March 18, 2025

The Big Small-Space Advantage of Bi-Fold Doors

Small spaces need flexibility, and bi-fold doors deliver. They tuck away neatly, free up floor space, and make rooms more adaptable – no major renos required.

Small spaces need flexibility, and bi-fold doors deliver. They tuck away neatly, free up floor space, and make rooms more adaptable – no major renos required. From hidden kitchens to shape-shifting rooms, these projects prove that good design is all about the right fold.

Writing:

Emma Sharpe

Photography:

Design Ideas

Design Inspiration

Flexible Design

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After

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Surrounded by mountains in Tai Hang, Hong Kong, the **59sqm/635sqft futuristic Candy Cube** apartment was designed by architect **Nelson Chow of NCDA** for a close friend. The brief was to create a “fun, colourful, and futuristic” home with generous storage areas to ensure the home was uncluttered. A key solution: bi-folding doors.

Chow’s remodel saw the internal walls removed and the floorplan opened up completely into a single large room with a separate space for the bathroom and kitchen. He lined the peripheral walls with minimalistic storage units hidden by folding panels.

Bi-Fold doors surround the open living space, hiding away multi-functional zones like storage and an entertainment nook.

“The living room is surrounded by a series of vertical screens. Through these different hidden doors, you discover different functions.”

– Nelson Chow on Candy Cube

A folding screen on one side of the bedroom reveals a hidden work station.

A warm wooden palette runs throughout the **56sqm/603sqft DB Apartment** in São Paulo, designed by **Studio Papaya**, with wooden bi-fold doors used as room dividers.

Two existing walls were replaced by bi-fold doors that intersect with sliding panels, introducing a new level of flexibility to the apartment’s layout.

“In DB Apartment, we wanted to carefully integrate multi-functional areas, smart storage solutions, and flexible furniture arrangements to not only optimise space but also promote a sense of openness and versatility.”

– Samuel Garcia and Delia Sloneanu on DB Apartment

When open, the hidden doors create one generous, open dining and living space.

“We removed the wall between the living room and the guest bedroom. This transformation allowed us to use sliding panels to replace the traditional walls of the bedroom. It turned it into a versatile space that could function both as a living room with a TV and a guest bedroom.”

When closed, the modular doors create more privacy, separating out more intimate individual spaces like a guest room if needed.

**Nikhil Calas and Federico Diodato of faire** transformed a **49sqm/527sqft apartment in Paris** into a hosting-friendly haven through the custom design of multifunctional furniture units.

A floor-to-ceiling unit frames the U-shaped kitchen, which can be concealed behind a custom bi-fold door. The owners can choose to hide away the chaos of meal prep if desired, or open the doors for easy access.

“The kitchen is hidden behind a bespoke bi-fold door in the middle of a large, floor-to-ceiling storage unit. And when the doors close, you can make the kitchen completely disappear.

– Nikhil Calas and Federico Diodato on Segur Flat

The kitchen still accesses natural light and maintains a connection with the dining area via a passthrough opening below a fluted glass window. “In French we call it a ‘passe plats,’ which means passing plates,” Calas added.

**Jade Cham of knock knock studio**, along with owner Jacqueline Goh, turned the **47sqm/506sqft** one-bedroom **401e** apartment into a compact, functional, and versatile home with the help of modular features like bi-fold doors.

“We kept the original floorplan but made a couple of changes. We pushed out one of the kitchen walls by 20 cm to add the laundry trolley and install the bi-fold door.”

– knock knock studio on 401e

The galley-style kitchen can be contained thanks to a newly installed half-glass bi-fold door painted the same green as the bedroom door and entryway.

“We added a bi-fold door with clear glass as it saves space. It also separates the kitchen from the main area to contain the smells.”

The clear glass window of the kitchen’s bi-fold door maintains a sense of flow between rooms, letting light in while keeping cooking smells contained.

Inspired by modern European architecture and the origami-like features of Japanese design, architect **Andrea Del Pedro Pera of ATOMAA** introduced a new level of modularity to a **32sqm/344sqft** **18th-century apartment** in the heart of Milan’s medieval Brera district.

“Our inspirations come from Japanese houses, by folding panels like origami and melding these to the European functionality and modernism of the last century.”

– Andrea Del Pedro Pera on BRERA Apartment

Instead of traditional handles, ATOMAA embedded circular holes throughout the panels that allow light and air to pass through while creating a consistent visual motif throughout the apartment.

