What Can You Do with Accordion Doors?

There are probably some spaces in your home or work area that require a bit more privacy or separation, but don't warrant the need for a full door. Accordion doors can be the perfect option, blocking off and separating areas when needed without making it permanent. In fact, there are multiple ways to use accordion doors (also called folding doors or bifold doors) in the home or office to give everyone the space they need.

17 Ways to Use Accordion Doors

1. Living Area Dividers
2. Kitchens
3. Nursing Stations
4. Flex Panel Walls
5. Hiding Cluttered Areas
6. Temporary Offices
7. Closets
8. Entertaining Areas
9. Medical Partitions
10. Classroom Dividers
11. Workspace Privacy
12. Playroom
13. Display Towers
14. Pantry
15. Dining Area
16. Laundry Room
17. Bedroom Divider

Accordion doors are a unique type of door that folds into itself in a zig-zag pattern. When folded up, they take up very little space, unlike traditional doors that need to swing open or barn doors that need to slide back onto a wall. These doors come in various materials, including wood accordion doors, glass accordion doors, and vinyl accordion doors, allowing them to fit into any style and function.Some accordion doors don't even require installation. Instead, they come in the form of a divider with wheels that's easily transportable to create a quick and simple room divider. However, others do require installation, which is a better option if you plan to frequently utilize the bi-fold door to separate your home or office areas.

17 Ways to Use Accordion Doors

Accordion doors can fit into several different styles and play various roles within your home or office space, from upscale French accordion doors to vinyl laminate accordion closet doors. The following list includes ideas for using accordion doors in your work or living space, allowing for quick and convenient separation when needed.

1. Living Area Dividers

An open concept living room and first-level area is a major selling point for modern homes. But with the convenience and beauty of an open concept comes some challenges for homeowners, including keeping kids and pets safe in a space, and separating the kitchen and living areas while entertaining.

The folding door system that accordion doors provide can be the perfect solution. You won't have to install hefty doors that need to swing open and take up space in your floor plan. Instead, all a set of accordion folding doors need is enough space to fold in on itself, saving critical room area. Then, when you want a little more separation between your living spaces, shut the accordion doors, or leave them open when you want to give everyone the chance to mingle and move freely in your home.

2. Kitchens

A large kitchen gives you plenty of room to move around easily without bumping into others or your countertops and appliances. Still, an accordion door can be beneficial for this space when you want to separate the room a bit. For example, you might want to make an open area of the kitchen a small breakfast nook. Add accordion doors, and you'll give the family some separation from the cooking area while they're eating breakfast each morning.

You can also use the same trick to turn part of your kitchen into a home office area or homework station. Add an accordion door panel around the space to allow for privacy while keeping the kitchen functional when you need to use it.

3. Nursing Stations

Not all work offices come equipped with the space needed to accommodate every employee's needs. Still, there's a necessary demand for discrete and private nursing stations for nursing mothers who want to return to work — and that space should never be the office restroom.
If your office space is limited, an accordion door could be a good fix. For example, you might install one between cubicles as a small, private area for nursing moms to use, or set up a bi-fold divider in a meeting room to block off a space as needed.

As mentioned, some accordion doors don't even need to be installed. Instead, they roll on wheeled tracks to be a portable solution to use where required. For example, nursing women can bring the panel to their cubicle to offer a private barrier as they nurse and work.

4. Flex Panel Walls

A flex panel wall is a type of folding door that does not need to be installed with modern hardware, as other accordion doors need to. The result is a portable, folding door that you can easily move to for use whenever you need it. These specialty doors usually have wheels for easy and convenient moving to their new location, and you can fold them as needed to wrap around your space.

Flex panel walls can be excellent additions to the home or office. Use them at home to separate two areas of a shared kids' bedroom, divide the bathroom from the laundry area, or partition parts of the garage. In the office, you can use a flex door system to create makeshift cubicles or meeting areas to meet your business's always-changing demands or create designated areas for a company event.

5. Hiding Cluttered Areas

How nice would it be to close off an area of your home quickly when guests come over, so they don't see the clutter? For example, you might want to hide the laundry area or playroom where the little ones have been hanging out all morning. A set of track-mounted accordion doors and room dividers can help you accomplish this.

Add custom accordion doors to areas where you want to close off part of the space when it's not in use. This idea can also work well for a den, office space, closet, or pantry area that doesn't get used all the time, but can get cluttered easily. Especially if you're in a time crunch and don't have time to organize the clutter, simply use the accordion doors to close off the space until you can take care of the mess.

