Shay Hawkins
One of the things that I never thought about before we bought this house was how inconvenient sliding doors are on closets. And then I realized that all of the bedroom closets in this house except for mine have sliding doors. Sure, they come in handy if you have a small space and don’t want the swing of doors out into the room, but that aside, they’re kind of a pain in the neck. Even though I didn’t like the sliding aspect of the ones we have, they’re good, solid wood doors and I wanted to try to reuse them if I could.
Attach the 2×2 to the top of the closet opening where the sliding track had been using 2 1/2″ wood screws. I haven’t done this part yet, but would recommend it so you don’t have issues with your doors swinging inward past the ball catches you’ll install later.
You should be left with a small number, probably somewhere around 3/8″, which is what you’ll need to cut off each long side of the doors. Make sure you mark and cut equal amounts on both sides of the doors so they doesn’t have an odd, off-center look! Trace the outline of the ball catch like you did with the hinges then chisel a shallow recess and drill a hole for the cylinder part.
Insert the ball catch into the door and secure with the included screws. You can adjust the depth of the ball part by twisting it left or right so it either sinks farther into the cylinder or pokes out more. You don’t need to paint the tops of the door or the sides where the hinges are since they won’t be visible.
I’ve slowly been updating the doorknobs in my house to these knobs and while they can be pricey, if you’re patient you can usually find good deals on them and they are just so stunning. I wasn’t able to photograph the hanging of the doors because they’re heavy and require two hands and I was doing this solo! But basically use anything you have on hand (wood shims, paint stir sticks, thin books) to prop the door up a bit from underneath so there’s a small gap at both the bottom and the top of the door. Screw the hinges to the door frame (you may want to drill pilot holes first).
