The Guest Cottage – What Do We Do With The Sliding Train Rack Door??

Today is a great example of why I love this blog so much. I have some really good ideas from experience and places I don’t have. Today’s example is all about how to work with vintage sliding doors in a guest cottage. This is a feature I like in theory, but it’s not very suitable for daily going in and out (it’s very heavy and doesn’t seal at all). When I casually mentioned in my August post that I didn’t know how to deal with it, some people had clear answers that I hadn’t thought of.

From T: “When I was in England, there were a lot of barn conversions going on where you couldn’t change the exterior of the building because you wanted to preserve the historic character. So what a lot of people did was put a through window behind the barn door. This sealed off the space, but you could slide the barn door open and access the new door on the inside of the window in the wall.”

To which DJ replied, “Yes, yes! I love this! Barn doors basically act as giant, huge, dilapidated (unnecessary but awesome) shutters, hey!”

Then another reader, Hilary, sent me a photo of her mother’s house in New England and what she did there – thank you!

It makes a lot of sense now (it took me a while to understand). You need to design the window/door situation inside/behind the large sliding door so that the large sliding door becomes just a giant shutter. You can keep it closed when you don’t go in and out often, and leave it open when you go in and out often. Understood!

But finding inspiration was tough. I had no idea what to search on Google or search on Pinterest.

So the questions keep coming up…

1. Wooden frame or black metal? Do you want to go with something traditional, so give it an edgy, forward-thinking design with something that looks more contemporary? Is this ultra-modern look really great? Yes, but that means other elements might need to feel that way too. I’d love to create some contemporary light fixtures that combine this historic feel with more unexpected elements (think Parisian apartments from the 1960s with metal lights and very ornate moldings; this combination is very exciting). This is probably the more expensive route, but a custom door/window situation will be expensive…
2. If you lean toward traditional wood-framed windows/doors, should you customize the glazing/lights to merge a diamond pattern with a grid of squares, like we did in the sunroom at home, or keep it simple with squares?
3. Two side panels and one door?French doors?
4. When customizing your door, do you need to make the opening frame a little smaller so you can make your kitchen a few feet bigger?

This is a photo of the inside that shows the size of the opening.

If you make this opening smaller, you will need to add more interior panels or come up with another solution. However, that kitchen is tucked into a corner and small, so an additional 18 inch kitchen would have been very large.

Anyway, I know there’s a company in town; versatile (Co-owned by the owners of) arch form), you can create custom doors/windows and perform any design. It will cost you a lot of money, so you need to make sure the design is correct and worth it. Another option would be to look at something ready-made (French doors with sidelights) and just frame it, but that doesn’t seem very interesting to me (but would save fabric). We know there are definitely some design elements you can afford to splurge on, and a beautiful custom door and window situation could be one of them. But I’d like to do more research to make sure it’s the right choice for this project. Also, sierra pacificthe guy who did all the first floor windows, including the diamond-shaped windows in the gorgeous sunroom (above), would absolutely do it (well, I think so…), so that might be an option as well. I’m definitely considering vintage, but I’m not sure if I can easily find one near me (and if it would work).

Meanwhile, here’s a glimpse of what’s going on in my head. These are all vintage doors/windows (or custom I think). I placed a pink panel there to show a configuration that might work: a large door with two side panels and a light above it. The rest just shows a version of the diamond pattern on the main house. Designing the sunroom windows was a lot of fun (and a very long process for me), so a part of me knows the pattern will work. I was able to make two panels and a large Dutch door in the middle. Now that I think about it, when I’m inside the house, I have to open the door with the barn door handle on the far right to get out…or do I leave the giant slider open while I’m inside the house and only slide it closed when no one is home? Lots of fun problem solving, but if you have any insights or suggestions, I’d love to hear them. Thank you very much for your feedback. I am very grateful. One of my favorite expressions is, “We don’t know what we don’t know,” and I remain endlessly curious. So while many designers may admit they don’t know things, I actually love finding out that I don’t know things. It’s a real fuel to do research and learn, and honestly, it’s such a gift and what makes me so happy in this industry.

Catch up with the guest cottage!!

*Cute pictures: kailtin green