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Seattle-area firm SHED Architecture and Design recently used the Axel sliding door hardware system in a unique project in the Bridle Trails neighborhood of Kirkland, Washington. Like many of the surrounding homes, this property had a stables. However, by the time SHED’s clients bought the property, the stables had fallen into disrepair. Not owning horses, they worked with SHED to completely renovated the detached stables into a flexible painting studio and guest bedroom.

Axel, a modern twist on the classic barn door hardware that has been around for more than a century, was key to the design. Not only does the system add flexibility to the space, it alludes nicely to the stable’s past life. The two massive bi-parting doors, run on a continuous track to hide or reveal a studio space, a storage closet and utility sink, a mud room, and a guest room, depending on the configuration.

And Dwell loved it:

The Baldur sliding door hardware system has been racking up attention, and was recently featured in Office Insight.

Baldur’s industry-unique hubless design was inspired by a visit to the workshop of an early Krownlab collaborator, Rob Roy. There on a table in Rob’s workshop was an enormous 8-inch bearing. Krownlab founder Stefan Andrén put his hand through the inner race and rolled it back and forth over the table.

“You could still put your whole hand through the bearing and I was like, hang on a second, there’s something here,” Andrén said. “I realized you didn’t necessarily have to bolt through the center of the bearing like it’s originally intended to be used, but you could just clamp a portion of the inner race and get this awesome hubless look.”

From that early spark of inspiration was born an iconic sliding door hardware system utterly unique in the industry. Office Insight took notice:

All sliding doors need some kind of bottom guide. Bottom guides are mounted in the finished floor and are always hidden by the panel (wood doors) or engaged with the panel (glass doors). Bottom guides ensure consistent door travel, keep the door plumb, and prevent door panels from swinging out from the track and possibly dislodging. Also, a door panel in a sliding door system naturally wants to hang slightly angled toward the wall. A bottom guide prevents door panels from rubbing against and possibly damaging walls or baseboards.

We include a bottom guide with every sliding door hardware system we sell. However there is some variation in bottom guides, depending on your aesthetic preference and the kind door panel you’re working with.

Bottom guide post for wood doors

The bottom guide post can be installed in three different ways, depending on door panel material and aesthetic preference.

The first way is to simply route a channel in the bottom of your door panel. This routed channel allows the bottom guide post to keep the door panel true and plumb through the full range of door travel.

The second way is to install our bottom guide channel instead of routing a channel directly into the door panel. The sleek, stainless steel c-shaped channel is affixed to the bottom of the door and works with the bottom guide post in the same way as a routed channel. It is a great option for door panels without the structural integrity to handle routing, panels made from materials like steel, which are hard to work with, or for panels 1 ⅜” inch or thinner. And, because you aren’t relying on a perfect routing job, door travel is often the smoothest when using a bottom guide channel.

The third option is a combination of the first two. You route the bottom of the door panel, and then install the bottom guide channel in this recess. Because the bottom guide post will run against the uniform bottom guide channel, you can afford to be less precise in your routing, and still get the smoothest door travel available. Also, as the bottom guide channel is recessed into the door panel, you preserve the clean, continuous look of the door panel.

Bottom guide for glass panels

Bottom guides are even more vital in glass installations, especially in high use environments, where a knocked off panel could shatter. We offer glass bottom guides for four glass panel thicknesses: 3/8", 1/2", 5/8" and 3/4", and in two materials—a high-quality plastic guide, or a premium stainless steel option, depending on the system you order.

Two years ago, we poured all our accumulated knowledge about sliding door hardware into one comprehensive project. Our goal was to create the very best product on the market. A huge effort went into the track—an element that is not given a lot of thought in most sliding door hardware systems. For our product design team, it was an untapped avenue to improve our industry-leading sliding door hardware systems. The result is a clean, wall-kissing sliding door track that stands out for what it hides.

Truly Concealed Fasteners

While our track appears to be of one, solid piece, like many others on the market, it actually hides a highly engineered system within. Pop off the military-grade aluminum alloy track cover to reveal our Tru-Leveling™ adjustment feature. This ingenious device allows for a full ¼” of adjustment in any direction, even after you install your hardware. What does this mean? Faster, perfect installations on the jobsite and no holes to patch afterwards.

