One Room Challenge
For week two of The One Room Challenge® I’ll be covering the process of how and why we added jib doors to our walk in closet in our existing home, discussing how doable it is as a DIY project & the results.
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See my previous ORC post here:
Backstory
I’ve always been obsessed with French architecture & was fortunate enough to visit Versailles almost 20 years ago. One of my favorite details when touring the palace was seeing the secret hidden doors in the bedrooms that led to hidden passage ways. Since then I’ve dreamed of having a jib door somewhere in my home.
What is a Jib Door?
A jib door is a concealed door designed to blend seamlessly with the surrounding wall, lacking traditional door frames, moldings, and visible hardware to maintain a hidden, uninterrupted surface. These doors are often further disguised into a wall with matching paint, wallpaper or integrated into trimwork.
Remodel Time
When it finally came time for a remodel of our master suite – we ended up gutting our entire bathroom which also included going down to the studs on the adjacent closet & bedroom walls. Since we were relocating the entry points to the bathroom & closet for a better flow & maximized storage – we figured it was now or never to finally live my dream of having a pretty little Parisian inspired dressing room – fit for a queen complete with secret jib doors leading to both the bathroom & walk in closet.
Selecting the Doors
You do have to make a lot of decisions when ordering these jib doors. You’ll need to know what height, and width for the door, the depth of your finished wall, what way you want the door to swing, which side will be flush with the wall, what color hinges, and what your preferred style of door handle and lock is as they can pre drill the door for either American Standard or European locks. You then also need to pick your door lever & lock.
We used the exact same door configuration for both doors, as they open in the same direction. We opted for 28” x 80” doors, right hand inswing, primed white wood, single pre hung interior door with concealed hinges, precut for an American Standard lock. We re-used our previous door levers, as we had upgraded to them in the past few years, and wanted to keep the same door handles consistent throughout our home.
You can shop similar door handles & the exact jib doors and outlets & covers I used by clicking the images below:
Installing the Doors
We had these doors shipped to our home & they arrived very well packaged. The doors come with three main components – the door which arrives in one box, and another box that includes the pivot hinges and the metal doorframe.
Once the frame gets screwed in to the studs, you can hang the door using the included hinges, install your door handle, then you pretty much cover the frame with drywall & paint or wallpaper it accordingly.
While I plan to DIY all of the built ins in our closet – reconfiguring the shape of the room & putting the doors back was considered part of our bathroom renovation project which we had already contracted out. Our contractor said installing the doors was very easy & he made pretty quick work of it. In total – it only took him and his crew of 1-2 people about a half day to install the doors and finish drywalling in the metal frame so that it blends with the wall.
How DIY friendly are Jib doors?
I did a ton of research on installing jib doors myself & the main things I found were that if you already have a wall that’s fully built, installing a jib door into that wall would not be fun. With most houses – things are not built perfectly square and with time – things may not be completely level. Since you need a very square & level doorway to attach the door frame to – it becomes easiest to install them when it is either new construction or when you’re completely reframing the doorways to be nice & plumb & then also doing the drywall after.
I would say installing jib doors as a DIY is an intermediate to an advanced level project. While screwing the frame to the studs & checking to make sure it’s all square and plumb is relatively easy, the biggest challenge is finishing the doorframe into the drywall. Drywall is an art & if you are not very confident in your drywalling ability – then I would recommend hiring this out. The doors we selected also had very helpful video tutorials on the step by step installation process which should better help you gauge if this project is an adequate fit for your level of experience.
Results
We’ve had these doors installed for about five months now and absolutely love the simplistic & clean look. I was also pleasantly surprised with how nice the door looks from inside the closet, as it sits in a very clean little nook that appears recessed into the wall. We still need to add baseboards, and the finish caps on the hinges, and add either wallpaper or decorative trim to the wall to make the doors even more invisible.
Links
Be sure to follow along with me on Instagram over this eight week journey as I continue building out this walk in closet & turn some basic Ikea Pax units into a pretty little Parisian inspired dressing room fit for a queen.