You might have noticed the recent explosion of pivot doors being specified for bigger and bigger entry doors. Exterior doors are a great application of the pivot, adding lots of drama to an entrance, but at the same time there’s a worldwide trend toward using pivot doors in interior design as well.
At the root of this growing trend is how the pivot door answers the eternal desire for flexibility in all aspects of the design and building process. Interior pivot doors offer limitless design freedom and are easy to implement in retrofit and new situations. Then there’s the project flexibility. You don’t have to worry about the door until it’s time to put it in place: no coordinating finishes and frames, changing door heights, handles, or thickness in advance.
And on top of all that, because of the ease of installation, it turns out to be cost-effective as well, for those whose budgets are not so flexible.
Flexible pivot door design
An interior pivot door offers flexibility in many ways, one of them being design flexibility, whether regarding materials, door dimensions, placement, or spatial transformation.
Material flexibility
When you’re designing a pivot door, your choice of material is extremely flexible – basically every type of material is suitable to create an interior pivot door with. At FritsJurgens, we’ve seen pivot doors made with marble slabs, out of scaffolding wood with steel details, even leather-clad doors.
Solid marble interior pivot door – SheCi, Potier Stone
Wood ceiling-height interior pivot door – marasovic arhitekti
Glass and steel, and even leather and steel interior pivot doors – De Rooy Metaaldesign, Osiris Hertman
Interior pivot door made from scaffolding wood with a steel frame – Toon van Seggelen Interieurdesign
The great thing about interior pivot doors is that their height is as good as limitless, thanks to the vertical axis they pivot on. A high-performance hinge can also bear wide doors and weighty doors.
This also means you can easily create floor-to-ceiling interior doors. They emphasize the height of a space, making it optically larger and feel bigger.
Ceiling height interior pivot door made with glass and bronze-coated steel – Pols Metaal
Spatial transformation thanks to a tall and wide interior pivot door – Govaert & Vanhoutte
Short, pivoting louvers that create privacy between a hall and dining room – Space Joinery
7.5 meters tall pivoting wall existing of four pivot doors – MVSA Architecten, Harryvan Interieurbouw
Placement flexibility
A pivot door can be applied in numerous interior situations, basically everywhere that you would generally apply a swing door. Think of the master bedroom, a double-acting pantry door, bathrooms, or utility areas.
Hidden pantry or kitchen pivot door, clad with wood to submerge in the wall when closed – FADD Architects
Bathroom pivot door, clad with a thin layer of marble – Powerhouse Company, Wim Quist, Punt Interieurbouw
Garage or utility pivot door with a clean and very elegant design – Ian Moore Architects
Spatial transformation
The trend toward open-plan houses, whether modern or traditional, allows for a light, spacious atmosphere. Larger, more generous spaces now sometimes have overlapping functions.
However, you might want to be able to separate spaces from time to time to create privacy while maintaining the flow of the space. The spatial transformation of a room can be done in various ways, one of them being the application of interior pivot doors.
A flexible and functional space divider with two 500 kg bookcases – Hoek & de Wit Architecten
Transforming an apartment with a row of double-acting pivot doors – Valenso
Open plan living, a kitchen surrounded by steel and glass interior pivot doors – NOMAA, Jurrit van der Waal
Flexible project management
Interior pivot doors don’t just offer design flexibility but project management flexibility too.
Traditional pivot hinge systems go inside the floor. Luckily there have been fantastic pivot door solutions out there for years now that go inside the door instead of the floor, for example those by FritsJurgens. These are installed in just thirty minutes on-site and save thousands of euros (dollars) per project.
Nothing in your floor
Traditional pivot hinge systems go inside the floor. FritsJurgens’ pivot door solutions have been out there for years now and go inside the door instead of the floor. The top pivot is mortised in the top of the door, and the pivot system in the bottom of the door. Only the two 8 mm pins that keep the floor plate in place go in the floor.
This means that you don’t have to break open a finished floor to place an in-floor pivot. Radiant floor heating can be placed without worrying about damaging it when the interior pivot door is installed.
FritsJurgens’ in-door hinges can be combined with radiant floor
Flexible installation
There’s barely any work to do on-site when you’ve opted for a FritsJurgens hinge. The floor- and ceiling plate are mounted, and the door is lifted into place.
The door’s placement and movement can be finetuned afterward at any given time, and your door is ready to go. The whole process takes around thirty minutes on-site.
Improve the project management
Placing the doors can be one of the very last things you do on-site. This means that the final decisions about handles, door thickness, etc., don’t have to be taken until the last moment.
It doesn’t matter if something in the planning or design changes, such as the handing of the door. If you’re bringing the door in when all finish surfaces are done, you don’t have to deal with these decisions earlier on.
Decisions on handing, handles, door thickness, and more can be taken last moment – pivot door by Breitenthaler
Cost-effective
Because of the easy and time-saving installation and the flexibility and adjustability of the door’s design, an interior pivot door can save you up to one thousand dollars compared to a swing door. In addition, you’ve got the freedom to determine the door’s movement yourself, and the pivot is maintenance-free.
Of course, there are other solutions out there that come close to the finish of a pivot solution. However, no other hardware can match the aesthetics of a pivot door. Even when the door is opened, all the hardware stays hidden. Furthermore, the movement of a pivot door with a high-performance pivot hinge is unmatched.
Frame independent
As opposed to traditional hinged doors, interior pivot doors are not dependent on door frames. The only necessary ‘frames’ are ceiling and floor.
By omitting frames, the minimal, undisturbed nature of the pivot door’s design is emphasized. It’s simple, clean, and even cost-effective.
Frame independent steel and glass pivot door – Linox by Jens Lammers, Bert Demasure
Whereas a traditional hinged door is single-acting, limited by its hardware and the door frames it depends on, an interior pivot door can be double-acting.
A frameless interior pivot door can submerge in a wall, flush with the finished surface because the door’s thickness is flexible. Whether that’s a thick or a thin wall, and you want to submerge or even completely hide the door on the surface, it’s possible. You don’t have to make decisions about thickness, heaviness, or lightness until you’re ready to put the doors in place.
When you opt for a FritsJurgens hinge, the minimum door thickness is 40 mm (1.57“). You can scale up from there, making the door the same thickness as the adjacent wall or pivot door and adding up to the no-distractions-look that a frameless or a floor-to-ceiling style door offers.
A pivot door flush in the wall, submerged in the wall’s finish – Taouk Architects
Want to learn more?
If you’re looking to learn more about designing or specifying a pivot door, take a look at our technical documentation. Here, technical details such as door weights and gaps around the door are explained in-depth.
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