After sharing progress on our One Room Challenge guest bedroom makeover on Instagram, I received a few questions about the bifold door installation and queried my audience about bifold closet door knob placement. Installing a bifold door is something we've gained a lot of experience with recently - this makes the third bifold closet door we've replaced in the last six months! I swear we're not aggressive with our closet doors but for some reason the old ones have just fallen apart and stopped working all at the same time.

With each installation we've learned a few things so I thought I would share them in a post. There are lots of great video tutorials that show the step-by-step of installing bifold doors, but I wanted to highlight a few things particular to bifold doors and built in closet systems and answer that nagging question: where do your put your closet door knobs?

Bifold Closet Door Installation

Our most recent install was a pair of bifold closet doors in our guest bedroom. The closet is a reach-in closet which we recently updated with an IKEA PAX closet system. Here is the (very scary) Before of this closet:


Have you struggled with how to put a bifold closet door back on track? Typically it's just a matter of depressing the top pivot and popping it back in the track but these old bifold doors would never stay put, no matter how many times we fixed them. Replacing these bifold doors would give us better functionality and a cleaner, updated look.

If you look closely, you'll see the left door is actually sitting on the floor. This project would involve not only replacement of the old bifold closet doors, but also installation of a brand new closet system (IKEA PAX).

Our first step was to remove the existing door trim. The new closet system was deeper than the previous shelving and crashed into the horizontal jamb across the top of the door. Removing the trim would make installation of the closet system easier.

Next step was to install the closet system, very similar to the closet we installed in our daughter's room. Also similar, we installed filler panels at the top and sides of the PAX units to hide the gaps and make them look built in. It's a small detail but makes your closet look much cleaner and more custom!

Bifold Door Sizes

Bifold doors come in a variety of common door sizes. If you cannot find a bifold door size that fits your door opening dimensions, you can consider special order or custom sized doors. For this project, we used two standard 36"x80" Masonite Expo™ Heritage® Series Logan™ Moulded Bifold Doors

These bifold doors came with everything needed: the doors, track, hardware, and knobs (though we replaced those with our own handles).

Bifold closet door clearance:

When installing a bifold door, you need to ensure that there is enough clearance and the door doesn't hit anything behind it when the doors are open. Here is an illustration from our daughter's closet:

Step 1: Installing the top bifold track

Installing bifold door hardware is pretty straightforward. Most steps are the same but read the manufacturer's instructions that came with your door to be sure.

With the closet in our guest bedroom, we knew we needed at least 1.5" behind the track for clearance. Using a 1.5" piece of wood as a spacer, Sean was able to set the top bifold track at an appropriate distance away from the face of the shelving and screw it in. If you don't have this situation, just install the top bifold track centred on your horizontal door jamb.


Since we had a pair of bifold doors, we had to install two tracks. The bifold door tracks were installed so that they were touching in the centre of the door opening, and were about 1/4" in from the corners:

Step 2: Installing the bottom pivot bracket

Step 3: Installing pivot hardware and guide wheel

Step 4: Install doors and fix alignment

Now you can install the doors. Install the top pivot first and while still holding the door, drop the bottom pivot in place. Then, spend the next hour playing with the alignment! This step is never easy and is best done as a two-person job. Have one person adjust the top or bottom pivots as the second person holds a level on the leading edge of the door to see when you have it straight.

Here's our doors when we first installed them. You can see they are completely misaligned. Also, we discovered that the actual door opening was not level - notice how the middle of the door opening is higher and the corners dip down. This would not be too much of a problem as we could hide some of the unevenness with the door trim.

Step 5: Install door trim

Once we had the doors level, we installed new door trim. The horizontal and two vertical trim pieces (natural wood) comprise the stop. The stop sits in front of the doors and holds the left and right outside edges of the trailing (outer) doors in the correct vertical position.

The door casing (white moulding) is placed on top of, and set back from, the stop. The casing hides where the door stop and drywall meet.

Where To Put Bifold Door Handles?

The final hurdle is determining the placement of your bifold closet door handles or knobs. The knobs for bifold doors can be placed on the "leading" door (the door closest to the centre), or the "trailing" door (the door furthest from the centre).