Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Original poster

can you have a sliding kitchen door?

29 replies

Mercedes · 30/08/2010 22:23

We've worked out if we changed our kitchen door to a sliding one rather than an opening one we could change the layout of our kitchen units and gain 2 base units and at least 2 wall cupboards.

Is there any reason why we can't have a sliding kitchen door? Are there any fire regs or building control issues we would stop us?

OP posts:
DiscoDaisy · 30/08/2010 22:25

We've got a sliding kitchen door but we don't know about any fire regs or building control issues. The door was here when we moved in.

franklampoon · 30/08/2010 22:29

i have one

Original poster
Mercedes · 30/08/2010 22:33

DD does your door slide into anything eg the wall? or is it visible from the hall?

I should have said that its the internal kitchen door to the hallway not an external door.

OP posts:
Aitch · 30/08/2010 22:33

i have one, and super cleverly we built it so that the back of the door, floor to ceiling, is lined with shelves deep enough to take a tin or a packet. it's a small kitchen though, you may not need to be so careful with space.

Original poster
Mercedes · 30/08/2010 22:36

Aitch - we've got a small kitchen so space is all.

How does it work that you have shelves? Do things not fall off? Do your tins etc disappear at times?

OP posts:
DiscoDaisy · 30/08/2010 22:43

Our door slides back so it's up against the kitchen wall on the inside iyswim. It can't be seen from the hall when it's slid back.

Aitch · 30/08/2010 22:44

yes, they do, lol. and the flour and porridge and sugar etc, all in the back of the door.
what we did was have mahoosive squared-off bookshelves made in the big room and hide the door in the back of the shelves (so one set on one side of the doorway is rather deeper than the other). i presume your kitchen is off a hallway or some larger space, what you're doing is keeping all your kitchen space by putting the door on the outside (but sunk in behind brand new shelves)

the door itself is like the lid of a shoe box (ish), so the shelves are on the inside of the lid. small shelves, and then we got metal bent into shape to act as brackets. the whole thing was cheap as chips, tbh, but looks great. i remember the aluminium brackets cost all of twenty quid to get done...

Aitch · 30/08/2010 22:47

too many shelves.
para one i'm talking about bookshelves, visible in hallway. para two is shelves on inside of door. it is a fantastic thing, btw, if you can visualise it, tbh deep shelves for food are worse than useless, you can't see anything. whereas a massive sliding door holds a lot.

Pannacotta · 31/08/2010 08:32

Aitch your arrangement sounds good, any chance you could post a pic on your profile so we can see what you mean?

Aitch · 31/08/2010 09:05

oh god, pressure lol, i don't have time right now, but i'll see if i can do it later.

Pannacotta · 31/08/2010 09:47

Thanks Aitch, hard to picture it from a description but it sounds ingenious...

Aitch · 31/08/2010 09:57

actually... CAT me, because we are featured on a design website but the article gives away a lot of detail that i don't want on here iyswim?

Original poster
Mercedes · 01/09/2010 17:56

Aitch

Can I CAT you for a look at your door?

I'll have to work out how you do it!

OP posts:
Pannacotta · 01/09/2010 20:13

Have sent you a CAT Aitch.
Mercedes click on the link at the bottom right of the page, look under membership.

Original poster
Mercedes · 14/03/2014 20:56

This is a long shot but I am back on my thoughts on whether to have a fire door into our kitchen to increase the usable space.

I never managed to work out how to CAT Aitch. Is Aitch around on does anyone have experience of this?

OP posts:
AClassyMove · 14/03/2014 21:25

Experience of sending a personal message?

Original poster
Mercedes · 15/03/2014 13:38

Sorry that reads wrong. I meant seen or has a sliding door into kitchen etc.

OP posts:
RatherNot · 15/03/2014 15:44

I fairly recently had a pocket door made for my kitchen and it passed building regs. It was custom made, flat, painted and had the regulation trim down the edge. The space it slid into was between the downstairs loo and the kitchen so it allowed me to have a full run of units on that wall. I loved it - would defo do it again. If you're worried about building regs, why don't you ask your buildings inspector before deciding? I've always found them more than helpful.

LucyLocketLostHerPocket · 11/11/2015 09:50

Just found this thread and just wondering if anyone's ever put a sliding door behind a slim floor to ceiling pantry style cupboard. As it is the door into the kitchen means we can't really have cupboards on that wall and a sliding door would really open the space up.

PragmaticWench · 11/11/2015 11:06

We're also considering similar so I'm intrigued to see pictures/hear suggestions if anyone has put in a sliding kitchen door.

OnePlanOnHouzz · 11/11/2015 12:38

Be careful if you have more than two floors in your property, as you might need a fire door on your kitchen if it leads into an area where stairs are. Seek appropriate advice before you change doors !

LucyLocketLostHerPocket · 14/11/2015 10:10

OnePlan our downstairs is completely open plan except for the hall and downstairs toilet so a door into kitchen and door round the corner (L shaped room) into living room end. We had to pass building regs when the walls were taken out so presumably fire doors aren't an issue. The two doors are glazed so not solid.

echt · 14/11/2015 19:54

This no help, but the three houses I've lived in in Australia all had sliding doors in the kitchen, and all built that way, so it must be a thing here.

Thinking about what PP also said about stairs and fire doors, they are all single storey houses.

StatisticallyChallenged · 14/11/2015 22:52

We have a sliding door on our kitchen - it's a frosted glass one which slides along the wall outside the kitchen but was only installed 2 years ago as part of a conversion and was fully approved by building control.

LucyLocketLostHerPocket · 14/11/2015 23:13

In my house it would be an internal door from the hall into the kitchen. We would have to build a false wall for it to slide into and that was why I thought a shallow floor to ceiling pantry style unit would be useful.