One use of custom bifold doors, a use that has had quite a lot written about it recently, is to make a space wider, more inviting – or to open out a room into an outside space. Because bifolding doors offer a huge percentage of open and visible space, as opposed to a more conventional sliding or swinging door, they can be used effectively to partition rooms, allowing you (for instance) to turn a kitchen-diner into two separate areas.
Another thing they can do, though, is help you save space. For example, if you have a small en suite bathroom in your master bedroom, then segregation and access become real problems. Custom bifold doors may be the answer you have been looking for. By opening into the door aperture, rather than swinging out away from it, or into the bathroom itself, a bifold door offers access without obstruction.
The door to an en suite bathroom of this size cannot open inwards, in most cases, because the area it occupies is so small. If you have full furniture in there – a toilet, a sink and a shower – then there is simply nowhere for the door to open into.
Conversely, if it opens outward it may strike the bed or in other wise get in the way of existing room layout. So using custom bifold doors becomes the option that allows you to have the bathroom installed without compromising on the space issue.
In the same small setup, indeed in any small room, bifold doors may also allow extra light access. When the doors are closed, if they are glass panelled, they will let light in anyway. When they are open they allow light to enter from every angle, because the leaf of the door is not standing open against a potential source of illumination.
In larger rooms, bifold doors also allow light access – and of course with a larger overall area left open, there’s a correspondingly larger amount of light to let in. This can be particularly effective where a door space is going between a room that gets a good amount of natural light and one that does not. For example, where a lounge receives nice light for a good amount of the day, and leads through to a kitchen or dining room that gets a lot less light due to the facing of the house, a pair of custom bifold doors can draw the illumination through.
Bifolding doors are, as noted, also excellent choices for separating the outside from the inside. When compared to French doors or sliding patio doors, bifolding doors off a much larger open space when they are fully retracted – enough to make it feel that the space is effectively completely freed. As such they work wonders in smaller rooms opening onto backyard spaces; or in rooms opening out to conservatories or decking areas. With the right external design, you can even develop a whole living space that runs through indoors to outdoors – with the custom bifold doors marking the segregating point for inclement weather.