The sliding door trend is in full swing with bathroom barn doors showing up in style.
Sometime in the next year I’m planning to expand our powder room into the garage to create a full bath on our first floor. That would entail adding about 6 inches to the existing doorway. A sliding door makes sense. So bathroom barn doors have been on my radar.
Three examples I found show that they really can work well for baths, providing there’s enough adjacent space to slide away. And owing to their popularity there’s a wide variety of hardware available to make almost any door work.
A spacious, industrial style bath [top] has such a huge sliding door it functions more like a moveable wall. These are sometimes seen in urban lofts in converted factory buildings where ceilings are very high and there aren’t conventional framed doorways. This monster door is installed in a ceiling mounted galvanized steel track and it looks quite heavy. The very beefy handle might require two hands and a hefty push to move.
The design, by Mell Lawrence architects of Austin, Texas, has a distinct Asian vibe mixed in — especially given the quirky teak floor. That’s an intriguing design since there’s an overhead rain shower but no metal drain. Instead, the drain appears to be down the center where spaces between the ends of the staggered floor planks allow water to flow through. The shower wall, where controls and hand shower are mounted is also industry, looks like brushed aluminum, also water resistant. The sink is interesting, too. Set on a long low concrete shelf, supported by low concrete pillars at each end, it rests on a wood plinth that almost looks like a kitchen chopping block, except for the little feet. The user must be exceptionally tall wall as mounted faucets also look higher than usual.
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A gray-painted barn door slides across the narrow entrace to a new bath. This is more or less what I have in mind for my house. Simple stainless hardware installs just above the door frame — which must be flat, of course. If the barn door slides on the exterior of the room then the issue of a locking mechanism can be a bit complicated. I’d need to explore how that might work — perhaps a simple hook and eye with a long hook would serve. This is a lovely, and very neat looking door which might not even require a handle.
xExactly the same style green-painted, half-buck door is installed in a very different way. First, it sits inside the bath, and spots a beefy, industrial style handle. The sliding mechanism is concealed in a track encased in a wood box above the door. That doubles up on the molding (not sure how I feel about this) but there’s no exposed hardware-look here. For someone who doesn’t care for the hardware exposed, this is a good solution. Closing next to the elegant marble subway tile shower it’s a bit of a mixed message: cottage or suburban? Hard to tell. And there’s no privacy latch here either. Whatever. The simple barn door bathroom style works!
(Source: Mell Lawrence Architects, decorpad, Milk and Honey Home)
For other ways barn doors enhance a house see Decorative Interior Barn Doors, Interior Barn Door Color and Double Interior Barn Doors.
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