How To Choose Double Pocket Door Hardware

Pocket doors are a stylish and space-saving addition to your home. But if you’re searching for hardware to go with one, you may find yourself overwhelmed by choice.

Double pocket doors are one of my favorite things to use in homes, but finding the right double pocket door hardware can prove to be somewhat complicated.

Double pocket doors are like french doors in that they offer a unique look to the overall design of the space where they are used, along with needing their own unique door handles and locks.

The options to consider will depend on your budget, the look you are going for, whether or not you need the doors to lock, and the installation time. Let’s start with the easiest, least expensive options and go from there.

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What Are Double Pocket Doors?

Double pocket doors or french pocket doors are when two pocket doors are installed so that when they are closed the doors meet at the center of the opening between them.

This is accomplished by having one pocket door frame installed on either side of the door opening so that two slab doors can be mounted inside each frame within the wall. Each door can then operate independently to be opened and closed.

Choosing Your Double Pocket Door Hardware

There are really only two main things you need to know when choosing your pocket door hardware.

First, you will want to know the thickness of the door. This will be important to ensure you purchase double pocket door handles that will fit onto your door.

Second, you need to select the type of handle. If you are using a bathroom, office, or other room that needs to allow privacy then a locking handle will likely be preferred.

Once you know those things, your decisions will be narrowed down significantly!

Option 1. Set from Deltana

The easiest option is a common pocket door latch set from Deltana. It comes in a variety of finishes and three latching options. If you do not need the doors to lock, then you can use two passage sets, one on each door. If you need one door to lock into the other door, then you’ll want one privacy and one receiver. The privacy locks into the receiver. Deltana’s pocket door latches work on doors from 1-3/8″ to 1-3/4″ thick. These are installed with a rectangular-shaped cutout on the front edge of the door. Different brands have different cutouts.

This means that if you want to replace an existing one, you will need to make sure you take the latch off and measure the height and width of the cutout.

Option 2. Separate flush pulls and edge pulls

You can also go with separate flush pulls and edge pulls. You’ll either need four-flush pulls or two edge pulls. If you want them to lock for privacy, you’ll need two privacy bolts as well.

Option 3. Emtek and Gruppo Romi

The other options are more expensive and would cost more to have someone install. It is much easier to simply do it yourself, as long as you are skilled with a router. These locks are called mortise locks and use a specially routed out pocket inside the door for the mechanism to fit inside. The bolt mechanism on the mortise locks is much more robust than that of the more common latches talked about above. We carry two brands, but I’ll talk about the one with more options first.

Enter

Emtek offers three styles and four functions. You can go with the two passages if you don’t need them to lock, or you can go with one privacy and one dummy if you only need privacy and not security. If you need security, Emtek offers a keyed function, which you would pair with a dummy function for the other door. These will work on door thicknesses between 1-3/8″ and 2-1/4″

Gruppo Rumi

Gruppo Romi is the other brand we carry that offers mortise double doors. They provide a single item that gives you the hardware for both doors, called a Privacy Latch for Double Doors. They are for doors 1-1/4″ to 2-3/16″ thick.

Pros

When open, a swinging door occupies wall space equal to its width.
Sliding pocket doors are useful in designing two separate rooms so that they may be joined as needed.
Aesthetic Design.

Cons

Pocket doors do not sit as tightly as conventional doors.
Pocket doors are notorious for problems with functionality.

To Sum Up

Double pocket doors might not be the most common thing, but they are a great solution for many situations where standard swinging doors are not an option. If you’re in a circumstance where you decide to use double pocket doors, choosing the hardware no longer has to be a difficult task.

I hope this information has taken some of the mystery out of finding double-pocket door hardware and handles!

FAQ’s

How do you lock two pocket doors together?

If you have a set of two pocket doors that come together (often called converging pocket doors), you can create a locking set with two round pocket door locks. Simply install the cups of the passage lock on one door and a privacy lock on the other.

Can you put 2 pocket doors together?

For a double access pocket door, you need two single frame kits. … Slide the hanger assembly for the doors and track stops onto the track before the header goes in. The header track is lowered onto the brackets to span the opening of the doors.

Are pocket doors good for bathrooms?

The pocket door is an ideal solution for a tight bathroom where the wall space simply isn’t there to accommodate a full swinging door. In addition to bathrooms, they’re good for closets or as connections between the two areas.

Can you put a deadbolt on a pocket door?

No, deadbolts simply slide into recesses in the door jam. They don’t latch onto anything, making them useless for pocket doors.

What is the largest size pocket door?

Door panel size – Perhaps you would like to use the largest possible door panel size to provide the largest passage width possible. From the size chart below for the Classic Single Pocket Door System, you can see that the widest frame size that will fit the space is 1888mm x 2115mm. This will provide a max.