As you move downward in fit and finish, and price range, at what point do you completely dispense with closet doors, and simply drywall-finish the opening jambs and head?
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Tent maybe ?
LOL!!
I've seen this in apartment building. By pass doors hung from tracks, but no jambs, only drywall and corner beads.
I can't imagine how thic could be cost effective. It's butt ugly for sure.
Eric
Yeah, it's fairly common around here for closets to have no jambs, just bypass doors hung in the opening.
I wouldn't say it's "butt ugly". The style wouldn't fit a house with fancy woodwork everywhere else, but in a relatively "modern" home with subdued woodwork it fits in pretty well.
Better yet, take out the whole front wall of the closet and turn it into an alcove.
The transition from my living room to dining room isn't finished as a doorway, even though it's only three feet wide and there's a beam across the top. I don't feel greatly deprived.
I was thinking the same thing. If the doors cost too much, then remove the whole closet and use Shaker pegs to hang, or a hall tree.
now there is a limit to how much this can save. I remember one where I designed in a front entry hall closet and had it framed.
The wife on that job wanted to save bucks and had me take it out so we took a sawsall to that wall. Next weekend, the husband was home and his inspection showed him what we had done. His royal edit was that eh had to have that closet, so we re-framed it. of course, by the following weekend, his wife had convinced him that the closet was too expensive so out it came again.
I figured out later that she had bought a piece of furniture that just had to fit in right there, but she wasn't telling hubby yet.
I suppose that one could frame it in and wrap for sheetrock finish and hang a bifold with out trim. WE did that occasionally in Colorado, but I never liked it because the jambs got dinged up prettybad at the corners from putting stuff in and out of the closet.
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I have the dw jamb in my house and it doesn't bother me. To date no dings have appeared, so I'm okay with it.
It is pretty minimal, but thats what a lot of new houses are today.
Jon Blakemore
I see those in the least expensive homes, the starter homes in what are now deteriortaing neighborhoods; likely toi be FHA or VA deals.
Lack of closet doors in my area is one of the first tip offs that I see that it's going to be a long inspection with a lot to write about.
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That's actually one of the features I often design into a house. If I do them right, I can avoid framing an entire chunk of wall near the dome shell and save probably 500-1000/room. It becomes a walkaround wall. Doing it right means that the opening is along one of the walls adjacent to the door--not the opposite walls--and at the far end of that wall. This means you can't see into the closet, and likely won't even know it's there, until you walk right up to it. It saves money, keeps any messes hidden, allows an easy in-and-out with arms full of clothes or luggage, and saves space. Admittedly, the domes yield unconventional spaces that make this work better.
I'm for a walkaround wall that hides a closet. But you need space to do that.
I'm talking about minimum bedroom size, teeny closet, no closet door.
One of the advantages of having a closed in closet is it keeps dust off your stuff. What you describe just sounds "cheap", not inexpensive.
We've used it in high-end houses to great effect, the clients love it, and you haven't seen it. Thanks for taking the time to offer an opinion.
Cloud,
If I understand what you are describing, we did just that in our bedroom. People can't see it from the doorway or even until they turn the corner, but entry and exit is easy and indirect natural light can more easily enter into the closet - great for clothing selection. It makes the space into more of a dressing room than a closet, and so far we really like it. I never thought of it as being 'cheap', more of a design decision. It was my husband's idea, but I'd do it again.
Amy
Our master closet is done exactly like that and for all the reasons you stated. It actually voids some floor space for us though so it probably cost more than a door would have but it sure is nice.Kevin Halliburton
"Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men." - Solomon
Kevin, for me it started with the sloped walls. Picture a framed wall coming perpendicular into that. Now picture how far we'd have to bring the door toward the center of the dome to allow the corner of the framing/jamb/trim to clear the sloped wall. All that floor space woulda been lost, or less than optimally used. Making it a walk-around rather than a framed door/opening saved us probably 18" of floor space with at least as much headroom. I was actually surprised how well it worked and how well it disappeared into the structure of the wall. Saved not only the door/installation cost, but the awkward framing to the slope of the shell. It really plays out as no different than an outside corner.
Amy...exactly!
The project in question here is a 2-floor condo, 3 br, 2 ba, 1550 sf, the second floor having two small bedrooms with small walk-in closets (small, meaning clothes hanging is along one wall along the length, not both). No wall baffling here, direct views into closets from where beds will go. Closets are lit with 2 ceiling cans each.
Doors for these? Or just drywall-jamb openings? How about some of those beads, the kind of doorway opening the fortune teller walks through when she comes into the room to read your mind?
Doors. You generally want closets to disappear, and that means drawing as little attention to them as possible. The only non-conventional treatment I've seen that works for my eyes was a southwestern style room with adobe-ish walls with arched openings for closets, where Mexican blankets were hung on the backside. That fit the room nicely. Doors here, if at all possible.
Modernist style high end work often has a reveal instead of just a simple bead corner. Looks simple but costs a lot more in labor.
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5ft. DW opening. Spring loaded shower curtain rod, customer can go to BBB,select the shower curtain of their choice to go with the decor.
Or you can hang up some sheets from the thrift store with some duct tape you bought on eBay.
I have a room like that, the intention was to have closest doors but some things got in the way. Got the room done and had to finish up some trim work in much more visible rooms. Then a new baby and some other stuff, Then a" it is okay for now attitude" then a ""i really need to get to that soon", then a 3 room gut and redo of the kitchen and a couple of bedrooms on the first floor. Oh yeah, what about the closet doors upstairs. Well 3.5 years later they are finally sitting at the lumberyard waiting for me to pick them up. Getting closer. Hope to get them in before the new baby, or maybe after, probably after, given I only have two weeks left and much trim to make and hang. But at least now they exist. Chances are they will be hung in the next 30 days as I have nowhere to put them, and the lumberyard won’t hold them forever. Big closet, full wall on each side, 6 doors. Figured I should make some excuse.
It always surprises me how much things vary from one region to the next. This thread has been no exception.
Around here, drywall jambs are all but unheard of. They really look cheap to me. Guess it's what you're used to.
.
I do remember a big retirement center I did roof trusses and wall panels on where they did these drywalled jambs on all the 4/0 bi-fold closet doors.
I tried to get a dimension from the GC for the opening width before we built the wall panels. The job super told me to go with 4' 0". I said I don't think that's right. He said just go ahead and do it, that's what I want.
So they get several of the 6 unit buildings framed and drywalled. When they go to install the bi-folds in the openings, they don't fit.
Trouble is, the job super has since been canned. So the NEW job super is furious, and wants us to pay for the mistake. We refuse, since the first job super insisted on that dimension.
In the end, the GC ate the cost, and they cut the doors down to fit.
The fish is killed by its open mouth