can i make a multi-fold room divider out of wardrobe doors?

pax drammen“not unlike vince’s room divider hack, i want to use these pax drammen doors, 6 of them ought to do it, to create a room divider.

but here’s the rub, i want them to fold up against a wall when they are not in use (most of the time). they will only be brought out to divide the living room in half when we have guests. the ‘guest room’ will then house the windows though, so i like the idea of it letting light through.

so i want to do something similar to this:

multi-fold door multi-fold door

note how, when you need to, you can fold them against the wall, flat?

where there are a number of doors, they are center mounted and sliding. raydoor‘s solution for the lowest end is $5800, for 10′ x 10’ worth of door (4 10’x2’6″), and they need 75 days of lead time. also, if one breaks, it’s another custom order.

the problem is threefold:

  1. how do i find hardware that is reliable and sturdy (sliding stuff always breaks, even more so if you add rotation around a single point).
  2. how do i mount it to the pax doors?
  3. the doors are only about 7′ tall, so how do i hang it in a 10′ space and still leave the ceiling looking nice and open, not dividing the room into two when it’s not used?
  4. can i just get the pax stordal put the track on a hinge, and swing it across the apartment, then pull the doors across when i need it? is that too ghetto?

ikea would be a good solution for this not only because of its cheaper price, but its better availability (i don’t have to wait 75 days and pay an extra grand for a replacement).” – michael

michael,
the 3 feet gap between ceiling and door is definitely a problem in what you’re planning to do. a way could be to attach the top and bottom of the doors to a rod of some kind (curtain rods perhaps) and connect both ends of the rod to the track but that could be tough to do in reality. and perhaps quite ghastly looking. an option is to do a folding screen instead (here’s a link for multi-folding door hardware but not sure if they are any good. i think the best bet is still your local hardware store.)

if you’re still keen on sliding, vince explains in the comment sections here how he hung the doors using stolmen poles. drilling holes into the pax wardrobe required. you can hang the doors a foot off the floor to balance out the 10′ ceiling height.

not sure how your living room is, but if you do have wall space next to the proposed door space, you can push the sliding doors all the way in (something like a pocket door, without the pocket), flushed with the wall, rather than fold them like your original idea.

other softer options would be to use ikea curtains like this or curtain panels on pulleys, so you can draw them away when not in use.

anyone?