Laura Crombie, Content Director for Ideal Home magazine, has been writing about homes and interiors for over a decade. She is currently renovating a 1960s house in Worcester with her husband Rian. The couple have been doing as much of the work as possible on a DIY basis.

When Crombie first saw the property, destined to become her family home, despite it being very dated, she fell in love with it immediately. “I actually made an offer on the house before Rian had even seen it because I loved it so much,” says Crombie. “I could see how much the previous owner had loved it and I could feel that it had been a happy family home.” Almost three years later having completely stripped it back, and rebuilt it, doing most of the work themselves the couple and their growing family have made the place very much their own.

The couple decided to turn what was originally the living room into a kitchen-diner. The kitchen had previously led into an office, via double glazed doors. But the couple had ideas for changing it. “It was a very long room and we felt that it was too big for the kind of cosy lounge that we wanted to create. With our second child on the way we knew it would make the perfect cosy living room, adjoined to a playroom for the children.” The doors between the two rooms took up too much space and felt clunky and this is what led Crombie to begin researching how they could retrofit pocket doors.

The choice was an ECLISSE Classic Double pocket door system that would fit the existing opening perfectly, so as not to need to demolish any of the solid internal brick wall. As avid DIYers the couple were keen to do the work of installing the doors themselves, and found the task to be easier than expected. “It was really easy to construct the frame, my husband built studwork out from the brick wall to attach it to, before installing the doors and fitting the jambs and architrave,” says Crombie. Adding “The slowest part was waiting impatiently for the plaster to dry in midwinter with no heating.”

Installing the pocket doors have produced several benefits for the family, giving more overall usable space as well as greater options for layouts and easier access. They have transformed the way the family is able to use the rooms. “We now have a sideboard and artwork where we previously couldn't locate anything because the doors would swing back and hit them,” says Crombie. “We also installed the soft-close coordination system, which means that both doors close even if you only push/pull one of them, which feels really premium,” she says.

Almost two years later and the entire family love the doors and all of the benefits that they offer. “Now that we’re a family of four, we love that the pocket doors means that we have more space in both the living room, and in the children’s playroom room, where we can store away all the toys. It’s fantastic! We're so impressed that we're factoring a single pocket door into the design of our ensuite,” concludes Crombie.

Photography Credit: Laura Crombie