Infinitely Adjustable Door Stops

The position of most sliding door stops are dictated by where the track fastens to the wall. This is an extremely cumbersome and error-prone system that can make reconciling the installation plan with actual job site conditions a pain. We freed you from this by designing our doorstops to be infinitely adjustable. With a twist of an Allen wrench, you can literally slide the Krownlab door stop to anywhere on the track. This gives you the freedom to fit the door travel to the space—even when it changes—perfectly.

We've always been impressed by how our amazing customers use our sliding door hardware systems. Over the years we’ve seen a vast array of creative installations. Here are a few of our favorites, ranging from gallery walls to a solution to hiding firewood, and much more. Enjoy!

1. Create a space for ideas

Studio 804 installed Oden sliding door systems in The Forum to hang pinup boards for students to display their work. The panels also hide a storage area to preserve the clean aesthetic of this striking space.

2. Put a twist on the Dutch door

Dutch doors have long been a staple of kitchen design. Here homeowners used Rob Roy Top Mount to put a modern touch on this classic system.

3. Cover the TV

Nobody wants to look at a TV when it’s off—this homeowner used Oden hardware to hang a piece of art and also, hide the boob tube.

4. Hang a Chalkboard

This Chicago homeowner got creative with their door panel. They used the Oden sliding door system to make a door that doubled as a chalkboard. Why have just a door panel when you can also have a space for self-expression?

5. Just Do It

When Nike designed their Camp Victory pop-up shop, they used Oden sliding door hardware to complete the look.

2015: Our best year yet

This past year was Krownlab’s best yet. We released a brand new product in Ragnar, featuring the industry’s most comprehensive feature set, and took on two massive hotel projects. We were profiled by Portland Made and featured in their new book. We continued our collaboration with the award-winning Studio 804 and our sliding door hardware appeared in four Street of Dreams houses. And, as always, we were blown away by all your beautiful installations. We loved the photos you sent in; keep them coming! Here is a tour of some of the best (corresponding photos clockwise from top left):

Oden

The Forum by Studio 804. The Oden system with huge doors that serve as pinup boards for student work. Honorable Mention for Architect’s Newspaper Building of the Year Award.

Krownlab founder Stefan Andrén has worn many hats in his career but watch design has always been of special interest. Over the years, he’s had the opportunity to design pieces for Nike, Perfect Fitness, and Phosphor.

“There’s something about wristwatches I love,” Andrén said. “There is such a compelling synergy of beautiful, high-end materials, and precise engineering.”

Recently, Andrén teamed up with fellow Portland company, Grovemade, on a unique line of wristwatches. They set out to make something as much an artifact as timepiece, an update on the classic analog interface. The watch features a hand sanded hardwood face, spherical hour markers, a precision calibrated stainless steel module, and vegetable-tanned leather wrist bands with a classic buckle.

Last month, their beautiful, minimal creation was praised on Worn and Wound, the watch aficionados resource that has been featured in the New York Times and International Watch Magazine, among others:

This summer, Krownlab was the first local business spotlighted in the Portland Business Journal’s new series, Meet the Makers. PBJ got a behind-the scenes peek at our production team assembling our Oden and Baldur hardware, experienced the extensive testing we put each of our products through to ensure we lead the industry in quality, and toured our brand new building in Northwest Portland. Since then, the series has gone on to cover great local businesses including OpenFab, Time & Oak, and our friends at ADX.

Here’s an excerpt of the article:

In Portland, Andrén felt he wanted to finally realize his dream of living in a large industrial loft space. Yet the Pearl had already been developed and he felt his dream's costs were out of reach.

So Andren changed course and decided to build a house that felt like a loft on a piece of land he'd purchased in Portland's West Hills.

We offer three families of door pulls: Ebba, Olav, and Inger. Each have distinct features to consider when choosing the right door pull for your project. And with multiple finishes available for each, no matter what your project calls for, there is the perfect Krownlab door pull solution.

