Designing with Sliding Doors

22 February 2023

All Items

Designing with Sliding Doors: How to Maximise Space and Style

When getting a brief for designing with slim framed sliding doors, we aim to maximise the sense of space and add a strong aesthetic element to a property. We’re very fortunate to work in partnership with many creative architects and their clients, and the challenge and excitement for us comes from creating a bespoke glazing solution that delivers their vision.

End view of stunning sliding doors with black aluminium frames — A floating illusion and sliding glass doors 3 metres high

Large sliding doors with the slimmest frames

Our SL800 sliding doors have been developed to deliver just that wow factor. Their ultra-slim frames and enormous pane sizes have an exciting transformational impact on a home’s interior. There is very little frame to see, just glass panels with minimal 34mm sightlines.

Each system has up to three moving panes each gliding on their individual track. Our robust floor tracks can move doors across metres of space with panes up to 4 metres high and 3 metres wide!

Sliding Door Designs explained

Matt Levy, our ODC Sales Manager at Poole, loves to visit completed projects to see how an idea and discussion in the showroom evolves into beautiful, effortlessly functional glazing for a customer’s home. In this article he reflects on some of his favourite projects:

Sliding doors with fixed side panels for uninterrupted views

From living room to dining and kitchen areas, floor to ceiling minimal glazing completes this home’s elegant contemporary design. This new house is all about the glazing. It’s north-facing and the ground floor open plan living space sits under a cantilevered upper floor.

We were determined to maximise the amount of natural light, and specified our ultra-slim full height SL800 sliding doors with infill corners. The result – a light-filled interior and uninterrupted views onto the garden.

Glass Facade | ODC Slimline Sliding Systems

View this project on our Videos Page

sliding door designs for contemporary home — A ground floor surrounded by glass

Aluminium sliding doors create 10 metre wall of glass

Home to four young children, this ground floor kitchen-dining-living area needed to have plenty of space for their different activities. The family love entertaining in the garden and are big fans of open plan living. Looking for as much natural light as possible, they chose a slimline sliding door system with floor to ceiling panels to span the width of the house.

The flush threshold is safe for young children and the Anthracite frames complement their contemporary decor. With 10 metres of glass in total, this home has a superb seamless indoor/outdoor feel.

Floor to Ceiling Doors | Slimline Sliding System | ODC Glass

floor to ceiling sliding doors - bringing the outside in — 10 metres of glass, two moving panels, the slimmest of frames

Sliding doors glass extension for period home

This project is a long-standing favourite of mine. A large L-shaped open plan glass extension has been added onto the back of a Georgian townhouse in Hampstead. Two sets of SL800 sliding doors open up onto the courtyard so that the kitchen, dining area and living area are all connected to the outside. There are rooflights the length of the extension too, giving the whole space as much light as possible.

The glass corner detail at this project is a simple but effective one. It provides a link between the kitchen and living areas and it’s the perfect spot to retire with a book and a glass of wine. You’ll have to take my word for it when I tell you that from the front of the house you would have NO clue to the extent of the glazing at the back. Invariably the first word uttered by visitors is WOW!

Floor to Ceiling Sliding Doors | SL800 System | Hampstead | ODC Glass

SL800 slimline aluminium sliding doors, fixed windows and rooflights for extension in London from ODC, the glazing supply company — Seamless indoor outdoor extension design with beautiful fixed corner panels

two 6 metre panels, one huge transformation

This was a garden extension project designed to push boundaries. A big, bold, double height SL800 sliding system opens up the back of this London townhouse. Each SL800 pane is six metres high and weighs over 1,200kg. Installing slimline sliding doors of this size gives both the ground floor dining kitchen area and a first floor mezzanine living area extraordinary levels of light and uninterrupted views of the long garden.

The extension also has a glazed roof which gives the interior a fabulous atrium feel. And If you were wondering, the doors are easily opened by one person so that there’s as much or as little connection to the patio, garden and play area.

Bespoke Sliding Doors | 6 Metres High | ODC Glass

Front-on view of bespoke sliding doors, 6m in height, each panes weighs 1200kg! — Sliding doors for transformative architectural glazing

View these doors in action on our ODC Videos page

Tim Hedges, Managing Director ODC, posted afterwards:

The installation was a logistical headache involving red routes, cranes and bus diversions, and not least glazing panels weighing a tonne each, but all the hard work really was worth it for the wow factor achieved in the client’s beautiful home. A project for us all to be proud of.

Pocket sliding doors

Our largest sliding door system, the SL800 can be built into a wall cavity to create a pocket and leave no visible panels when open. The SL800 can also be used to create ‘glass-to-glass’ corners and ‘open corners’ for uninterrupted views when the system is opened. The opening possibilities are practically unlimited, and panel sections are almost completely integrated into the surround frame.

Give us a call today if you’re looking for a bespoke sliding door design to transform your home.