If your opening is single door wide like the picture above, the challenge comes in removing the door for repairs. As far as i know in all the examples of arched pocket door installations, the door itself is still a square door. Therefore you're trying to put a square peg in a round hole. Make sure if you persue it you aren't facing demolition work to replace a part on the door. Now if you have a double wide door arch it gets easier to make the doors removeable one at a time, if I remember correctly by making sure they can go past the halfway mark and clear the highest section of the arch.

Yes, the opening for a pocket door will need to be framed so that a rectangular door can be installed.

A different approach might be to build a carpenter-built door using materials similar to those used in the room on one side or the other of the opening that would simply be hinged to close across the opening when desired.

An even more innovative approach might be to hang a rail above the arched opening on one side or the other and use a sliding "barn" door, again matching materials found in the rooms.

Good luck with your project.

When I was looking into this possibility for my own build, the posts I found that mentioned options to solve the square peg in round hole problem mentioned framing the arch in trim. You've mentioned you intend to have no trim on your arch, however if you can't find an acceptable solution its something to consider. While removing trim in order to repair the door is still a hassle, its certainly better than punching holes in your wall!

Yes niteshades... no trim is planned on our arched openings.

Is it that the trim makes the door opening wider and therefore the door would no longer be wider than the opening and could be removed..??..

Still interested in what the designer credited in the photo I provided planned for with regard to repairs.

This post was edited by jannz77 on Sat, Mar 30, 13 at 8:11

I would guess there may be no way to remove the door if a problem occurs without major demolition.

It would not be the first time I have seen things built with no method to maintain them.

Pocket doors require at least some removable trim at the top to access the door for adjustment.

It is a hanging door, and even with Johnson hardware needs adjustment at installation (at least).

The "no trim" option is NOT a good one.

The hardware at the door top is a couple inches tall and needs to be concealed.

There are plenty of "design sins" that are posted on Houzz or Pinned on a regular basis. What looks good isn't always practical or efficient beyond 5 minutes of TV time. Remember that designers often have zero real world experience in anything resembling a practical application of their ideas. Most couldn't even hold a hammer correctly and hit a nail if you showed them how to do it. I say this as a member of the profession who does have a "practical" background and is regularly horrified at some of the atrocities committed in the name of design.

In the case of trim, the trim pieces would actually form the eyebrow arch at the top of the door, the opening underneath is actually square as it would be for a standard pocket door.

Unfortunately pocket doors are prone to repair and adjustment, moreso than a standard door. Like others have said i'd be very wary of what you decide to do just based on look. The difficulty in design is one reason why I ultimately abandoned the idea myself. Well that and my floorplan changed so much it was no longer really needed hehe.

Ah... Thanks niteshade.... I think I understand how the trim on an arched opening works now.

Appreciate your time to respond.

As long as you make some type of removable panel on one side that turns the normal square opening in to the arch you might get away with it.

'Hiding' the panel is going to take some real work though.

pocket doors come out by unlocking the door from one of the rollers it is hanging on, then pivoting the door on the second hanger till it cealrs the jamb on the non-pocket side.

The trim on one side concealing the hangers must be removed.
i have used al sorts of tricks to conceal how that trim piece is held up.

The one I prefer now is to make 'keyhole' opening in the top trim piece on the upper surface, then sink screws into the track support to catch in the keyholes.

You position the screws and keyholes so the piece slide the last half inch into position to be flush with the jamb on each side.

Cut the paint joint to the side jambs with a knife, pull the piece away from the wall a half inch, and it drops down.