A pocket door not only gives you more space in reality because more of the space is usable but also from a psychological perspective it makes the room feel much bigger. Have you ever walked into a room and stood in front of a door that might open on you? No one does, you are programmed to avoid that space and think it is off limits. A pocket door changes things, preconceptions and realities.
Pocket sliding doors are not new, the Victorians went through a phase of them and the very first record of them is actually in Pompeii near Naples more than 2000 years ago! Many cultures and generations have appreciated the extra space that sliding the door into the wall gives you but until recently the systems were either difficult to install, didn’t slide well or weren’t up to the job long-term.
Think back a few years, to the first wave of DIY enthusiasm, remember the sliding doors – the rickety rackety, track jumping, wobbly do-it-yourselfer’s dream. But it IS a good idea in essence, the sliding door; it takes back the space that hinged doors neutralize.
Enter ECLISSE, in 1989 in northern Italy, a company with a mission to use the sliding door concept and make it work, not only work, but also make it a sophisticated and desirable piece of equipment, something everyone wants.
The Eclisse Sliding Pocket Door changed everything.
Eclisse kept the good bits, discarded the bad bits and came up with a system which was strong, easy to fit and has a really smooth action. The Eclisse system is elegant and practical – a framework that forms part of the wall, so doors slide effortlessly inside the walls maximizing useable floor space. The pocket system shows only the part you want to see, the door; the strong steel construction is hidden in the wall: 1.2 mm galvanized steel verticals in super strong profiles for increased strength and reduced flex, horizontal reinforced bars in 0.7 mm galvanised steel with a dovetail section for maximum strength and minimum flex. And high load, maintenance free runners, sealed chrome steel ball bearings; the running gear is completely maintenance free and independently tested to 100,000 cycles of open/close, which is more than 30 years of average use and they were still going strong at the end of the test!
There’s a lot going on behind these systems.
In the rest of Europe sliding pocket doors are well established; in domestic building, in offices and public buildings, interior sliding doors are used everywhere. In the UK we’ve lagged behind until recently, now there’s a boom here and it’s because of Eclisse.
Eclisse started a rethink in the minds of architects, designers and builders and since then they’ve been in the vanguard of technical development, making the systems that people want, always looking for ways to make the system work better, listening to buyers and supplying what’s needed. In luxury hotels like the award winning Rudding Park Hotel, the Four Seasons in Mayfair, in hospitals like Spire Hertfordshire, Care homes, in countless private homes, in old properties, in areas of minimalist design, in en-suites and kitchens. In the smallest room or for dividing vast spaces, fitting into awkward areas, or to make life easier for disabled people, specifiers have gone for Eclisse Sliding Pocket door systems.
The main reasons for this rapid expansion are because the Eclisse system is completely integrated into the wall, is relatively inexpensive, easy to install and is a system which eliminates many of the old problems such as misalignment, runners jumping off tracks, wobbly doors etc. The common worry that should something go wrong inside the wall you will have to break into it has been completely eliminated by the use of a patented extractable track that can be removed at any time without having to break into the wall…. peace of mind.
One of the secrets of the Eclisse success is the system has the advantage of fitting all standard UK sizes of doors so your choice of door is not limited at all, you can use exactly the same doors as for the rest of the property so the overall design is not compromised. The Eclisse system also utilises standard 12.5 mm plasterboard and is used with standard stud walling for a standard 100 or 125 mm finished wall thickness. So everything is standard, no special materials, no special skills required, nothing is left to chance, Eclisse even supply a complete finishing jamb lining kit purpose designed with a real wood veneer finish. Good looks, great performance.
It is one of those things…. Once you use one of them you will wonder why you ever used a hinged door.
Single doors, Double doors, Telescopic doors and even Curved doors are possible with the Eclisse pocket door system so there are no restraints on design led installations.
Eclisse also specialize in supplying frameless glass doors to work with the pocket sliding kit which are particularly popular for en-suites because they change what was a small, cramped, dark room into a lighter brighter space enhancing the impression of space, light and quality design. These can be simple satin opaque doors or sandblasted with designs, colours to match specific interiors.
For more information, visit: www.eclisse.co.uk
