Monday, September 1, 2008

Baby Room-Junior 4 layout



I guess i'll try my hand at helping some people out, considering we borrowed the idea from this site. My wife and I spent way too much time at Ikea, we hate shopping there, it takes forever to get thru the store, always takes 1 to 2 hours to pay, then took another 1 hour to set up delivery. With that said, we finally made it home with Stolmen poles (3 poles and the accompanying brackets that come with them). We purchased the PAX Lyngdal Sliding doors (118" x 92 7/8") size. For the floor we purchased some adjustable sliding door guides (at home depot).

Installing the poles: i lined up the poles into their spot, and screwed them into the concrete ceiling using what i think was single expansion anchors. Assuming you have concrete ceilings, remember to pre-drill the holes for the anchors. Adjust the poles for the height of the ceilings, tighten the pole system by twisting the poles tight, and make sure you have a snug fit (before completely tightening the screw at the bottom of the pole. Take a level, and make sure that your pole is level on 2 sides (front to back/side to side).

Track System: I reinforced the track by using an Angle piece of metal 1/8" thick by 3/4" each side. I bought one that was 36" in length, cut them into 3 pieces of 12" each. i drilled holes thru the top of the track and thru the angle, and secured the angle to the track using small 1/2" screws with nuts. I placed each 12" angle piece at each end of the track and one in the middle, which also helped to add reinforcement to the small piece of metal the track system brings to unite both tracks. You will need to make an extra hole for the screw and nut that will be used to secure the track to the poles (for this i used a thicker gauge screw/nut and 1" in length and used a washer as well)

Next, you will need to secure the track to the poles. Attach the brackets that come with the Stolmen poles, to the top part of the pole. You should now have a track system, that is reinforced with angles (secured with small screws/nuts) and one big screw/nut that will be used to secure the track to the pole. present the track onto poles (for me, 5 inches from the ceiling to the top of the track was good height for doors to fit), and secure the track with the 1" screw/washer/nut.

Next, you can build the doors (you will end up with a lot of extra pieces that were meant for the closet system...like bottom tracks, bottom door guides, covers, a bunch of wood screws, etc). once you have the doors built, present them onto the track to make sure everything works. Remember to unlock the grey levers on the inside door ( i tried hanging the doors with them in the lock position, and doors kept falling). once doors are on, and rolling, lock the lever. The outside doors have something similar.

Finally, with the doors hanging, i leveled the doors straight and installed the small door guides on the floor, in order to do 2 things: Most important, keeping the doors hanging straight up/down, and 2: a way to have them sliding fairly straight.


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7 comments:

mTrader said...

that's nice and all, but now where am I supposed to sleep when hung up the iron and go back to NY to trade at T3 next to u?

Unknown said...

were your measurements exact to the doors?? i have 144" to cover... would you suggest getting two sets of the smaller sliding doors?

Jlo said...

my space was about 105inches wide. so doors open up wider than the space. I fixed that by placing track righ in front of the wall, so doors slide the full length of the track. it slides right behind the TV/Console piece...so it looks pretty neet. Also on the right side, i have a 5inch gap, b/c of the way teh ceiling drops lower than the height of the doors. That also doesn't look too bad, and as it's for a baby room...privacy is not priority. you can see both the "sliding behind the TV console/and 5inch gap on the right, if you blow up the pix.

MarkAndChar said...

Thanks for typing out these instructions. My husband and I are trying to come up with an economical way to block off our home office from the rest of the lower level. Currently, the whole lower level has a very open feel. Unfortunately, our two year old and three year old sons like to climb over the baby gate we have in place, so there's no place to get home-office work done without having them climbing all over us and our stuff.

So now for the two questions I have on my mind: 1.) Does this sliding system have a way of sort of "locking down," to prevent the tykes from opening it, or does it just slide freely? 2.) Do you happen to have any idea how Vince from the other blog secured the doors as stationary wall panels on either side of the sliding doors?

Thanks ever so much!

Jlo said...

Q1 regarding the kids....i'm afraid that i wasn't thinking about my newborn becoming a toddler and probably baning on the doors. I haven't really tested how strong the doors are hanging up on the rails are compared to the little kids banging on them. But that is a major concern to think about.

Q2...really don't know the answer to that.

UrbanTailgate.com said...

Looks great. We're trying to replicate in our Manhattan apartment. We want to avoid drilling the floor. You noted you tightened the screw at the bottom of the pole. Did you have to drill or screw into the floor. If so, is there any way to avoid doing so. Also, can you post a photo of the bottom to show the poles and track guides? Thank you for your help.

Hans said...

I am about to do the same thing with an Ikea wardrobe door. The biggest problem seems to be the stability of the door against pressure from the side. You solve the problem by installing some "small door guides on the floor, in order to to ... keeping the doors hanging straight up/down. What exactly are you talking about here? On the picture it does not show anything on the floor that keeps the doors in the vertical. If you could elaborate on this I would appreciate very much.

Hans