Pocket doors should be considered especially by homeowners renovating smaller homes, townhouses and condominiums. Just make sure you plan your framing, electricity, HVAC, and plumbing around them.
Pocket doors should be strongly considered by renovators and builders who are looking to maximize space and create a clean and uncluttered look.

What is a Pocket Door?
A pocket door slides along its length and disappears into the wall when fully open. Take a look at the photos and you will grasp the idea. Remember those Japanese movies that you loved so much? Well, in some they used pocket doors. Incidentally, in the photo below, the pocket doors in this Japanese Zen Buddhist Temple slide into the wooden compartments. Now that wasn't so hard was it?

Besides Japan, pocket doors were used in many Victorian houses to close off rooms like parlors and studies. We have also seen them in many 20th century homes in the Washington DC metro area.

It's very easy to close off a room with today's modern pocket doors. When you are done, just slide them open and into the wall and presto you have an open space. The additional benefit is you don't have to worry about where the door is going to swing as you would with a hinged door. Remember with hinged doors, you have to allow for the swing of the door. So you can't put furniture there or anything else. With a pocket door, you can place furniture and paintings on the walls that the pocket doors slide into. In a small condo, apartment or house, that may mean a great deal and should be looked into.

The only drawback to a pocket door in my opinion is that you can't really lock it. There are hooks, although anyone who wants to come in can.

What Styles do Pocket Doors come in?
Pocket doors can be ordered as single or double door versions. For larger openings, get the double door version, otherwise they get a bit heavy. We opted for the French door style in pine and painted them. They also come in solid wood for complete privacy.

In the photo below, we are looking at our living room from our eat-in-space kitchen. If there's a party, we can open the doors up entirely so our guests can move about. If it's just for us, the doors will be closed. The best part is that we're not worried about where those doors are going or what they are banging into as we would have with hinged doors.

We selected a single pocket door to separate the bedrooms from the main part of the house when we have guests. Before there was no door and anyone could walk into the bedroom areas. If you select a French pocket door, you can select clear glass or frosted glass. We opted for the clear glass, but if you want even more privacy you can select the frosted glass.

When we don't have guests the single pocket door will disappear into the wall on your right.

As you can see, our space gets great deal of light. Pocket doors made sense because we did not want to close off the space.

Planning for Pocket Doors
You'll have to think ahead and plan for pocket doors. Since pocket doors slide into the walls, you will need to frame walls properly to install the track. The walls also have to be free of pipes, HVAC vents, and electrical outlets. You may think that this is a challenge, but it's not. For example, a 5 foot wide opening would require just 2.5 feet or 30 inches on each side. That's very easy to accomplish.

Discuss pocket doors with your contractor and architect. They do make a great deal of sense and can really increase your living space especially in condominiums and smaller homes.