How to Make Sliding Doors for a Kitchen Pantry

A busy kitchen always needs more storage space.

Modify your existing pantry door to a sliding door or an efficient wall pantry. Swing doors take up room, while sliding doors take only a few inches of space and allow easy access to the pantry. Make better use of your existing pantry or create a whole new food storage area with sliding doors.

Things You'll Need

• Sliding door kit
• Carpenter's square
• Studs
• Drywall
• Pocket door kit
• Molding

Instructions

In an existing pantry

1. 

   Custom or pre-manufacturered doors both use the same sliding door hardware.

   Remove the existing doors and determine the opening size needed for a pre-manufactured door kit assembly. Measure opening for standard width sizes of 48 inches, 60 inches, or 72 inches. Measure opening for standard height door installation of 80 inches. Frame the opening size to manufacturer's specifications for door size closest to the existing opening. Hang the top hardware, bottom plate and the side wall trim pieces. Use wood shims and a carpenter's square to square the opening. Paint or stain the doors before hanging. Install door hardware on top of the doors and slip onto the top rail of the opening. Install the bottom guide pins or rollers. Insert into the bottom threshold. Add exterior molding and trim pieces.

2. 

   Build a false wall for a pocket door slider.

   Make a single door slider with a pocket door. Build a false wall parallel to a wall with the existing pantry opening. Purchase hardware for a pocket door and a lightweight interior door. Stain and paint the door, install hardware and hang the door. Install the drywall the new false wall, trim and paint.

3. 

   Keep your own cabinets - just add sliding door hardware

   Reuse your existing pantry door as a slider. Attach pocket door top rail hardware to the cabinet and extend to the wall space adjoining. Use pocket door top rollers and bottom guides to secure pantry door to the top rail. Add trim molding to top rail to hide the hardware.

4. 

   Stretch fabric on a screen for a lightweight and decorative door

   Use a re-purposed screen from an exterior sliding door as a pantry door. Remove the screening and save the rubber gasket holding the screen in place. Attach fabric to the screen using the gasket. Repair or replace top and bottom rollers. Install top and bottom rails. Install fabric screen.

Make a new pantry space

1. 

   Make a pantry on almost any wall without a door or window.

   Use an unobstructed wall in the kitchen, the dining room, or on any wall convenient to the kitchen for a new food storage pantry. Restrict the width of this new pantry to between 12 and 22 two inches to avoid having cabinets too deep to be usable. Use store-bought book cases, or attach your own brackets and shelves directly to the wall.

2. 

   Go bold - go big

   Frame out the wall with studs and drywall leaving an opening for the sliding doors of standard height at eighty inches -- or go bold and do floor to ceiling height doors. Make this pantry as wide as you can by using more than two doors.

3. 

   Customize purchased doors to become a stylish feature to the room

   Purchase louver doors for a custom cabinet look. Use slab doors and paint a mural as rolling artwork on the doors. Wallpaper matching the walls disguises the new addition. Paint a faux finish or wood grain to make this wall a feature to the room.

Tips & Warnings

• Forty-eight inch sliding doors are only 22 inches wide when fully open because the doors overlap one to two inches. Storing cases of groceries or beverages is difficult with that opening size. Consider using a larger size if possible.

References

• Door and door hardware source
• Storage, doors and hardware source
• Habitat for Humanity restore-used doors and hardware