For Maximum Opening Width

In some installations you need your sliding door to open to the maximum width. For this you‘ll select a low-profile door pull so there is no impediment. You can even configure door travel so that when your door is opened at its widest, the door panel and the wall are even.

The Ebba is our ring-style door pull and sits almost flush with the panel. It is available in two different configurations. In the open setup, Ebba provides a knothole glimpse of the adjoining room. Closed, the hardware has more surface area to showcase our premium material, while maintaining a deep gripping surface. Both configurations protrude a scant 3/16” from the door panel and are the perfect match for any of our stainless steel sliding door systems.

Our friend Kelley Roy is the director of Portland Made, a collective of Portland-based designers, local goods retailers, and manufacturers. The goal of the organization is to connect consumers to unique, local, and high quality goods and help reconnect designers to the manufacturing process. Recently, Kelley contacted us to feature Krownlab in a new book showcasing the manufacturing resurgence happening right now in Portland. We were thrilled to be included. Fast forward to last week. A very welcome delivery arrived at the office: 10 brand new books, hot off the press.

Buy your copy today. And be sure to check out Krownlab’s spread on page 61 (previewed to the right).

For more about Portland Made in Kelley’s own words, read on:

“Portland Made: New American Makers of the Manufacturing Renaissance is a celebration of Portland’s Maker Movement and the people behind it. What is this Maker Movement, you ask? It is the legions of artisans and craftspeople and entrepreneurs and doers who are reinventing and reshaping artisanal manufacturing one hand-made product at a time. It is the people who are starting businesses, developing products, honing their skills and offering support and sharing tools and knowledge with each other.

Your sliding door travel is controlled when the trolley hits a door stop attached to the track or the door panel impacts a bottom stop attached to the floor. You can employ either method, or use both. Find out how both of our stopping systems work below:

Door Stops

Ragnar is our newest line of sliding door hardware and features an industry-first: continuous fast and easy door travel adjustability, even after install. Ragnar door stops fit into a bottom channel that runs the length of the track. Move door stops to anywhere along the track with just a few turns of the included Allen wrench.

Our Oden, Baldur, Axel and Rob Roy sliding door systems have door stops integrated into their mounting points. This means that you can install a door stop at any one of the mounting points along your track. However, if your mounting point proves to be too close or too far away from the end of the track for preferred door travel, you can fine-tune by installing your trolleys at different spots on the door panel. The farther from the edge of the panel you install your trolleys, the more your door panel will go beyond the door stop.

The CYRK Building is a 14,500 square foot commercial and residential gem located in southeast Portland. DECA, an independent architecture and interior design studio in Portland, Oregon, designed it as a live-work environment. The owner maintains a primary residence on the second floor and a business office on the ground floor. An additional 1,200 square feet is set aside on the ground floor for commercial and retail use.

The LEED Platinum certified CYRK Building is a pillar of innovative and environmentally focused architecture. The elegant design features a green roof, solar panels (both PV and hydrogen), a ground-source heat pump, FSC certified lumber, and passive and active solar shading. Krownlab's Baldur sliding door hardware is featured throughout the interior.

Krownlab manufactures premium architectural hardware for everyday use and era-spanning longevity. We strive to make products that will look and work as good on day one, as on day one million and one. It is a lofty goal; one we have to constantly check ourselves on, but something we get closer to every single day. Here’s how:

Precision Manufactured

We design all of our products with a specific need in mind. We don’t bend what we make to the tools or materials we have on hand, but the other way around. We seek out the right tools, materials, and processes to make the best possible product. And we obsess over every last detail until it is perfect.

Two years ago, we put everything back on the drawing board. We reexamined our design, construction methods, and manufacturing processes with one goal in mind: create our best product yet.

Today we are proud to introduce the newest product in our line, Ragnar.

This is architectural hardware precisely crafted to span generations of use. It’s clean, understated, but most importantly, it works as great as it looks. We took all we learned in the ten years since our founder, Stefan Andrén, dreamed up our first product, and poured it into Ragnar.

