Bathroom pocket doors - privacy meets style

Of all the rooms in the home that could benefit from a pocket door installation, the bathroom is possibly the most popular choice. Although the bathroom is a very necessary room, it is a purely functional room and so people are quite often satisfied with a small bathroom that serves their needs, and where space is required, this is better utilised for other rooms such as a bedroom. However, the flipside of this is that the pocket door is hugely influential in being able to create a bathroom in the first place, and can also have an impact on what you can fit into a bathroom and what layout you can enjoy.

Pocket doors enable you to combine a need for privacy in a bathroom, with an ability to present an aesthetic quality, and first let’s understand how they do that.

How does a pocket door help with a bathroom design?

A pocket door opens by running along an overhead track and disappearing into a wall ‘pocket’. This means it doesn’t swing into a room like a traditional hinged door and encroach on the available space. The space immediately in front of the door therefore becomes usable and opens up a number of opportunities in home design. The pocket door can help to create new rooms and can also make a room multi-purpose, but with a bathroom, it enables you to create a room in a tight space and still fit in the important features that you need, ie. a toilet, sink and also a bath or shower.

For this reason, pocket doors are a popular choice for creating bathrooms when stud wall structures are reconfigured and the upstairs layout of a home is changed to make better use of the available space. You can also use pocket doors for creating an en-suite bathroom in a large bedroom, or a separate toilet where there is space. The ten square feet of additional space that a pocket door provides can also give the luxury of changing the configuration of a bathroom. If it suits you to move a sink and toilet, or to install a bath or a separate shower, you may now have space to do this, while a pocket door may also simply enable you to add some luxurious touches, such as a towel rail on the wall where a hinged door would have been an obstacle, or you may be able to add some storage on the newly created floor space in the form of a set of small drawers. These are all important lifestyle improvements in a small space.

Popular types of pocket door for a bathroom

Although all pocket doors provide the same benefit in terms of creating space and providing flexibility in how you use available space, there are different designs of pocket door which can be suitable for bathrooms.

Single pocket doors – This is the most popular type of door for a bathroom as it is a standard size and will fit the available space for most bathrooms. The single pocket door is available for different wall thicknesses ranging from 95mm to 125mm.

Glass pocket doors – The glass pocket door is also a very popular choice for bathrooms, although you might not immediately think that when considering the need for privacy. Glass pocket doors enable natural light to shine through, which makes a small room much brighter and comfortable, which is exactly what you need in a bathroom where there is an onus on creating a stress-free and relaxing environment. The glass can be provided with a satin opaque finish which means that light can still travel through the glass, but privacy can be retained because you can’t see through it. Glass pocket doors can also be supplied with attractive sandblasted designs, including bespoke designs with different colours. These are an ideal solution for making a bathroom unique and contemporary.  

Flush pocket doors – Flush pocket doors have no surrounding architrave and hence sit flush to a wall. This creates a clean, fresh and flawless effect whereby the door almost disappears into the wall. This aesthetic quality sits well with the stress-free environment you want to create in a bathroom.  

Telescopic pocket doors - The telescopic pocket door is ideal for locations where tight spaces have been adapted to create a bathroom. This often means there is limited wall space. The telescopic pocket door works by dividing the door into two vertical halves. When opening the door, one half disappears into the other, before both halves then travel into the wall cavity pocket. This means you don’t need as much wall space for the pocket door frame, which is usually at least double the door width.

Order your bathroom pocket door from the Pocket Door Shop

So bathroom pocket doors are an ideal solution where you need to create some privacy but are tasked with working in a tight area space-wise and also creating a finished result that has contemporary aesthetic qualities. Pocket doors combine privacy and style in a very cost-effective way, so check out our range of pocket door systems today.