If you want to give your closet a more polished and elevated look, consider upgrading your bifold doors to hinged french-style doors. It’s a super simple DIY requiring very little time, skill and cost. Here’s how we did it from start to finish!
When we built our Bunk Room, we created a double-sided closet accessed from both the bunk and primary bedrooms. The space was tight on both sides, so I opted for double doors instead of a single, and sourced inexpensive bi-fold doors to keep costs down. Rather than installing them on a bi-fold track for a basic builder-grade look, we attached them with hinges:
Side note: I realize french doors technically have glass, but people often use swing/pivot/french doors interchangeably, so I’m using that term for this tutorial.
I had a few requests on Instagram to show how we did it, and as it turns out, it’s a simple process that anyone can tackle with just a few tools and supplies.
Tools
Remove the existing door hinges
If your bifold doors were previously installed, you’ll also want to remove the track along the top, the pivot pins on the doors, and any other hardware it came with.
Measure and mark new hinge placement
Using three hinges per door, we followed standard door guidelines for placement—approximately 6″ from the top of the door to the top hinge, 10″ from the bottom for the bottom hinge, and the middle hinge centered between those two. You may have to adjust slightly depending on the placement of the screw holes from the original hinges.
Make sure the hinges are facing the right direction, with the pins visible from the front.
Attach new hinges to door
Pre-drill pilot holes at each screw location.
Then, attach the hinges with the provided screws. These heavy duty non-mortise hinges fold into each other without creating a large gap on the sides, so you don’t have to route out a mortise as you would with standard hinged doors.
Attach hinges to door frame
Hold your door in place and prop it up off the ground at your desired height (ours are ~1/2″ from the bottom and 1/4″ from the top). Align the door so that the hinges fall along the edge of the door jamb. It’s helpful to have another person for this part!
If you had an existing bi-fold track along the top, chances are there will now be a fairly large gap above your door. You can either fill this gap with a strip of wood along the top painted to blend in with your door jamb (this is what I would do), re-hang the door higher, or live with the gap if you don’t mind it.
If you don’t have an extra set of hands, this air shim really comes in handy (for many projects!)
Install magnetic catch
To keep the doors in place when closed, install a magnetic catch along the top of each door. If your doors are hung lower, you may need to attach a piece of wood along the top of the door jamb to make sure the catch aligns with the magnets on the door.
We used one catch per door to make them extra secure, but if your magnets are strong, you could just use one catch in the center. You can also use a ball catch or an alternative mechanism to hold the doors in place.
Install hardware
We stained our doors by layering Minwax Gel in Coffee followed by Woodluxe stain in Mahogany. I finished them off with these rustic pulls to complete our traditional old-world Spanish look.
We’re using the same knotty pine and stain on the doors throughout the house. I love the richness of the dark wood and the way everything is shaping up so far!
One last important note: there needs to be enough of a gap between the doors for them to open properly. The required gap size will depend on the thickness of your doors. For reference, our doors are 1⅛” thick, and we ended up with a 1/4″ center gap which is large enough for them to open at the same time.
If your doors are thicker, you may want to consider adding an astragal to cover this gap.
More ways to upgrade your bi-fold closet doors
If you just want the look of french doors but don’t mind the bi-fold function, you can easily achieve this by adding another knob and changing the placement to the center—like Lauren did to her bi-fold closet doors:
You can also transform flat panel doors with shaker panels, simple box trim or cover any door with shiplap planks to change the whole look (with or without changing the function).
Shop Doors and Hardware
Looking to replace your closet doors or upgrade the hardware? Here are some favorites I’ve used in the past (tap to shop):
Paula Berrutti says
Hi, could you please describe the painting process you did on this door?
Jenna Sue says
Hi Paula, we stained our doors by layering Minwax Gel in Coffee followed by Ben Moore Woodluxe stain in Mahogany, and pre-stained them first.
KRISTIN RICE says
AIR SHIM!! GENIUS, I ALWAYS LEARN SOMETHING NEW FROM YOU!
Jenna Sue says
I learned about it from Lucas, ha! Very handy little tool.
Cindy says
This is so great – thanks for the step by step. Any advice on what to do with 80s mirrored closet doors that slide? Don’t have enough space for fold-out doors but the flat panel wood ones on tracks are also so cheap and flimsy.
Jenna Sue says
If they are the right size for the opening, you should be able to do the same thing here–remove the old track/hardware and mount them on hinges.
Amy says
This is great! How would you do this with double bifold doors?
Jenna Sue says
Good question! You could connect the doors with brackets on the back so they become two larger doors that swing open.