I live in an old house and cover some of my doorways with curtains to retain heat or cool temps. If you google "portiere," you will get lots of pretty pictures.

I have been using tension rods, actually shower stall rods, in my doorways. I use hooks on the sides to hold back the drapes when I have company or am moving between the rooms a lot. I believe this would work well for a closet, especially if you place the hooks fairly high on the framing so that the drape is up and out of the way.

Swing arm rods are another way to go. I just bought a set of vintage ones on eBay.

Hi sueb20 - I did that for both my kids' room, and for our washer/dryer closet. Well the washer/dryer closet has a shower curtain actually. Both are cheap and cheerful and far more practical that bifold doors.

I used a tension for the washer/dryer zone (with shower curtain) and an IKEA rod and drapes for my DD's bedroom.

Here are a few pictures:

DD's room. The ceiling is low and sloped, so the drapes are way too long. I planned to hem them, but it has been, ahem, two years now. Mother of the year award for me.

Washer/Dryer:

Ikea also has ceiling mounted fabric panels, e.g. http://www.ikeahackers.net/2010/03/sliding-panel-curtain-door.html
http://www.decorpad.com/photo.htm?photoId=3349

Here is a link that might be useful: IKEA panels

You can always slip a tension rod through the top hem of a flat sheet...

Sochi, thanks for the pics...and the not hemming for 2 years is totally something I would do!

Annie, when looking at shop web sites today I thought about using a sheet because I could get one that coordinates perfectly with her bedding. I may just do that!

Next week we have plans to clean out her closet (she actually WANTS to) so the timing will b good to get the door removed and figure out the curtain solution.

One thing I'd recommend is using curtain rings instead of the rod pocket. Much, much easier to move the curtain open and closed with the rings. Use an outside mount rod and it would be very easy to fling the curtains back to show the entire closet and then pull them closed.

But the shower curtain tension rods are designed to have a curtain moved back and forth a lot and would also be a good way to go.

I was thinking rings or grommets would also work best for ease of opening and closing. If you need to shorten them, you can use that iron-on hem tape and not have to sew.

I have done this for our laundry area and a closet in which I put the cat litter boxes (cats can go through the curtain). I used Kvartal from Ikea, a sliding rail system with little wheels, so the curtains slide so easily...

Ikea Kvartal

My mother did this in a small home with a small bedroom. There was no door and she told me calmly and pleasantly she was going to hang a curtain. She did, it was lace, and it looked fine, normal even for the room.

Yes, definitely will do rings or grommets. I found a couple of cute sheets that would work at Company Store and PB Teen, but also saw a couple of curtain panels at Target online, so will go to Target in person this week and see what they have. Fortunately she doesn't use the closet every day because it's so small, she has just a few dresses in there and some other random toy/memorabilia storage, so the curtain won't get too much of a workout.

Love that Ikea rod but it's too long for the space I'm working with.

>Love that Ikea rod but it's too long for the space I'm working with.

They're meant to be cut to size, if that helps any.

Oh, right, missed that -- thanks. Between driving an hour to Ikea and um, buying the right kind of saw and then, hmm, hoping DH could cut it correctly... Well, I think I'll try Target!

are those rails difficult to put in?

sochi - just tack the hem up or baste it. i used to make my own clothes (and for dd) but I quit sewing decades ago. now when I need to hem something I using just baste it. been known to tack it up in a few places too.

um, baste it? Sorry I'm so ignorant, but thanks for the advice. I just started a year off work to spend more time with the kids and finally get to little tasks just like this.

We did in 2 rooms in our last house. One was a regular sized door in our bedroom. It was a small master and the swing of the door just made the space that much smaller. The other was my daughter's room and that had ugly plastic mirrored sliding doors that were just too ugly and had to go.

I used shower curtain rods in white - all the trim in the house was white so they did not stand out from the top of the door, and they stuck like iron to the frame.

I am in the process of doing this same thing in my bedroom to replace the horrible sliding closet doors. I purchased an 8' steel tubular closet rod at Home Depot (closet maid brand) which DH will cut into two 4' sections. They sell the mounts at HD as well. The nice thing about this rod is there is no "extension" bump (like on a tension rod) to catch the rings on. I purchased clip rings which require no rod pocket, they just "clip on" to whatever fabric you have. In the end, I found panel curtains on clearance which were cheaper than any fabric I could find since I needed 16 yds to make matching window curtains. However, the only ones left were 120" length so I have some hemming to do!

Here is a link that might be useful: no-sew curtains