Are you considering adding a barn door to your bathroom? Think carefully!
There is a disturbing trend these days in home decor. Barn doors for bathrooms.
Barn doors are basically an afterthought in interior design. We have a pocket door on a guest bathroom in our home. It’s fine. Guests are a bit perplexed about how it works but it solves a problem in a tight hallway and the door closes completely – pocket door vs barn doors which don’t close completely.
We also installed a barn door to add a way to cover up a set of built in shelves in an home office. It worked great for that purpose.
But a barn door for a bathroom? No thank you!
On a recent five-day road trip from New Hampshire to Dallas, Texas, I had the chance to sample a variety of hotel rooms in the Hilton lineup. One of the newer ones had a barn door on the bathroom – completely for no reason other than trying to be trendy.
The door was heavy and difficult to slide on its track – unlike regular old door which if properly installed opens and shuts with easy moving hinges. This barn door took a bit of effort to get going and then the momentum of the door would send the door flying past the stops on the track.
Three times I was totally stuck inside the bathroom! Luckily my son was there to free the door. I can’t imagine what might happen to an elderly person who got stuck in their until the maid service came the next day.
And imagine this new horror – during the pandemic maids don’t even enter hotel rooms! You have to specifically arrange special times for maids to come into the room or ask for fresh sheets to be delivered. Of course in the bathroom there is no phone or emergency button to call for help.
Always ask if the hotel has a barn door bathroom before making the reservation and don’t frequent these poorly designed hotels!
My son’s new “luxury” apartment in the Dallas Design District is very nice and modern but unfortunately has two ways into the bathroom. A regular door from the living room and then a barn door from the bedroom.
The barn door for a bathroom is just stupid. It has gaps at the edges, prevents any furniture from going along the wall and doesn’t lock. Is it some kind of handicap access? I don’t know but it’s just not good. Surely they could come up with a better design that seals in the bathroom noise, smells and steam.
So put in a barn door in your home if you want to close off some open living space for a home office, or guest bedroom or to hide some storage area but don’t use them for bathrooms!