Small Spaces by Christine Brun

For the ultimate in space-saving ideas, it is refreshing and inspiring to study the work of designers of yachts and recreational vehicles. By examining these highly specialized designs, anyone can learn useful ways to reclaim floor space eaten up by typical stick-construction swinging doors.

Nautical and motor home designers use all sorts of space-saving tricks, such as pullout tables, counters and beds, flat-screen televisions and narrow fireplaces. There are pocket doors between rooms and flipper doors in cabinetry designed to slide into out-of-the-way recesses when open.

One way to save between 8 and 10 square feet of floor space is to use a pocket-style door. By definition, this is a door that opens by sliding into a pocket or cavity recessed into a wall. However, many people are resistant to pocket doors. Most often they are concerned that the door hardware will be balky and unreliable.

While pocket doors are a useful means to reclaim living space, in many after-construction situations they can be impractical. It can be impossible for prohibitively expensive to install a pocket into walls made of brick or concrete, or build them into walls where electrical wiring or pipes have been installed.

To tackle these problems, a number of manufacturers produce hardware designed to allow sliding doors to be mounted directly on the wall. In the photo is shown a heavy prairie-style glass-and-wood sliding door mounted on a Series 200 WM wall-mount hardware assembly from Johnson Hardware. The assembly can support a door weighing up to 300 pounds.

A German company, Bartels, offers surface-mounted industrial-style hardware that allows doors to slide out of the way in a similar manner.

The look might be better suited for contemporary urban-style interiors. Bartels offers sleek hanging hardware that allows frosted-glass, clear-glass, or wood-panel doors to slide and stack open.

One of the most elegant space-saving door solutions comes from NanaWall Systems Inc. of Northern California. The American-made product flawlessly glides to allow huge walls of glass doors to fold back onto each other with much of the hardware kept out of sight.

The manufacturer boasts that the NanaWall transform rooms and allows homeowners to capture the great outdoors for extra living space. This is no exaggeration. When closed, the system is weather resistant and secure. Yet the assembly allows wide openings that deliver blurred indoor-outdoor boundaries.

One secret to using available outdoor space as an extension of living area is easy access to a deck, balcony or patio. The NanaWall system works so well that it is like magically removing a wall. Collaborating with Mother Nature in this way allows for much more space to entertain and relax.

Christine Brun, ASID, is a San Diego-based interior designer and the author of "Small Space Living." Send questions and comments to her by e-mail at christinebrun@sbcglobal.net. To find out more about Christine Brun and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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