Louvered closet doors cover the front of closets. They are usually made of wood and have rows of slats. The slats are angled to have open vents to let air into the closet without allowing the stored clothing or other items to be visible while the doors are closed. Commonly, louvered doors are bi-fold, which means each door is made up of two hinged panels.
Hinged, bi-fold louvered closet doors may be used individually on a small space, but are usually installed in one or more pairs. Each bi-fold door can then be opened separately to access part of the closet or together to open up the whole space. Since louvered doors feature a smooth frame around or in the middle of the slats of wood, they are nicely detailed and can look much more attractive than their standard, plain counterparts. In the home building industry, the smooth frame sections are called rails, while the rows of slats are known as stiles.
The stiles are either fixed or operable. Operable means that, similar to window blinds, the stiles or slats can be adjusted by hand to stay open or closed. Fixed stile louvered closet doors are much more common; they're non-adjustable and designed to remain open. While some louvered doors feature an allover stile pattern along with the rails, others have stiles only on either the upper or lower half of each closet door.
The more open the stiles or slats are, the more air passes through from the closeted area into the rest of the interior space. Fully slatted, louvered closet doors are popular for laundry and furnace areas, as they allow maximum ventilation while still closing off the space. In some homes, many bi-fold louvered doors are used on a large closet that takes up the better part of a wall, such as in a master bedroom or front hall.
As an alternative to ready-made, bi-fold louvered doors, Hollywood sliders are a popular option for homeowners who wish to hire home building contractors to fit and install them. Hollywood sliders are sliding louvered closet doors that may be white or natural wood finish. Bi-fold louvered door styles are also available in white and wood finishes. Hollywood sliders don't take up as much space as bi-fold styles because there are no hinged panels to create an outward V-shape when a closet door is opened. Rather, they stay flat and slide completely within a metal track in the door frame.