“We created a space with different configurations. By using movable panels and fixed furniture, we can use the apartment in different ways.”

A modular system of folding panels allowed the designers to remove the apartment’s dividing walls, flooding it with light, and creating a single open zone with the bedroom at its centre.

The open zone can be redivided at will, hiding the bedroom away or expanding the dining area.

“The dining area is a flexible space. It can be used as an extension of the kitchen, or simply by closing the panels it can be separated when someone is cooking and another person can work or read a book.”

Businesses featured in this project

Architecture

Studio Papaya

our projetcs are driven by the conviction that designing is a journey that involves identification, organization and management of countless factors.

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Architecture

faire

faire est une agence d’architecture implantée à Paris et dirigée par Federico Diodato & Nikhil Calas

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Architecture

ATOMAA

ATOMAA is Architecture and Interior Design. The practice aims to create a unique relationship between people and architecture.

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The Big Small-Space Advantage of Bi-Fold Doors

When it comes to maximising small homes, bi-fold doors open up a world of space-saving possibilities. Made up of multiple panels that fold back on themselves accordion-style, the bi-fold door slides open and neatly stacks against the wall to leave a large, unobstructed opening. Unlike the traditional swing door, they free up precious floor space while keeping layouts flexible. They help carve out multipurpose rooms, can let in more natural light and airflow, and always add a sleek, modern touch – without the hassle of major wall renovations required for more advanced installations, like sliding pocket doors. Below, we dive into five standout projects that demonstrate how bi-fold doors can work magic in small-space design.

Folding in Hidden Storage and Room Divisions

When every square metre counts, bi-fold doors create adaptable spaces without making a home feel cramped. Take the 59sqm/635sqft Candy Cube apartment in Hong Kong, a futuristic apartment where vertical folding screens tuck away hidden workstations and storage. Architect Nelson Chow reimagined the floor plan, replacing walls with moveable partitions that create distinct areas while keeping the space feeling open. The result? A playful, sci-fi-inspired home that adapts on demand.

Meanwhile, DB Apartment in São Paulo, designed by Studio Papaya, swaps traditional walls for warm wooden bi-fold doors that work with sliding panels to transform the 56sqm/603sqft home. The dining and living areas can open up into one large space or be sectioned off to create a private guest room. This seamless shift between functions is a perfect example of how bi-fold doors can turn compact homes into highly flexible, ever-changing environments.

Keeping Kitchens Under Control

Small-space kitchens often blend into living areas, but bi-fold doors provide a smart way to keep them contained when needed. In the 49sqm/527sqft Segur Flat in Paris, a sleek floor-to-ceiling bi-fold enclosure makes the U-shaped kitchen disappear as needed (a handy feature if guests drop by unannounced and the kitchen is less than spotless). To maintain a sense of flow, however, architecture studio faire designed a passthrough window – known as a passe plats in French – below fluted-glass shelves along the side of the bespoke unit, keeping the connection to the dining area intact.

Over in Singapore, 401e features a galley-style kitchen with a bi-fold door designed to keep cooking smells in check. The door’s clear glass panels allow light to pass through, preventing the kitchen from feeling boxed in. Designer Jade Cham compared the 47sqm/506sqft apartment to a Swiss Army knife – compact, multifunctional, and brilliantly efficient.

Next-Level Modularity

Pushing the idea of bi-fold doors to the next level, the architects of ATOMAA took modularity to new heights with an origami-inspired folding panel system in Milan’s BRERA Apartment. These panels allow the 34sqm/365sqft apartment to morph between different layouts, concealing the bedroom, expanding the dining space, or seamlessly integrating the kitchen and living areas. Thoughtful circular cutouts triple as handles, ventilation openings, and playful decoration, maintaining a consistent atmosphere and aesthetic no matter how the space is arranged. From the inside, the light visible through the cutouts mimics a starry sky at night. Blending Japanese-inspired folding techniques with modern European design, BRERA Apartment offers a glimpse into the evolution of modular small-space living.

A Flexible Future

From hidden workstations to kitchens that vanish and bedrooms that transform, these projects prove just how powerful bi-fold doors can be in small homes. They create a balance between openness and privacy, ensuring that compact living never feels limiting. It’s clear from the above projects that the advancement of modular design is already pointing toward a future where small spaces are more flexible than ever. Whether it’s for storage, separation, or sheer ingenuity, bi-fold doors continue to prove their worth in modern, space-conscious homes.

Writing:

Emma Sharpe

Photography:

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