6. Temporary Offices

Some businesses have more fluid office spaces than permanent ones, depending on the company's needs and its workers. Open concept offices might work well most of the time, but there still may be some times that warrant a more private setting, like during brainstorming meetings or one-on-one mentoring or training. Folding accordion doors can create temporary office spaces to achieve privacy in the office.

These doors can also come in handy in coworking spaces to make temporary private areas for groups to gather in. Woodfold accordion doors are good options for this, offering quick separation when the need arises but without taking up crucial square footage in the coworking space. Depending on the style of a coworking space, you might also incorporate a stainless steel bi-fold door, aluminum doors, or glass accordion doors to get more natural light.

7. Closets

Closet doors are usually sliding doors, which can save space in the bedroom over a traditional door that swings open. However, sliding doors don't allow you to open up the closet fully, keeping one section of the closet blocked off until you move the doors to the other side. Some sliding closet doors can also look and feel flimsy, easily sliding off their tracks and needing to be put back in place.

Custom accordion doors installed on a closet opening can instantly perk up the style of a bedroom while keeping the closet hidden away. Accordion doors are beneficial for walk-in closets with space to change clothes in, offering just the right amount of privacy and separation from the bedroom. It has a similar function as a pocket door but without the need to cut into the wall to install it.

8. Entertaining Areas

Do you have a large kitchen or living room area that's perfect for entertaining? Or maybe a finished basement with a bar, small movie theater, or gaming area? These spaces make having friends and family over a blast, but when the party's over, you might want to close off the space to keep it a bit more separate from the rest of your home.

To do that, you might install accordion doors to open and close as needed. Open the space to give guests an open invitation to move around the home, or shut the doors for a more intimate feel or after guests have headed out. Accordion doors can also separate distinct areas of your entertainment room, allowing groups to mingle with a little more privacy.

9. Medical Partitions

The last time you visited the emergency room at a hospital, you might have seen accordion doors being used as dividers between rooms. Some hospitals create extra space for patients by using commercial accordion doors to divide rooms when more beds are needed. The dividers generate space between patients, allowing for privacy for the patient and convenience for the hospital and its staff.

BarnDoorHardware.com has a specific product made for this purpose called the Healthflex Medical Partition. This accordion door includes an anti-microbial coating that's ideal for medical settings and a durable steel frame for longevity. With self-leveling wheels on the bottom of the frame, the partition can move freely around a room for quick and convenient separation.

10. Classroom Dividers

Large accordion doors can fit a massive room opening, making them an excellent solution for spacious classrooms that could use more separation to accommodate students. Some schools use these doors to divide a large classroom into two for part of the day, opening it up when instruction warrants blended classrooms or extra space.

Accordion doors can also block off cafeterias, gymnasiums, libraries, and other school common areas to fit the needs of the school and its classes during the day. Temporary dividers with wheels can also be beneficial for periods of school testing.

11. Workspace Privacy

Workspaces can be distracting when they don't have enough separation for employees to be productive. Whether you want to make permanent cubicles or like to have some partitions available to go with the flow when needed, accordion doors can help.

Try the Screenflex Study Carrel for temporary separations, perfect for keeping workers separated for skill training or testing. The Screenflex Whiteboard provides both separation and functionality with its dry-erase surface for use in meetings. Or, use the Screenflex Clear Room Divider for a bit of separation while allowing natural light to move through your office space.

12. Playroom

A playroom is such an amazing room to have with kids in the home — except for the clutter that can come with it. Playrooms are often separate rooms in the home, like spare bedrooms, but some families turn extra living space, like a den area, into the play area.
When you don't want that area on display all the time, a folding door can keep it out of sight when the kids aren't playing. This separation can also be useful when it's naptime or bedtime to close off the room as an indicator that it's time to wind down for the day.

13. Display Towers

Science fairs, meetings, presentations, craft fairs, and trade shows are examples of events that can use portable accordion doors as display towers. A display tower allows people to post photos, graphs, and other important pieces of information to display for an audience. Portable accordion doors usually have two or three panels that fold and open, allowing you to position them where you'd like them. And, they wheel around, making it easy to move the tower anywhere you need it to go.

You can place a custom order for a display tower from BarnDoorHardware.com. The three-panel display offers an impressive 68 square feet of area for display.

14. Pantry

Do you have a pantry that won't play well with a regular door? If a traditional door could take up too much room in your kitchen or bump into things when opened, you might try a folding accordion door instead. With different materials, like wood or glass options, hardware, and door height possibilities, you can make an accordion door look like it was made for your kitchen design. Like a closet door, the pantry door can cover clutter and be simple to open and use when needed.