We couldn’t be prouder to be a part of this year’s Street of Dreams in the Highlands of Lake Oswego. We partnered with Garrison Hullinger Interior Design and Westlake Development Group. Our hardware can be found in four of the nine houses.

We loved working with GHID on their Sandhill Crane house. They used Ragnar, the newest addition to our product line, because of how well it rhymed with the unique composition of materials, angles, and open spaces of the home’s design. Sandhill Crane was built with contemporary living in mind and boasts wonderful views of Mt. Hood.

It's well known that Krownlab is a big supporter of local design and local manufacturing. Recently we spoke with Collin Kayser of Garrison Hullinger Interior Design (GHID) regarding regional design trends as well as the firm's interest in including Krownlab sliding hardware systems in a recent project.

KL: This year GHID is participating in the Street of Dreams, and we're thrilled that you've specified Krownlab sliding barn door hardware. What design concept helped drive this decision?

CK: The Sandhill Crane is a home with a unique composition of materials, angles, and open spaces. GHID wanted to capitalize on this contemporary design with the interior and selections throughout. The clean lines and modern vibe of Krownlab's Baldur is a perfect compliment. The engineering, finishes, and overall design of the hardware fit well within the  interior while functionally allowing the user to open up rooms in a more visually appropriate way.

With any architectural hardware product, the foundation and reinforcement that you don't see can be just as important to the performance of your opening as the hardware you do see. For sliding barn door hardware, this foundation is wood blocking. It's required for proper installation of your hardware, and ensures smooth operation. We'll cover some of the basics.

What is the wood blocking actually reinforcing?

Blocking reinforces the header of the framed opening, and (along with drywall spacers) allows the weight load of the barn door hardware and panel to be properly distributed. This prevents any of the weight load being transferred onto the drywall.

Also, it is extremely difficult (if not impossible) to hit studs when mounting your track system due to the spacing of the attachment points. Wood blocking placed between the studs ensures that each connection point of your track system is securely fastened to the wall framing, no matter the spacing.

Machined parts and pieces surround each of us every day, yet rarely do we stop to consider the process that goes into their creation. Since Krownlab sliding barn door systems contain a number of machined parts, we thought it would be interesting to sit down with one of our engineers and discuss the basics of the CNC machining process.

What are the benefits of a CNC machined parts versus being simply cast?

Castings only provide the rough geometry of parts. The main advantage of casting is that solid, complex shapes can be formed in a single step eliminating wasted material that would otherwise be carved away in machining steps.

If you have specified, or would like to specify, Krownlab sliding barn door hardware for your project, ordering online is simple. We walk you through each step with our online configurator-- and if we have any questions, we'll make contact right away.

As you work through the Configurator, we've included guidelines and instructions to ensure that you're selecting the best options for your opening. If you have specific questions, we're often available to chat, Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

1. Select your product line (Ragnar, Baldur, Oden, Rob Roy, or Axel.)
2. Start with "Build Yours Now" to launch the Configurator.
3. Choose your mounting system. At this stage, you'll want to know a few things about the door panel(s) such as material, panel thickness, and how much vertical adjustment you'd like to have after the door is hung.
4. Now, let us know how many door panels you'd like to hang on the sliding track system by selecting a single door or bi-parting double doors.

Local manufacturing and local design are not mutually exclusive; both are at their best when collaboration occurs.

[Elk Collective][1], a local design/creative firm here in Portland caught our eye not only because the installation of Krownlab sliding barn door hardware in their own studio, but also for their excellent work regionally and abroad.

Recently, we had a chance to have a conversation with Elk Collective's Sam Koerger. Having such wide range of projects to inform the discussion, it was an opportunity to gain some insight into the current design climate.

KL: With the increased demand for urban real estate, designers are required to creatively squeeze more functionality into smaller and smaller spaces. What trends are you seeing here in the Portland area?

SK: On a macro level, one trend that is right in our face, yet makes Portlanders squirm, is purely just new development. There is a tremendous increase in the number of properties under construction, specifically mixed-use development. While we have done an outstanding job of re-using buildings and re-purposing different urban nooks, a wave of development has washed our shores.