Anyone not have closet doors and use a curtain or something else?

[CountrylivinmomtoB]

I decided to take the closet doors off of DD's closest. She's always in there, pulling our her toys or what not- what is where we keep her stuff, and it seemed like once i took them off, there was a ton more room. (We had the bifold doors) Does anyone have any pictures of what they have done to their closet, or their DC's closet? I was thinking of putting up a curtain rod and getting a curtain and just pushing to to the side, kind of like a shower curtain... Looking for ideas!

[Lovenest]

First off, great idea!! It can be made into a little fort type thing, kids love small spaces anyways!
I googled and found these photos:

http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/ph...ed/closet1.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/66/209491547_a90bcdebc2_o.png

I thought these curtains from IKEA were cute!

[stretchmark]

I have no photos but can offer that a book I read about tiny houses mentioned to not have doors to create more space.
My house didn't have any doors for 5 years because we were remodeling and it was just fine with a curtain rod and pretty fabric. Also there are some nice bead curtains out there, maybe not the best choice for toddlers though.

[rainbowmoon]

I am going to do this w/ my kids rooms until I can afford new doors (I need several, or rather ALL the other crappy doors replaced in the house first, so it will be ahwile..) I thought I would us a shower curtain rod (if it's wide enough that is, and hang it inside underneath the top (so you won't see the shower curtain rod, just the curtain)

I also know someone who did this (my ex SIL) and stapled it to a peice of wood then attached it.

[Thalia]

We did that in our study. The old door was a bifold door and the mechanism wasn't working very well. It had a big gap at the top between the door and frame. We finally just let the landlord know we were taking it off, and he didn't have a problem with it.

I got a tension curtain rod and an inexpensive window curtain and put it up in about 5 minutes. It works well because it's the closet we keep all our cleaning supplies in, and it's much easier to drag out the vacuum and stuff now.

Here are some photos:

Closed:
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/IMG_1807.jpg
Open (close up)
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/IMG_1813.jpg

If I wanted to make it perfect, I'd hem the bottom so that it was perfectly aligned with the floor. But I don't have a sewing machine and don't mind a little "puddling" on the floor.

[Starflower]

I took the old sliding doors off in both DD's room and our room. Ours was the first actually. In there, I have a shower curtain on a rod. Unfortunately, you can see the shower curtain rod and the curtains not quite long enough, but I just put new hooks on it - the chrome ones with the rollers - and it looks nice. The curtain doesn't really look like a shower curtain anyway.

In DD's room, so far I haven't put up anything. I have some fabric to match the curtains on her window though. (Sky with clouds and little sparkles.) I haven't got around to sewing it yet. I was waiting until she got a bit older and wasn't hanging on stuff so much, so I probably ought to get sewing now. I will use a plain curtain rod for her room though. I'm sure she'll like it - she likes to hide in my closet sometimes.

I also have curtains in my kitchen covering the W/D area. I used to have bifold doors but when the old washer died, we got a new set that stacks and has the buttons/dials on the front. The doors wouldn't close. Oops. They were ugly anyway so we took them off. I finally just now put up a curtain rod and hung some cute tab-top panels up there (I got them for $2.49 each on clearance at Linens N Things.)

Our pantry had a bifold door which finally just broke apart. I considered putting up a curtain here as well, but I am still in the market for a new door. I want to be able to keep DD and the dog out of the pantry. Not that it's a huge problem, but I think I'd just prefer a door there. But a solid one instead of the slatted kind - those collect too much dust at my house.

[UmmBnB]

We have a curtain on our bedroom closet. Whomever installed the door put the bottom hinge upside down so the pin constantly falls out. Then the door knob kept falling out. Since my dear dear husband - the professional carpenter!!!!!!!! - was somehow unable to get around to fixing the thing, I put up a curtain. I'd rather have the door but it works fine.

[CountrylivinmomtoB]

Thanks! this weekend I think I will venture out and look for something! Hopefuly i'll find something that matches! Her room is pink-white chair rail-yellow.

[SkylarJulesmom]

When I read your post I ran in and took a few pictures of my kids closet! I have the Hokus curtains from Ikea on there! When we moved in we had sliding closet doors and I had nightmares about my kids slamming their fingers in the door or my son trapping his sister in there. : I took the doors off and left it open for quite a while and then got bored and put the curtains on it, it looks so much nicer! I would post the pictures but my husband took the camera to his buddies house and left the cord to down load pics at his house! So until maybe Saturday I won't be able to post them I would love to put a white picket fence as the door but the closet isn't deep enough!
Hope this helps! Erin

[kwilki8]

My last house had no doors on any closets, and I didn't like them open, so I put up tension rods and made curtains from sheets--I just sewed a pocket for the rod along one end. It worked great! I went with sheets because I found some really pretty ones on sale that were much less expensive than curtains or fabric.

[~Nikki~]

We did this in our old house with the main floor closet, because it didn't have a door and we were renting, so we didn't want the expense of purchasing something that we would be leaving behind.

We used a spring loaded rod (like one that you would get for a shower curtain) and I sewed a curtain for it with a tabbed pocket. It held up quite well, didn't damage the walls, and I was able to find a new use for the fabric when we moved to a new house.

I'd highly reccommend the type of setup that Thalia posted, with the wire hanger and the rivted (is that the right term) holes. It'll help with sliding the "door" open and closed. That was the one issue we had with ours. It didn't slide back and forth very easily, so we had to kind of pull it to one side to access the closet. Not a big deal, because it was a narrow closet, but I could see it being an issue for a larger bedroom closet.

[lerlerler]

Consider a "puppet theater" curtain!

Make one if you are at all handy - heck use felt and you don't even need to sew

here's one as an example

[CountrylivinmomtoB]

Originally Posted by lerlerler

Consider a "puppet theater" curtain!

Make one if you are at all handy - heck use felt and you don't even need to sew

here's one as an example

There was nothing there for a link or anything... I'd love to see that though.

[lerlerler]

WoopS!


http://www.creativekidstuff.com/the-moon-theater.html

(I have no experience with this particular one)

[BornInSeptember]

Our house was built with no folding or sliding doors at all and I love it. Every opening is large enough for a normal door. That includes pantry, bedroom closets (makes them walk in style) linen closet and front door closet.

[2Sweeties1Angel]

We replaced one of our bathroom doors with a curtain. It's held up with a shower curtain rod. (It's the master bath--no guests have to pee behind the curtain ). I like the idea of replacing the kids' closet doors with curtains.

[lmonter]

I haven't installed curtains on our closets. Yet.

Our house had these horrible bi-fold doors that I had dh take down within the first week of moving in. Not only were they ugly, they took up floor space when you opened them, and they're good at pinching little fingers. Well, and I grew up without closet doors (seriously, my dad did some funky closet set up kinda like California Closets with real oak and some laminated shelves), so I just don't dig doors anyway.

I just haven't taken the final plunge because we have *big* closets, so that'd be a huge chunk of change for each closet. Well, and I'm intimidated by interior decorating because I have a hard time envisioning a final product and I'm scared of crazy colors... Anyway. It's a fabulous idea which we do eventually plan to put into play at some point.


Oh, to folks who have done this - what kind of curtain rod do you use? Have they fallen down on your kiddos? I can just see my monkeys attempting to hang off them...