Curtains for Closet Doors
Curtains for Closet Doors
(by WMH [NC] ) Posted on: Feb 10, 2022 9:34 AM
I do hate swinging doors, they take up so much space and we have small places. Bi-folds are terrible, always getting broken and falling off. Sliding barn doors only work in certain spaces. Ditto pocket doors.
In our small cottages we have been using curtains on closets for years, but ready-made curtains only come in 63″ or 84″ inch lengths. Shower curtains can be bought in 78″ length but either they look cheap or they are super expensive, and need hooks which tend to look cheesy too.
Closet door heights are usually 80″, with a tension rod that means about 79″ inches needed for a curtain.
The other day for no good reason I searched on 79″ curtains and lo and behold, they do make them. They even say Closet in the title! I simply never searched on them before. $29.
amazon.com/pureaqu-Grommet-Doorway-Insulated-Draperies/dp/B08MQG6778/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3AU9RNWYFNAV2&keywords=79%22%2Bcurtain&qid=1644503100&s=home-garden&sprefix=79%2Bcurtain%2Cgarden%2C74&sr=1-4&th=1
[MA] I like using sliding doors on a track as they hold up pretty good. I agree bi-folds break at the pins and always fall off.
[TN] To my surprise, the bifold doors in my C rental have done well and are still in great shape and working properly after 12 years. I tend to micro manage though as I do quarterly inspections and more if needed.
[TN] How well do the curtains hold up? I do like the idea.
[NC] No room for sliding doors in a single door closet.
6×6, they have good reviews. The ugly ones we have in some cottages have lasted years, but they look tacky. I’m happy to have found these!
[MO] Been doin a version of this for a few properties. I don’t know how they are to live with but no one complains. We have been installing just like a closet rod. And since I have some sewings skills been able to manage the Length. This looks interesting. Thanks for sharing. Will consider this option going forward.
[NC] Plenty I have ZIPPO sewing skills. Last time I tried to hem a curtain for a closet I used Stitch Witch which kind of melted the curtain as it is ironed on. Another time I used hem glue (didn’t hold) so these are of real interest to me! 🙂
We have 10 units that have a washer & dryer laundry closet in the kitchen. They always had bi-fold doors and the tenants always took them off and stuck them next to the fridge, so we just removed all the doors but I have always wanted a better solution.
And we have 3 cottages with single-door closets in tiny bedrooms. That’s where we started hanging curtains but not good ones.
[WI] IKEA has floor to ceiling curtains. Bought them years ago for my one house that had floor to ceiling closet doors.
[CA] We have curtains in all of our own closet doors, and I much prefer them to sliding or bifold doors. I get mine at Ikea or on Amazon, and my husband mounted a fixed rod just below the top of the closet opening to hang them on. I use the type with large grommets and hem them to length. That takes minimal sewing skills, but you do need a sewing machine to do it right. I haven’t used curtains like that in a rental.
[WI] Oh, for hemming, most dry cleaners or shopping malls can put you in touch with a sewer.
I did the simplest of lazy hems on my IKEA curtains- just folded the bottom up once, and straight stitched. If you ever came across a sewing machine, it would be the easiest thing for anyone to learn to do. Just need slight familiarity with sewing machines. Plenty could teach you at convention in two minutes, WMH. (not saying, you gotta, just, once you learned, you’d be amazed at how easy…) Dear hubby could learn too, really is simple.
[CA] Good idea for C class apartments – am tired of dealing with broken closet doors
These curtains are cheap as anything to buy to hem, so excited to see “ready-made.”
[CA] Forty Four Years ago my sliding closet doors in my rentals were too heavy and would either fall of the roller guides on top or the tracks would get filled with carpet fibers and get stuck.
Since that time I’ve tried making lighter hollow closet doors, bi-fold doors, curtains or drapes. As mentioned in your post bi-fold doors were the worst. Pocket or Barn doors are troublesome.
So your curtain idea is a one stop solution. I’ve even purchased my own Grommet Kit to convert one type of curtain to the kind that will fit through a heavy duty rod.
[MO] If you can buy these, they may be just the right length. I’ve bought clearance and had to make the fit. There are some fantastic glues out there for fabric too. One I just pin it up with safety pins! Anyways yes of course we could have a sewing demo . How fun! Why not learn many trades.
[NC] Arrived yesterday, perfect fit across a laundry closet – I ordered two 39″ W x 79″ L, hung with a tension rod, and they look great. I will be ordering more for sure.
[PA] Bifold doors last because they are left opened and never closed! What will pull them apart is the tenants hanging a ton of stuff on the knob. I learned to use a D shaped knob that you cannot hang anything on.
[GA] We built many of our rental houses but purchased 3 apartment buildings during our acquiring-properties years. Bi-fold doors SUCK. I mean, I’ve lived with perfect bi-fold doors for years in my personal residence and love them. No problems whatsoever! BUT I’m a home owner and NOT a TENANT. My tenants are very hard of bi-folds. So, upon acquiring the 3 apartment buildings, we removed the bi-folds from the washer/dryer closets and installed a metal plumping pipe as a rod. At first I would then hang a shower curtain with the clip-on shower curtain rings across the empty laundry closets. Now I do that only for showing the unit, and my tenants can buy their own shower curtains, regular curtains or fabric coverings.
