The Vintage Space-Saving Design Feature That Jonathan Scott Calls A 'Hidden Treasure'

Jonathan Scott, one half of HGTV's immensely popular Property Brothers franchise, recommends embracing your home's quirks rather than replacing them. When asked by a homeowner whether or not he should keep hidden pocket doors in his vintage home, Scott said, "100% you keep them." The mechanism of the heavy wooden pocket doors the homeowner uncovered needed repair, but their space-saving design is unmistakable. Unlike the sliding barn doors that seemed to capture every designer's imagination for a few years, pocket doors slide inside the wall when they're not in use rather than outside it.

Vintage pocket doors, introduced to the U.S. in the mid-nineteenth century, are architectural statements. Older doors might be made from solid wood, like mahogany and oak, and often feature carvings, window panes, or stained glass — features that can only be seen when the doors are closed. When they're open, they're hidden in the wall. The space-saving design means there is no door swing interfering with furniture placement and an uninterrupted opening between rooms. The average home, new or vintage, recovers about 15 square feet in usable space for each pocket door. Basic modern pocket doors tend to be simple and functional single or double doors, though upscale and custom-made versions are available. If you need to replace a vintage door, you can use almost any door that fits as a replacement.

Vintage pocket doors can be difficult to operate due to aging hardware, but that shouldn't deter you from saving them. The earliest doors had tracks along the bottom, and as homes shifted or flooring warped, the tracks became misaligned. Doors with tracks along the top replaced the earlier problematic doors. If your door has an upper track, you can hire an expert to fix it. Or, getting the door back on track may be a quick do-it-yourself fix. You may be able to remove the top trim on the doorway and lift the door off the track. After you've done that, you can replace the broken track or rollers. If you need to refurbish a vintage door or replace a damaged door, use the same method to take it down so you can work on it.

Over time, it simply became easier to use standard doors in new builds than installing pocket doors, but the space-saving benefits of pocket doors are apparent if you have a small house. Pocket door installation kits allow you to add them to almost any room while you're building the house. They can be added later but require extra work or expense, especially in a load-bearing wall. In a non-load bearing wall, you'll need to remove drywall to install the door; a load-bearing wall requires the installation of a beam. Rooms that feel tight are among the best places in your home for a pocket door. Replacing a standard closet door with a pocket door effectively adds space to a bedroom or may free enough space in a small room to allow you to repurpose it as a guest room.