-nest (see this link for a lot more barn door photos):

A DIY project by House*Tweaking:

Shown at Birch + Bird:

Here’s someone else using barn door hardware for closet doors, shown at re-nest:

From Architectural Digest, barn door hardware holding unique doors in Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne’s home:

The problem with my closet doors is not that they’re sliding, but that they’re solid and sliding. What if they were heavy fabric, edged with wood strips to attach to the barn door hardware? So when the fabric panels slide, they fold and I will be able to see the entire closet. Here’s a mock-up:

I won’t use green wood or fabric with huge writing on it, even though it looks  interesting  here — just chose a few elements quickly to demonstrate the vision. Here’s hopin’ this is the remedy to make the closet a pleasure to use!

Want to see more barn doors? I’m pinning many more interior and exterior doors at my Barn Door Pinterest Board – follow along: