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Over the years, we’ve heard time and again from architects and designers wanting doors that elegantly break the mold, are oversized, and completely customizable. After a fortuitous meeting with the team at Smith & Fong, makers of the Plyboo line of bamboo interior finishes, we knew we’d found the perfect partner. Together we designed the Plyboo Door, a door panel created specifically to pair with Krownlab’s sliding door hardware systems for total entrance solutions.

The collaboration was a chance to work with a company we admire and respect—and our efforts paid off. Recently, the product combination was named a finalist for an Architizer A+ Award. Here’s excerpts from a conversation between Stefan Andrén, founder of Krownlab, and Dan Smith, founder of Smith & Fong, about the design process behind the Plyboo Door.

The design inspiration behind the industry unique Baldur sliding barn door hardware system was sparked when Krownlab’s founder, Stefan Andrén, visited the workshop of a friend, and early Krownlab collaborator, Rob Roy. There on a table in Rob’s workshop was an enormous 8-inch bearing. 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.”

Andrén set out on the journey of honing the raw inspiration for Baldur into a product that would hold up to Krownlab’s exacting aesthetic and performance standards.

“We now had to define how we could achieve this,” Andrén said. “We first looked at just a welded, bent bracket with an injection-molded piece of plastic in the gap between the bracket and the inner-race.”

While the early prototype proved the concept valid, Andrén needed to refine Baldur’s design and manufacturing process for it to become commercially viable. He recruited Jeff Miller from Development Works, a local manufacturing partner, to help develop the trolley bracket and how it clamps onto the inner race. They brainstormed many different methods before eventually landing on investment casting the bracket.

As Krownlab continues to design and manufacture the leading sliding door hardware solutions for office, hospitality, and residential projects, we’ve added to our team. Rounding out the sales and production departments will allow us to continue to produce the obsessively-engineered, iconic sliding door hardware systems we’re known for while expanding our offerings of architectural hardware.

Jesse McFadden, Technical Sales Representative

McFadden supports incoming and outbound sales and customer support and comes to Krownlab from Tesla Motors Inc., where he oversaw day-to-day operations of the Portland Delivery Center, including hiring/onboarding staff and long-term strategic planning. Previously he’d been a business specialist for Apple Inc., managing more than 250 B-to-B accounts at any given time.

Scott Wilson, Technical Sales Representative

Wilson held numerous sales and management positions for Schoolhouse Electric & Supply Co. and has extensive experience as an account manager and trade specialist. He supports incoming and outbound sales and customer support for Krownlab.

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 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.

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.

What good comes of offering a warranty on a product whose design is obsolete before the warranty period expires? Offering a [ten-year warranty on our sliding barn door hardware is only legitimate if you continue to be thrilled with our hardware long after it has become your hardware. Our goal is to create products that not only physically stand up to the test of time, but aesthetically withstand the test, too.

Starting with a foundation rooted in good design, our team has developed a sliding door track product line that will move through the decades (no pun intended) in harmony with your space. The image to the right (from a nearly ten-year-old article in Dwell magazine), features our sliding hardware specified not only as a functional fixture, but as an architectural detail meant to enhance the design wherever time may lead.

How do we know sliding doors are not a fad? Because the design challenge of dividing and uniting spaces will forever require innovative, specialized, and timeless solutions. Our original prototype (pictured, right) continues to be discovered and loved. We provide the structure that has near limitless pairing options to continue meeting changes within the world of design.

What about our warranty? We're an industry leader in the ten-year warranty we provide on all of our track systems for sliding doors.

At Krownlab, we understand that all quality hardware begins with quality materials. Stainless steel is the backbone of our Ragnar, Oden, Rob Roy, and Baldur lines-- we thought we'd share some insight as to why.

Stainless steel starts its life as carbon steel, an alloy consisting of iron ore and a small percentage of carbon and manganese. From this base alloy over 3,500 different grades of steel (1,500 of which are stainless) are produced according to the World Steel Association. The built environment truly owes its existence to this metal.

To achieve stainless status, chromium, nickel, and molybdenum elements are added to the carbon steel alloy. As the percentage of each additional element is changed, so are the properties of the stainless as well as the series/grade.