Bifold door and kitchen island is it going to date? Pitfalls...

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We viewed a couple of houses like this and it’s in all the magazines and they look gtreat when all tidy ...

Do they work in real life. Reading on here about people with wasps trapped in roof lanterns and flies coming in the bifolds....

We went for sliding doors over bifold, in my opinion they look better when closed because they have a much thinner frame and each glass pane can be wider than on bifolds (more glass less frame). And ultimately they are closed waaaaaay more than they are open.

We tend to not get many bugs in, unless we leave them open when it's dark outside.

I think the totally open back is already dated - too bloody hot, too much glass to clean, often feels like a warehouse, and often looks messy. People want to maximise space though, so style gets compromised.

We have an island in our 18year old kitchen so I don't think they are going to date. It gets a lot of use. I do all my food prep on it and we sit at it to eat every day.

Previous house we had a peninsula rather than an island and that also got a lot of use. It's nice to have somewhere in the kitchen to prep without facing a wall.

Kitchen islands have been around since I was a kid if your kitchen was big enough. It's the units that date. Especially coloured ones if it's ultra fashionable now not so much in 5 years time

I’m thinking it may already be a dated look unless very well done, where it can look spectacular. But....that’s usually because there’s s fantastic outside space to ‘bring in’.

I worry about the tidying up, I’m not a tidy cook and we like having people round.

It’s a period house so I’m thinking more of an orangery style with patio doors. Also while I live in the north and it’s rarely warm enough to open the windows never mind bifold doors, it’s also south facing so will get hot....

Hmmmm,interesting thoughts.

We got a kitchen island in 1986 . Love ours and the bifolds we have two sided so it’s like being outdoors when indoors. Don’t see any downside wouldn’t care if they weren’t trendy

We are having an extension built to extend the kitchen into the garden and are replacing existing UPVc bi-folds with aluminium sliders in the new room - can't wait as bi-folds are awkward to open and the opened panes always seem to be ' in the way'

We are having an extension built to extend the kitchen into the garden and are replacing existing UPVc bi-folds with aluminium sliders in the new room - can't wait as bi-folds are awkward to open and the opened panes always seem to be ' in the way'

my neighbours have bifold doors, they look ok, but its put me right off cause you can hear every single thing from inside their house when they are open (tv, radio, phone calls, arguing, kids screaming) they seem to magnify the noise, sit on my patio and cant help but listen to it all so i put my earphones in!

Certain things date like the style of things but I can't see how having an actual kitchen island or doors onto the garden dates.

Over time you'd replace kitchens & possibly require new doors.

It all depends on context.

If you are ripping out the back of a brick and flint cottage to install a run of bifolds then no, that is probably not a great idea.

We used them to open up the back of our 90s Bryant box. It has revolutionised the amount of light in our living areas and suits the way in which we use the space. We are north-west facing so no greenhouse effect and the rooms stay lovely and cool even in very hot weather.

It’ll be south west facing at the back of a 1920s house with a lot of period features....

I’m starting to think orangery style or patio doors with shutters might be more in keeping.

We've got an island which I love and don't care if it dates tbh, so practical, tons of storage and worktop. Ours is 3m x 4m but we have a huge kitchen diner.

We didn't go for bifolds as a few friends have had problems with them falling off the runners etc ! And I wanted an unobstructed view of the garden so we've got a huge undivided sheet of glass in the middle and sliding doors either side.

Haha yes bi-folds aren't actually a completely new thing but they are 'in-style' right now. And I'm not surprised because they look great!

You might find this helpful on bi-fold doors in a kitchen:

www.mybifold.co.uk/news/kitchen-bi-fold-doors

I personally think they look really nice in kitchens, obvs ideal for letting the light in. And I prefer aluminium over plastic but they are pricey!

Bifolds look very dated imo, in that same suburban way that vertical blinds and upvc doors do.
I did have them in my last house but that was 15 years ago.

Kitchen islands are a classic, although the shape and size have to look right for the style of house.

Oh really? You reckon?

I think it can depend on the specification. I do think some can look really modern but maybe these are more the aluminium style ones.

If you go for the really sleek ones,

You do have to remember too that bifolds commit the dual MN sin of being both popular AND relatively expensive, and must therefore be sneered at whenever possible.

Patio doors in the dining room have been a thing since at least the 80s. I find it difficult to imagine flies being radically different with bi-folds though I haven't lived with them myself.

If I were putting in glass doors now I'd look at hinged, not sliding, French doors first.

An island is just a variation on a peninsula. As long you genuinely have enough space around it and it isn't weirdly shoehorned in, it should be a pretty safe choice. I am just wary of overly large islands that render half the kitchen useless, just an empty space too small for a proper table.

Bifolds are already dated and hopefully will be consigned to history shortly along with avocado bathroom suites etc etc. They are not practical, look horrible and we went through a time five years ago when every other suburban house had them. My husband works as an estate agent and the general response from viewings is people are put off by them however hard he tries to sell the house to the viewers.

Bifolds don't seem to age well, they get stuck, hard to open etc. So I think they can be dated if old and or poor quality. The big open space to the garden is nice though, it is the mechanism that is the issue. I wonder if sliding doors last longer so would be better in this regard.

I can't really see what's so heinous about bifiold when compared to a sliding door in the same material. It's just a different opening mechanism.

The bifolds I've experienced have been sticky, hard to open and close. They may have been cheap (all new build).

If you spend a lot bifold doors won’t look dated - you can get doors that fold down to practically nothing and the effect they produce (an entire open wall basically) looks and feels more expensive than sliding doors. As for Islands - I think if done properly then no they probably won’t date either.

I like it on a modern house, not so much on a character property. Islands are often much too big for the room they're in, they only really look good in a massive kitchen. Bifolds worry me a bit, I wonder whether the hinges are good enough to support them for more than a few years. So I wouldn't actively seek them out or want to pay more for a kitchen that had them.

We put bifolds in our extension on a 1920s house and I love them.

I don't like kitchen islands though. We have a peninsula which I much prefer.