Hidden fir coffee nook behind sliding panel doors

Oct 31, 2026 Last reply: 13 hours ago 3 Replies
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The detail that caught me off guard here is the 99% figure. The maker says the doors over this coffee nook will be shut nearly all the time, which makes the whole thing a giant piece of millwork that occasionally opens to reveal a full coffee station. That is a bold bet on the closed state, and the payoff looks worth it.



The nook sits in a main lobby that is open to the public, and it is hidden behind a large sliding and pocket door system. When the doors part, white cabinetry, drawers, and an overhead track system come into view. Each door carries a vertical dark rectangular pull handle. The two door sections are veneer on an MDF core, with Salice hardware doing the moving. In the closed position the panels sit flush with the surrounding wall and carry on the pattern of vertical wood slats, so the whole wall reads as one surface. The surrounding paneling and the doors are all grain matched Douglas fir, and the maker made the solid fir wall and ceiling paneling as well. Watching the doors work is satisfying: the right-side panel comes out of its recessed wall pocket, rotates, and slides along a top rail, while the left one slides across from its recess to cover the alcove.



One open question is construction detail. The demonstration shows the doors operating smoothly, but there is no description of how the joinery was carried out. What the maker does explain is seasonal movement: the solid fir paneling has room for expansion and contraction in the splines, which seems like the right call for a big solid wood surface in a public lobby.


The flush alignment when the doors close is what sells this for me. Getting two large veneer-on-MDF panels to meet the surrounding wall with no visible step takes real patience with reveals and adjustments. I think the choice to keep the slat pattern running straight across the closed doors is clever, since the whole wall reads as one piece rather than two shutters.

I am curious about the pocket detail on the right side. The panel pulls out of the recessed wall pocket, rotates, and then slides along the top rail. Does the pocket opening get covered by anything once the door is out and travelling, or does the recess just stay as a shadow gap in the wall while the doors are open?

A variation worth considering: since the doors are meant to be closed 99% of the time, adding a discreet magnetic touch latch at the vertical pull handles could make the occasional opening feel more intentional, a proper reveal instead of just a door swing. It would keep the flush wall look untouched and give visitors in the lobby a small moment of discovery when the nook opens up.

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