I also plan to remove all the bi-folds in our houses as they become vacant, probably wood-putty the screw holes, paint the molding and “pretend” it was always an open space. None of the house laundry closets face like the L.R. anyway. As far as all the bedroom bi-folds we installed originally (super bad idea), I’m replacing with just thin swing-out doors. I feel the houses are too nice to use curtains for closets in the bedrooms (at least at this point). Over the thirty years I have been a LL, I have found that whatever a tenant can destroy, they probably will. I have to replace cabinet doors, too … makes you wonder how a cabinet door could merely “fall off,” doesn’t it… obviously the kids are most likely using it as a swing, right?
I have found that if you stuff the screw holes with toothpicks and then hammer it in, you can easily drill a new hole that will hold. The more durable you can make anything on a rental property, the better. Just sayin’.
[FL] I do like the idea and will try it on my own house first to make Sure I like it – but I would only want to do it in a rental IF I had matching curtains on the window in that room AND if I mounted the rod exactly like the windows.
That is: on the wall and wider than the opening rather than inside the ‘doorway’ opening.
Which, by the way, would also mean that any curtains could be used – not just doorway-sized curtains.
[IN] We have tried this in an older home (circa 1925) that did not have a closet door in the bedroom. Gave the room a little more polish when showing the unit for rental. However, the rod and curtains tended to disappear at move out, but since they were inexpensive, who cares!
[FL] i HAD CURTAINS INSTEAD OF CLOSET DOORS IN MY COLLEGE DORM. MY MOTHER MADE NICE CURTAINS FOR BOTH ME AND MY ROOMMATE BUT IT STILL LOOKED CHEAP. MY TENANTS WOULD NOT WANT CURTAINS INSTEAD OF DOORS.
[TX] For our lower rent homes curtains. The light sliding doors come off the track easily and I often find them stored outside in the rain. For the better homes the bi folds work best. We have found reasonably good luck finding curtains at Walmart.
[HI] Whenever I see a curtain for a closet my first thought is “cheap and tacky”. Sorry, end of conversation for me. —
[TN] No doors or curtains! Just wide open. Will pass sect. 8
[ME] Regarding the left handed child. If the child is more comfortable using right handed shears in the right hand that would be best. No, right handed shears in the left hand do not work, but left handed shears in the left hand don’t work very well, either. When I was in school I learned to use right handed scissors because the lefty ones they handed out did not work.
[ME] I don’t like the look of curtains on closets. To me it looks cheap.
I think a lot of problem people have with sliding doors is the quality of the hardware. It might be worth looking into better quality hardware.
[FL] We will keep existing closet doors until they break, then install a white tension rod for TENANT to buy curtains. Works out wonderfully for both of us!
[NY] Oh dear…I agree with Rhonda HI…and I DO sew….but only for over 40 years! Here’s my take on some ideas given here (take them with a grain of salt and in a loving, helpful way, please)…I believe that a pinned hem will only cheapen your apartment…A closet curtain (if must be used) in the color of the walls and of a heavier drapery fabric would look more upscale…Todays younger tenants prefer less foofoo fancy or gathered curtains (if that is the only choice)….Grey is the new neutral replacing cream and stark white. And my biggest concern: Curtains MUST be laundered (at least once a year)
Please remember…these will be handled every time someone wants to get into the closet…so make sure the curtains are easy to remove from the rod. Read all laundering tags BEFORE you purchase. Cotton fabric is guaranteed to shrink! Polyesters (like shower curtains WILL MELT when ironed and sometimes even in the drier.) And THINK! Is this the look you’re going after? Sometimes it may be cleaner…easier and less “old lady” to just leave them off! Just some thoughts before you(or your tenant) wants to cut that curtain to pieces!!!!!
WMH [NC] Did you look at the curtains I started this thread with?
And a few points: not all closets can have sliding doors. Think a single door closet from the 50’s. Think a laundry closet where sliding the door OPEN on the washer CLOSES it on the dryer – that’s a pain! Think a small (8×10) room – that 2-foot swing takes up precious space. Anyway, you do you.
[NC] All real estate is local, and swimming against the tide is exhausting. So you have to do at least what is typical and common for your type of housing to get highest rents you can.
My houses are all tiny beach cottages, 1-2 bedrooms are the norm. They are cute, clean and functional with a few extras not always provided by others: washers & dryers in all units, ditto microwaves. But luxury they are not.
If I had a nice SFH in the DC suburbs, I might not be using curtains on closets. (Although I like these a lot!)
And my DIL, who DOES own a house in the DC suburbs, removed the closet doors in her daughters’ bedrooms and replaced with curtains because of the space issues (small townhouse.) Previously, every closet door in the house was a bi-fold.