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Pocket Door Slides: Specialty Cabinet Hardware for Disappearing Doors

You’ve probably seen a door, whether wardrobe- or cabinet-sized, that can perform this little trick:

Manufacturers of cabinetry hardware refer to that as a pocket door, and the attendant hardware as pocket door slides. (In overhead applications, where they disappear in the manner of a garage door, they may be called flipper doors and flipper slides.) The nomenclature’s a bit confusing, as the term “pocket door” also refers to interior doors between rooms that slide sideways into the wall, Star-Trek-style, so you’ll want to be careful if ordering “pocket door hardware” online.

Hooking up a set of pocket door slides is a little more work than installing regular drawer slides–for one thing, you’ll need to whip up an extra “follower strip” that attaches to the slides, and the door then hinges to the follower strip–but a dedicated DIY'er should be able to pull it off.

The hardware doesn’t come cheap: On the affordable end, a pair of these with 12" to 24" of slide travel runs $45-$50 at Rockler.

If you’re doing high-end work for a client, however, you’ll probably want to step up to German manufacturer Häfele’s Accuride line of pocket door slides, available at retailers like KitchenSource.com.

Häfele’s high-end hardware is eye-wateringly expensive: a pair with 12" of slide travel costs $110, and stepping up to 32" of travel will set the client back $135 per pair.

Regardless of the manufacturer, note that these prices are just for the slides–the hinges aren’t included.