I have a 3.6m slider, so not huge or full wall. Only had it 2 years, but definitely no regrets!

My garden is not overlooked so no privacy issues. I don't like blinds so don't have any, no need for blinds for heat etc as I'm in Scotland so heat/sun is never an issue even though I'm south facing!

I have a cocooning effect with one wall of my room being all green, as that's all I see which I love.

Although they are doors they are rarely open as we are in Scotland which is why we went for slider rather than bifold, prefer look of slider too.

We have 4 meter bifolds with integral blinds & also a window either side with integral blinds. Love them. We are not overlooked as our (west facing) garden backs onto school playing fields but the blinds are great to block the sun in summer. No regrets at all & we open them a lot.

I decided to have 3 large sliders as i felt bi fold doors would take up too much space when open, also i like to be able to open just a little to let some air in all year round.

The house never feels gloomy although we do have another room for TV with a fire for evenings and winter. i have paterned curtains over my sliders at night time, the walls are just painted off white with a few bits of art, the curtains when closed create a nice textured feature which i do find both cosy and attractive.

We are south west facing, so the room gets A Lot of sun & heat, so I’m worried about the glare and how hot it will be in summer and how cold in the winter (we also have a roof lantern next to where the bi-folds/sliding doors would be). I hadn’t thought of curtains over the blinds, what a good idea.

Had 3m bifolds in previous house. Loved them. I cannot have them in this house but would if I could. The bi folds faced onto (non overlooked) garden from kitchen/dining room.
Didn't have any curtains or blinds. It was nice to leave the garden lights on in the evening. Looked and felt cosy

We don’t have any openings in the roof as I am not a fan of the heat. We also have aircon….I should live in a colder climate country!

Love my 6m bifolds. dont have blinds or curtains, they make the room seem so large and airy and feels like we are eating outside. have put in an electric awning so if it is extremely hot can be protected from the glare. love it more than anything else we have chosen.

We have a 2.8m window seat as we’d only occasionally opened the previous patio doors which we get better use out of for dining, reading, day dreaming. It’s east facing but felt like a gamble as bifolds are such a ‘thing’ however it’s worked v well in our layout.

I think it depends on which direction the doors face and whether you can tolerate hot/cold.

I like our house and patio to get as much sunlight as possible. I can tolerate a hot house, but hate a chilly house.

We have two sets of sliding bifolds, each 2.5 m. They face SW and let in a lot of sunlight. We have them open some part of the day from March to October inclusive. So two-thirds of the year. Absolutely love them.

In a previous house, I had one set of 3m bifolds. They faced north, and we opened much less frequently. The air outside the doors always felt chilly.

We have large sliding doors, absolutely love them. Our kitchen faces south, so we have blinds hidden in a recess, useful to have partially lowered/one blind only lowered on v hot days or direct sun on the dining table. In the evenings, it feels cosy enough. We also have good lighting in the garden, that looks magical in the evenings. Although a small garden, it is not too overlooked. We love the huge expanse of glass in winter as much as in summer - even on gloomy days we benefit from so much light, and it is good to see the seasons.

What is the experience of all you ‘bifolders’ with getting insects in the house as the doors are so wide ?

I totally agree with Catherine about the look into garden with magical lights. We are just about to finish our kitchen and sliding doors are just amazing. Good luck with your project.

In our previous house we had 5m of south facing bi-folds, we 2 problems:
1 - it was far too hot on any sunny day in summer, blinds were essential to keep the heat out as well as to stop soft furnishings bleaching.
2 - when it was too cold/wet to open the bi-folds, the view was spoiled by the amount of frame on each panel.
When we moved we chose a house with the open plan living facing west and replaced the bi-folds with a triple slider. Despite the maximum opening only being 2/3 of the full opening that is ok because when closed there is so much more glass. Blinds are still needed (but only 3 of them!) in summer but the sunsets are spectacular all year.

Ours had a huge, positive effect on the NE facing end of the house, and are not cold in winter. There is underfloor heating and we are not overlooked. We have electric UV blinds that are needed to reduce the quite blinding glare for a couple of hours on summer mornings only. We usually have to lower the blinds just blow eye level during that short time span. Yes we do keep the garden tidy, else the effect is ruined. The fact that you are SW facing could certainly be problematic for heat and glare without good planning. you may need a deeper roof overhang outside, trees or other shade that can be designed in. If you are overlooked that is another consideration. It sounds as though smaller glass doors might give you all the light you need.

If bi-folds are the solution, what is your problem?

Curtains over sliding doors are your answer. You can choose when to have both open or closed,

Hi,
we really enjoy having bifold doors in both living room and in the kitchen. we have open plans kitchen and bifold doors on one wall believe me it's feel like lively life through out day . And we have vertical blinds for privacy. as you can see in the pictures.

Thank you so much for everyone’s comments and photos, I’ve really enjoyed reading through these posts :)

And has given me a lot to think about!

We've just had our sliding door install (4m wide) completed. We opted for triple-glazing on both panes (one opening one fixed); we had major delays on our project; at least three years ago when we ordered, triple glazing wasn't available for bifolds due to weight.

Definitely don't regret either that (it notably helps against overheating as well), nor do we regret getting a slider instead of bifolds. The sliding door allows us to keep furniture - and the plants, they love it - close to the door, so we do not need to keep the space open just so the bifolds can be used.

What would we change next time ? Maybe external blinds. Or a fitted insect screen. One always finds in the end "but we should have" :-) Enjoy your choice, whatever it will be !

6 metres of bi-fold doors in an open plan living space and have some regrets. When designing, didn't think enough about the configuration of where the fireplace, TV, and sofas/armchairs would go ... and now have a sofa which effectively has its back to a bi-fold. No problem really, but conceptually doesn't quite feel right. Wish we had slightly less bi-folds, and had a tall window from waist height where the sofa backs onto. I think this would work better, and would have been a bit cheaper overall. Each to their own though.

There are a few options we would love to speak with you about:) DM us.