Looking for cabinet hardware/ideas for pocketing bypass/coplanar doors without...

[Aaron Connor]

Has anyone seen or have any creative ideas about cabinet hardware that would work for a pocketing 3-pane cabinet bypass door (one fixed pane) without a guide/track that mounts on the lower surface?

We are trying to create a functional small appliance workspace in the kitchen and require max width/height opening (space is limited). We'd prefer, without doors that swing outwards and prevent access to other cabinets, when open (they will stay open most of the time), while creating a good aesthetic in the kitchen. The reason for not wanting the bottom guide mounted to the counter, is it will make the counter difficult to use

Background

Other ideas already considered:
- Tambour (not the aesthetic we'd like, but very functional)... this is our fallback
- TV-Cabinet style doors that pocket perpendicular to the face (would prevent access into the blind corner and more importantly consumes a lot of width of the work space)
- Lift-up style doors.... would need to be double-high (cannot be full-height; would prevent access to adjacent wall cabinet and cabinetry above which will include a microwave; very bulky profile while open (most of the time))

Home grown ideas for bottom guides that do not show:
Possibility to use a traditional guide for the middle door, at the far left side, then use either a combination of felt and magnets for the 3rd door to keep the door vertical or possibly a track in the back of the middle door with some sort of pin/slider that engages it from the far left side of the far right door (out of view).

Sketch:


Front view
https://sawmillcreek.org/blob:https://sawmillcreek.org/e335e573-7f57-4b84-adfb-2c1cc375188a
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https://sawmillcreek.org/blob:https://sawmillcreek.org/65010b40-fb25-46ef-97f8-e16b6be7e38e

Top view
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https://sawmillcreek.org/blob:https://sawmillcreek.org/e8086998-dddd-4b32-8a08-2496bc03f460
https://sawmillcreek.org/blob:https://sawmillcreek.org/17841f70-3a7b-498f-8475-8198cd26261b

[Jamie Buxton]

How about using a pocket door on the right, pocketing on the right side of the workspace, and making the middle door a sliding door which slides to the left. I've seen a sliding cabinet door with Salice hardware which did not have a track at the bottom. IIRC they called it a parallel slide or something like that.

I've also seen a homebrew sliding door which might work for you. There's a track at the top which the sliding door hangs from. The track continues above the stationary panel where the door will stand open. The closed door overlaps that panel a bit. On the stationary panel behind that overlap there's a hook which catches a track or runner which runs the full width of the rolling door. That is, the rolling door is controlled at the full width of the top, and at one point near the bottom.

[Lee Schierer]

I would use a bypass sliding door hardware and slide both doors to the left in your Front view to hide along side the cabinet shown in your top view. You would need to look for something that holds thinner doors that normal sliding closet doors. Maybe something like this (https://www.outwater.com/FSDH-STRAPS-SS?quantity=1).
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Both doors would hang from the track. Looking from the front view the door to the left would have about a 1-2" portion of the left hand stile that stays hidden behind the fixed panel. The plastic finger thing shown in the hardware would be modified to only guide that first door. That guide would hide behind the fixed panel. The right hand door would also have part of a Stile that would hide behind door number 1 when fully opened. You would need to fabricate a guide that would attach to the bottom leading edge of that first door that would prevent the second door from swinging but still being able to slide to the left alongside the first door. You could add a stop to the far right side that would hold the bottom of the right hand door if something pushes against it. You would want the two right hand stiles for each door to be the same width as the exposed portion of the left hand stiles.

I would first draw out the cabinets to scale with a cad type program to determine rough dimensions. Then I would make a mock up out of cheap material to work out the details and bugs before I started working with finished material.

[Thomas McCurnin]

How about a top slider? A door that moves out then inside the cabinet along the top edge? Like top hinged bread box, but the door disappears into the top space of the cabinet.