Pocket doors are a space-saving solution for open floor plans
Talk to any interior designer and the commodity they probably think about the most is space; how to create it and what to do with it. Space gives you freedom and flexibility and in some cases can be considered a luxury. Open floor plans deal with space by putting you in control and giving you the freedom to use the space as you see fit, whether this is in the home or the workplace.
Open floor plans are a way in which an interior designer or architect can design a building with a large open space on the ground floor. In a residential home this is usually a way to join rooms such as a kitchen, dining room and living room to form one single communal space, with separate ‘areas’ designated to each. But essentially, this is one open plan space. In a workplace, an open floor plan can accommodate separate office spaces or workstations, but also can accommodate a meeting area, a communal dining or breakout area, a photocopying station or maybe a demo or training area.
What are the benefits of open floor plans?
The benefits for the home or workplace are slightly different, but they do share many common benefits:
- Communal – They promote positivity, wellbeing and the idea that everyone is equal
- Greater traffic flow – People can move more easily between each area and become more sociable
- Light – Open floor plans allow natural light to flow more easily
- Flexibility – You can change the function or layout of the space more easily
- Multi-functional – Spaces can have temporary uses and can change from being family spaces, to recreational spaces and then to solitary work spaces
- Supervision – It is easier to supervise young children in this type of space, and in the workplace, it is easier to see where all your work colleagues are and what they are doing
- Desirability – Open floor plans are much more desirable in a design sense, because of all these benefits
How can pocket doors benefit open floor plans
Perhaps the most desirable element of an open floor plan is the flexibility they offer and how you can have temporary uses for each area and space. This can be further enhanced by using a pocket door and adapting the interior design accordingly to offer even more flexibility.
Pocket doors can be used to create more effective partitions between areas in an open floor plan, so you are creating zones which can be closed off or opened up as you wish. This can be created by installing pocket doors in a partition stud wall. Most of the time these can be opened up to maintain the various benefits of an open plan space, but as necessary, you can close the pocket door to create separate spaces. So when you need to do some work at home, or want to read something away from the kids playing, you can close the pocket door. Likewise when you are eating or entertaining on an evening, the kids can still watch TV without interrupting anybody. But for the rest of the time you still have a flexible and desirable open space.
In the workplace, people occasionally need to have a confidential meeting, or privacy to discuss something or just nail something really important with a bit more peace and quiet. The pocket door can be used to create a quiet space where someone can get some rest while they have their lunch. You can also zone-off areas for activities that don’t necessarily involve everyone, such as meetings, customer visits or product demos.
Contact the Pocket Door Shop for advice on how to use pocket doors for open floor plans
We all know that the pocket door is the best way to create space in an area where space is limited, but a secondary benefit is what is most useful here; the idea of creating temporary spaces to offer freedom and flexibility. This is highly desirable and a great benefit of the pocket door, and perhaps the most effective element of this is that you can install a pocket door retrospectively. Of course if an architect is designing a property with an open floor plan, this will affect how they design the beams for the upper floors, because there are no load-bearing walls on the ground floor, but this doesn’t prevent you adding partition walls and a pocket door frame on the ground floor later.
If you contact our experts at the Pocket Door Shop we can advise on the suitability of pocket doors for open floor plans and how our range of pocket door systems can create an effective, flexible solution at home or in the workplace, so contact our team today.
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