Are pocket doors a good idea for kitchens? pros and cons

kitchen pocket doors

Pocket doors have become an essential feature in modern homes and provide a mechanism which literally opens the door to dozens of home improvement opportunities. The pocket door is the key to opening up space and enabling rooms to have a new purpose, to have multiple purposes, or to create a new room entirely. Pocket doors are now a staple feature of new-build properties, but can be incorporated into existing homes also. This is why they have become a popular solution for creating a home office, en-suite bathroom, downstairs toilet and open-plan living in a ground floor space, amongst many other home solutions too. But one room that doesn’t often get mentioned when it comes to pocket doors is the kitchen.

How pocket doors can be used in the kitchen

The popular benefits of the pocket door are:

Creating space in small rooms
Creating an open plan feel with flexible solutions
Functional simplicity
Aesthetic appeal

All these benefits apply to a kitchen space and make the pocket door an ideal solution, in fact the pocket door creates various possibilities for how you choose to use your kitchen space. In terms of space-saving, because the pocket door disappears into a wall and doesn’t require any ‘swing space’, like a traditional hinged door does, this enables you to use the space immediately behind the door. Where space is limited in a home, it is often the kitchen which is impacted by this, as a purely functional room. However, the pocket door may enable you to install some cupboards, or to store a fridge freezer, or to fit in a small breakfast table. Even just fitting a towel rail to the wall can help with the practical organisation of a kitchen area, and the pocket door enables this.

Where the structural layout of a property allows, pocket doors can also be used to provide flexible space and to create an open plan feel. Double pocket doors can be used to create a link to an adjoining dining room. This can be opened up at meal times or when guests are round, but at other times of the day, each individual area can be closed off to provide more intimate and private rooms. Maybe the dining room is used as a home office for example? The same principle applies to situations where a kitchen is linked to a living room. Again the pocket doors can be opened up on occasions when people are round, perhaps on family occasions, and this creates a better flow to the ground floor space and a more communal feel, rather than having people use separate individual rooms.

The functional simplicity of pocket doors is important because kitchens are often busy environments, particularly at meal times. People can be dashing in and out in addition to the simple fact that cooking a family meal can be stressful and challenging. You don’t want to be dodging a swinging door every five minutes and you want a simple, open space in which to work. In terms of aesthetics, the pocket door is the kind of seamless and minimalist design you want in a kitchen, and it adds to the clean and unfussy style you want in a space where food is made. The overhead track of pocket door systems is concealed and the door disappears into the wall. You can’t get much more aesthetically pleasing than that. Design-wise, you can also opt for a glass pocket door, which creates light and maintains the kitchen as a bright and welcoming communal space in the home.

What are the disadvantages of using a pocket door in a kitchen?

With some pocket door designs people have reported that the closing seal is not as tight as with a traditional hinged door. This could be a problem in terms of allowing noise and odours from the kitchen to travel around the home. With the pocket doors supplied by MB Direct this should not be a problem, as the high quality manufacturing processes ensure a tight seal around the door edges. It is also possible to apply a trim around the edges of the door to provide even more of a thermal and acoustic seal.

It is possible also to encounter some installation complexity with the pocket door, particularly where space is restricted in the home. You require a good amount of wall space in which to install the pocket door frame system. This needs to be at least double the width of the actual door, as the framework within the wall will accommodate the door when it is opened. Where an installation is particularly challenging, we would recommend hiring a professional to do the install for you.

Order a pocket door system for your kitchen from MB Direct

So, yes, we think pocket doors are a good idea for a kitchen in the home. At MB Direct we have a range of pocket doors suitable for kitchens from which you can make a selection. We can advise on the suitability of different pocket doors for the kitchen space in your home, so check out our range online and order today.