Sliding or swing interior doors? How to choose steel and glass doors for your space

Before you choose – check the space around the doorway

Answer four questions. Each one narrows the choice:

• How much room is there in front of and behind the opening? – a swing door moves in an arc and a pivot door moves to both sides. If furniture stands right by the doorway, sliding or bifold doors work better.
• Is there a free wall next to the opening? – a sliding door moves along the wall or disappears into it. It needs a stretch of wall at least as wide as the door itself.
• How wide is the doorway? – a standard opening needs one door. A wide doorway can take double doors, telescopic sliding doors or bifolds.
• Does the door need to lock? – swing doors can have a lock, and sliding and bifold doors take a hook lock. Pivot doors have no lock.

Swing doors – the best at closing off a room

A door on hinges with a frame – single or double (French), with side panels or a transom above. The frame has a seal, so the door sits tight against it and closes the doorway best. We install a handle, including a privacy lock. Swing doors need room to swing – two narrower doors need less than one wide one.

Sliding doors – no space taken in front of the doorway

The door does not swing but slides along the wall. We make interior steel sliding doors in several layouts:

• Barn-style with a visible track – the door slides in front of the wall; we paint the track and rollers in the frame color, so they are part of the look.
• Pocket doors – when open, the door slides into a cavity inside the wall and disappears. The pocket has to be planned during construction or remodeling.
• Double sliding doors – two doors slide apart and give a wider, symmetrical opening.
• Telescopic – the panels slide to one side and stack one behind the other. They open a wide doorway when there is no wall on the other side.

Interior sliding doors – pros and cons

• Pro: space – nothing has to stay clear in front of or behind the door, so they suit a narrow hallway, a small room or a walk-in closet.
• Pro: wide opening – one or two panels or a telescopic layout can open even a very wide doorway.
• Con: seal and wall – a sliding door sits less tightly against the wall than a swing door against a sealed frame. The wall beside the doorway has to stay free – no artwork, no dresser.

Pivot doors – striking, opening both ways

The door turns on a pivot set in from the edge: the bottom point is fixed in the floor, the top one in the frame or a header beam. It opens both ways and closes by itself, and it can be held open when needed. It needs space on both sides of the doorway and has no lock – a door for a living room, foyer or study, not a bathroom. More in our guide “What is a pivot door?”.

Bifold doors – for wide doorways

The panels fold together and stack at the side of the doorway – to one side or both. They need less space to open than swing doors and open almost the full width of the opening, so they work between a living room and a kitchen, a dining room or a sunroom. They can also take up just part of a wider structure. If they need to lock, we install a hook lock – just as in sliding doors.

Which doors to choose? A quick guide

• Little space in front of the door → sliding (barn-style or pocket).
• The room has to lock – bathroom, bedroom → swing door with a privacy lock, or sliding or bifold with a hook lock.
• A wide doorway – living room, kitchen, dining room → bifold, double sliding or telescopic.
• The door should be a feature → pivot, or steel French doors with side panels.
• You only need to divide the space → a fixed glass partition – no opening doors.

How to order custom interior doors

1. Measure the opening – width and height – and check how much space there is beside and in front of the doorway. A photo or a hand sketch is enough.
2. In the 3D configurator choose how the door opens, the grid, glass and color – you can compare several options.
3. You receive a free quote with a technical drawing right away. We check that the chosen layout works in your opening.
4. Prefer to write? Send us the dimensions, a photo or a sketch – we will prepare a quote by e-mail.

Lead time is usually 5–6 weeks from design approval; we give the exact date with the quote.