15. Dining Area

Do you have a kitchen with a connected or nearby dining area? Open kitchen and dining spaces are a popular draw for many homeowners, but they also come with some challenges. Sometimes, you might simply want to close up your kitchen space after cooking dinner so that your family can enjoy the meal without looking at the leftover mess. Or, an accordion door can help to keep the dining area separate from your living area or kitchen to keep pets and kids out until you're ready to eat together.

Small accordion doors can even be used as dividers to add a little separation to a large dining area. Block off one section for an intimate breakfast nook and open the space when you have a large group to entertain.

16. Laundry Room

Laundry areas are convenient to have on the living level of your home for quick and easy access when it's laundry time. But that doesn't mean that you always need to see your washer and dryer hanging around.

If you have your appliances in the bathroom, closet, or their own laundry area without a door, consider adding an accordion door in front of them. When you're not doing laundry or don't care to see dirty clothes getting washed, you can tuck your washer and dryer out of sight behind the doors. A glass accordion door can also be a good choice to help you keep an eye on your laundry while giving the area a little facelift.

17. Bedroom Divider

Spacious bedrooms are beautiful and inviting, but they can come with some decorating challenges. Should you add furniture to fill up the space or leave it open with the risk of it feeling empty?

An accordion door that blocks off an empty area of the bedroom might be the right solution. Hang it on a track from the ceiling as a makeshift divider for changing. Or, create a private reading and relaxing nook with chairs, a coffee table, and a bookshelf near your favorite window, separated from the rest of the room by the accordion door.

Are Accordion Doors Soundproof?

Because accordion doors come in such a wide variety of styles and materials, some of them will be more soundproof than others. This could be an important consideration to make, depending on where you'd like to install your door and what purpose it will serve. For example, temporary office and meeting spaces might require more soundproofing for privacy than, say, a door covering your closet would.

Generally, accordion doors aren't the best option if sound is a primary concern. Although many accordion doors will offer a small sound barrier, they will not block out a significant amount of sound. Classrooms and other high-sound spaces might look for an accordion door that's made of thick wood to block out as much sound as possible. You can also opt for an insulated accordion door for an extra layer of sound protection.

How to Install Accordion Doors

Accordion doors do not install the same way as traditional doors, but they do install similarly to other types of sliding doors, like those using a curved track or box track hardware. When you order an accordion door from BarnDoorHardware.com, you'll receive specific, step-by-step installation instructions for your door with your order. However, here are a few general steps that can help you prepare for installing your door when the time comes:

1. Remove the old doors and their hardware, if applicable.
2. Measure and mark the holes for the track on the top of the door frame with the track centered. Use a drill to pre-drill holes and install the track with screws.
3. Thread the outermost wheel of the door into the top track. Then, move the other wheels into the track.
4. Decide which way you'd like the door to open. Anchor the opposite end using channel clips and screws drilled into the closure channel.

Accordion doors are designed to be an easy installation, but it's a good idea to have a helper assist you with the installation, especially for more oversized doors.

What Sizes Do Accordion Doors Come In?

Accordion doors can come in a range of sizes, usually anywhere from two feet to six feet wide. They're often in a standard door height of 80 inches, but you can also get custom doors to fit your space.
One perk of accordion doors is that they can fit extra-large door openings, like the space between a living area and kitchen. When opened, they fold compactly to stay out of the way and open the space, but they can cover several feet when stretched out. If you want more coverage than one panel can provide, you can buy two panels to create a double door that opens on each side.

Many of our options at BarnDoorHardware.com are designed for these large spaces, especially in offices and classrooms. We can create custom doors to fit the needs of your space, with our Woodfold accordion doors being some of our most popular options. Choose from a traditional wood panel look, or opt for other colors, like black, rattan, and cherry, to fit seamlessly with your design.

Where to Buy Accordion Doors

Accordion doors can be excellent alternatives to French doors, double doors, and other specialty doors that can take up needed floor space in your home. Available in various styles and sizes, there's an accordion door that can fit within any space that needs a little extra separation.
To buy accordion doors for folding closet doors, living space dividers, or clutter hiders, consider BarnDoorHardware.com's selection. We offer accordion doors for both personal and commercial purposes, allowing you to separate spaces with no-fuss, simple door installations. We even have no-installation-necessary rolling accordion doors for quick and temporary dividers in office spaces, medical facilities, and classrooms. Browse our selection today!