Turtles and Tails: Installing Bi-Fold Doors

I am finally ready to show off the work we've done in the front foyer. If you remember, before we started painting - way back in January - it looked like this:

We painted the walls Benjamin Moore Ranchwood, and I painted the baseboard trim a bright white (still need to paint the trim around the doors).

We also replaced the light fixture, swapping out the plain flush-mount circle for an oil-rubbed bronze pendant.

In trying to clean double-sided tape off the mirror I found that nail polish remover is excellent for giving your fake-wood frame an aged look. Score one for happy accidents!

But the big project, the one that has taken the most time, is replacing the closet's sliding doors with framed in bi-folds.

I don't know why this took so long. It really wasn't that difficult. I think it just looked like it was going to be so we kept putting it off. Not to mention that I kept changing my mind on whether I wanted thinner louvered doors or thick hollow-core ones. I was leaning towards louvered only because they were already white - the other doors were an off-white that had to be painted. But I finally decided that the extra effort was worth it for a nicer looking closet.

We started by removing the upper and lower tracks for the old doors, and removing the baseboard trim that would be in the way. We were lucky that the bottom track was only glued to the floor so it popped right off. I just realized I haven't cleaned that leftover glue off the floor yet.

The doors were just under 48" across while the opening was 49", and the doors were also about 2" too short, so we had to frame in the opening to make it smaller.

Everything was going along swell and it seemed like this was going to be an easy weekend project until Tom tried to fit the doors in and found that the walls for the closet opening weren't straight. Like, not even close. He started knocking out the drywall on the one side and found that the 2x4 used at that end was twisted. He had to force it in further and then we built the corner back out with drywall mud. Giving it a few days to cure and a second coat, it was a week later when we put the frame back in. But it was straight this time!

We installed new baseboards and trim, touched up the walls, caulked the seams, and gave it two coats of Behr white paint & primer in one. The doors also got two coats of white.

Supervisor approves our work:

We decided on simple nickel door handles - nothing too in-your-face. But still more interesting than the plain wooden knobs that came with the doors.

It's funny how much time we spent deciding exactly where they should go. Of course they would look nicer near the inner edge of each door, but given the nature of how bi-folds work they had to go closer to the center of each door, so that when you pull the door would fold up. Closer to the edge and you would have to do a funny twist and pull that would get annoying really quickly.

So here we are. I can't believe how much bigger the closet looks.

How about a little side-by-side?

ranchwood foyer paint bifold doors before and after

I'm planning on cutting down the legs on that desk and turning it into a bench with a comfy seat. It would be nice to have somewhere to sit down to put your shoes on. And I'm also considering painting the mirror frame white - even after all of the nail polish remover "sanding" I did.

Some more gratuitous shots: