Today’s post is literally gonna blow your mind. Seriously. Prepare yourself to completely lose it.
Magnetic door stop.
BOOM!
I know. Your brain is melting inside your head right now. It’s a gooey ooze coming out the ears. (too far?)
The revolution has arrived people. And it changed my life.
Well…not as much mine as Jeremy’s. See we are the kinda couple that fights over the DUMBEST things. One time when we were dating, we broke up because we fought over the phrase “borrowing shampoo”. I said that technically you can’t borrow it because you can’t give it back. He said it was just a phrase. IT’S NOT A PHRASE PEOPLE. BORROW HAS A DIFFERENT DEFINITION THAN HAVE! You can sense my intensity about this situation right?! I need like a whole bottle of chill pills.
Well, the door to the laundry room is such a situation. He likes the door closed. I like the door open but only if I am caught up on laundry. And the door is on rollers….it sides with me 🙂 We have fought about the door position endlessly.
The weight of the door and the ever-so-slight angle makes the entire thing stay open all the time.
Jeremy has used everything under the moon to wedge it closed. He even put a giant basket behind it so that the kids couldn’t move it and then I just ignored laundry for a week because it was too heavy to scooch outta the way. Laundry must not be ignored for a week. It was terrifying upon reentry.
That is when I discovered the magnetic door stop. I figured this genius little contraption would enable the door to stay closed sometimes (making Jeremy happy) and for the most part, I wouldn’t be locked out of the room for the never-ending chore of washing clothes. The problem was position. How to figure out where to place this magnetic door stop to somehow keep it from rolling open? At first I thought there was a way at the top near the door hardware…but the closer I looked, it really leaves no room for anything else and it would be distracting…having a big metal door stop at the very top.
My only other option was the bottom. It’s also a little tight on space.
But when I lined everything up, it looked like this would be my only option. The entire piece needed only to be able to sit flush against the door trim. See that hump on the door frame? Had to go.
The first step was closing the door all the way. I needed to make sure that it was lined up properly.
Then I placed the door stop on the door frame and marked it’s location.
I pulled out the Dremel and cut away anything inside my marks. It’s not perfect but it’s getting covered anyway 🙂
It basically just needed cut and then sanded and repainted.
Then came time to attach the two pieces for the magnetic door stop. The long arm has a screw plate that easily came out with a screwdriver and can be attached with the provided screws. Then the arm gets threaded back onto it.
The other part is the magnet catch. This is the very fancy name I gave it. It’s basically the other magnetic part that attaches to the door. It’s got a spring inside and it’s very confusing to take apart.
I figured out that you have to squeeze it together and simultaneously unscrew the button from the dark frame. It will eventually have the bottom screw off so you can attach that to the door.
I lined up the arm with the catch and marked where the base of the catch will go. I simply screwed that into the door and reattached the catch to the base.
Now it holds it perfectly in place! And because I know this will be a question…no it doesn’t stick out farther than the laundry room door frame….so no, we aren’t hurting ourselves on it.
But look how great it works! Isn’t that nice? And then there will be no giant baskets wedged behind the door. And there will be no laundry-ignoring either. That was too painful to go through again 🙂
And Jeremy feels like he won this fight. Which I gotta give it to him…this time, he is right. It’s important for doors to stay closed sometimes. I mean….nobody wants to see my dirty underroos.
Such a simple thing…to add a magnetic door stop….but in all honesty, it is really nice to do the finishing parts to this house. Those little details make it feel more like home, make it function better for us and keep things orderly.
I am thinking I need some more of these magnetic miracles for the playroom door and for the boys room….ya know….because wherever the kids are, trouble usually follows 🙂
We had the same problem and my husband put one of those small felt floor protectors at the top so when you slide the door, it goes over the small felt bump and back down and stay in place until you push it back again. (I feel like all those words didn’t make sense)
Ours sliding mechanism is inside of the laundry room, so you cant see the piece of felt or it would bother me 🙂
My brain is melting, I need this magnetic door stop! I have a sliding barn door for our laundry room also, those things are so cute and functional. Huge space savers. I believe we actually have the same hardware for the rollers as you. Anyways, we had issues with it sliding open all the time. That is a no go because I do major avoidance tactics with laundry and that is hard to do without the door shut. We currently have a piece of twine wrapped around the rolling gears of the door. This gives enough traction to have the door slide open or closed. It is a true DIY tactic and works ok. I was not aware of this and have no clue why I never through of a magnet before. Light bulb!
Genious! 🙂 It also tones with the hardware on top of the door 🙂
And the never ending laundry story!! Dirty laundry goes by the name Mount Washmore at my house (hope I don´t offend anyone with the Mt. Rushmore connection there) and the clean laundry that needs to be folded and put where it belongs is called Mount Never-rest….it´s endless!!! My attempt to have fun while doing laundry 😉
Margret…
P.S. Love your blog and your family is so adorable 🙂 And I love your sense of humor too!! 😀
This is a genius solution and I have to agree, door closed wins!
I love absolutely every bit of your house and decorating style. And I’m a big fan of the barn doors. I hesitate writing this because I don’t want to come across as negative, but I just don’t understand your decorating plan for this little hallway. You have three different style doors – a sliding barn door, a two panel door and a six panel door that’s green. I love the light fixture you added, but think it would be more complete/finished looking if there was some consistency in the three doors that are all right next to each other.
Great idea! any thoughts on painting it white so it blends in? Or do you like the contrast?
That is great and I am with Jeremy – the laundry room should be closed – that is why in my next house the entrance to the garage will not be through the laundry room! However, I am the person who trips over everything and I feel like I would end up hitting that with my foot every time I entered and left! Good luck!
Okay, this might be better than the rock I use to hold our back door open! Will have to try and find it.
What a great idea! I had no idea those existed and it’s great that it’s barely noticeable. I’m all about being able to close the door to messy rooms, so I’m on Jeremy’s side on this. 🙂 Great job!
I think you may, actually, be psychic! I saw the pic of your barn door a few days back and noticed the little door stopper at the bottom. We have a barn door on our mudroom that we made using a very old (& heavy) door and have had the same issue with it not staying closed. After over a year of trying to find a solution, I gave up. This is exactly what we need!! Thank you!!!
When we bought our house last year we discovered these on all of the door and weren’t really sure why they were there— until we turned on the whole house fan. The fan sucks air in to the house so strong that it would slam the door closed if they were not held open, hence the magnetic door stop!
We use them on all our bathroom doors because our cats were constantly locking themselves in! Ours make a little “boing” noise when you un-click the door from the wall, so they aren’t super stealth. But they are awesome anyway.
Oh they also work really well on doors with lots of crap hanging on them (like bath towels or coats).
this was hilarious to read because i can totally see myself getting upset over something like “borrowing the shampoo” as well! it’s not our fault that we are ALWAYS right!
we got one of these doorstops in our master bedroom a couple years ago cuz the door always wants to shut, but my husband likes it open at night. of course, i just shut it after he falls asleep, cuz i like it CLOSED! i love small fixes like this too– doesn’t take something big to make me happy!
the last time i was at Home Depot, i noticed they also have one in white, if you don’t want it to show as much!
Barrowing shampoo makes sense to me– you’re barrowing the bottle of shampoo.! Crisis averted!
I want a barn door so bad. The next house we buy I am totally making sure there is a spot for one!
We have this on our baby’s door. It’s cool, but it is noisy enough when “engaging” to wake a sleeping child. You know, metal on metal, and all. I rubber-banded a baby washcloth over the knobby end, which works pretty well and of course, looks super classy. 🙂
silly question but how does the door open now? Is it much harder of is it a simple slide. It through me off when you said you wanted to add more to the other doors so the boys don’t open them. So I think it might be harder to open with this on it. :0)
We have something very similar on our office doors at work! Great fix
That is a great idea! Not doing laundry for week. 🙂
Same here. I have one that holds my master bath door open so the dogs don’t get shut inside. A ferret we have would pull out doorstops on the floor AND push the door shut, locking dogs in there. And the dogs would accidentally shut themselves in there, too. The magnet doorstop stopped all the foolishness. Now if I could just teach my teen to push the door back onto the magnet after using my bathroom.
I meant to add– Katie, you don’t want to slap a handle on that sliding door? I’m surprised it’s still so white! Though I guess many people actually clean doors regularly! It’d be cute with a rustic pull, though.
I’m with you on this one. I despise when somebody asks to borrow a tissue. No, you may not, but you may have one. I don’t want your dirty tissue. 🙂
I kinda love the fact that you two broke up over ‘borrowing shampoo.’ It shows conviction over principles.
I was curious if there was a way to mount it in your laundry room or if you considered painting it white.
There wasn’t without it sticking into the doorway…which would have made it a real ankle biter 🙂
xo – kb
I have bought three different ones but am afraid to pull the trigger 🙂
xo – kb
Hahaha! You get by on a technicality 🙂
xo – kb
It’s a simple slide. I think the boys doors would be opened because of the constant running…they hit the doors as they go by and bounce off the rubber door stop.
xo – kb
That is hilarious!
xo – kb
It’s kinda hard to tell in the photos but it’s nearly impossible to trip over it. I totally hate the location and size of our current laundry room. It’s tiny compared to the size of the house and it makes this back hall so dark!
xo – kb
I like the contrast! I feel like it goes with our door handles.
xo – kb
I totally agree but right now this is function over form. We have the green door (granted it could be painted white but it still has different lines) that is an exterior door and it can’t match the others because it’s metal and per code. The middle door matches the rest of the doors of the house. And the sliding door is for room in the laundry room…it’s either a sliding barn door or I loose about 1/4 of the space in the room. It was the only solution. I totally wish that I could switch things up (like either make the green door like the white one or remove the white one all together) but it’s necessary for our family to have things the way they are right now!
xo – kb
Thanks Katie, that makes sense – I actually have the same problem with my laundry room door and wish I could do a pocket door there, but $$ keeps that from happening. If that wasn’t a problem, I would make every door a pocket door. I grew up in a house with those, and the’re great except when you’re a teenage girl and want to slam the door and it just bounces open again. 🙂
Genius idea!! It’s kind of hard to tell from the photo…but does the head on the “arm” part pivot? For example, could this same contraption be used to hold the door OPEN? (with the arm part sticking straight out of the wall, behind the door?)
OH WAIT! I get it now! There’s no pivoting points, you just rotate the arm. Never mind 😉
Could you have hung it on the inside from the top of the door jam? No rule that says it has to go at the bottom.
No because the hanging barn door doesn’t sit flush with that. Does that make sense? It actually sits out further because of the hardware…so there is the frame, the space, then the door. The magnets would not be close enough.
xo – kb
BWAHAHAHA!
xo – kb
Sorry if this has been asked, I didn’t read all the comments. Does your laundry room door not stay closed without this? Does it slide open on its own? Like your door frame is slanted? Just trying to get a feel for if I have a situation in my house that could benefit from one of these:)
The door hardware is level (per our level) but it does still open on its own. I have heard from other people that their barn door does the same thing but I haven’t looked into why.
xo kb
Love these door stops! Our kids used to destroy all the other ones. I also have 4 boys. We put them on all our doors a few years ago. No more broken hinges from the hinge type stops and no more knobs going through the walls!
I have never seen anything like this and my mind is completely blown! Where can I get one!?
I have seen them in most major hardware stores 🙂
xo – kb
I love your brown boots your have on. Please tell me where you got them?
DSW Lucky brand 🙂
xo kb
But where are your boots from?!
I was so ready to get worked up with you, then I realized I had already discovered magnetic door stops. Had I known it would be so transformative for you, I would have shared sooner.
We put one on the bathroom door in our old house; it was the house we used to live in AND an old (100+ year old) house, which is important because it meant that things weren’t always square. Anyway, our bathroom door’s favourite position was closed, not a problem in general I’d rather it be closed much of the time than having it open while I am using it and didn’t quite latch it right. The problem was the dog. For much of the year he liked to spend most of the night sleeping on the nice cool porcelain tiles, but eventually he wanted to cuddle with someone, but he would be stuck behind the closed door and would have to whine someone awake, usually my daughter. I found the magnetic latch to keep it open for the dog but allow the kids to easily close it as they went in.
They really are amazing. I hadn’t thought about the use to keep a door closed, but where you don’t have a knob and latch… of course that’s a problem.
DSW 🙂
xo- kb
Very nice, thanks. Much better than a latch.
As to borrowing shampoo, Jeremy is correct. He borrowed the bottle, fully intending to give the bottle back, with the understanding that he would use a small portion of it. If he had said, “Can I have your shampoo?”, that would imply you are giving him the entire bottle for him to keep.
Well, if he only borrowed the bottle, he would give it back with exactly the same contents….which he wasn’t planning on doing. Also, the shampoo refers to the actual soap inside…not the container it comes in. Technically speaking, he was planning on borrowing the bottle….but consuming the shampoo. I think a jury would see it my way 🙂
xo – kb
Hahahaha! Thanks for the reply, made me smile. No one would ever borrow a bottle of shampoo with the intention of giving it back with exactly the same contents, what is the point of borrowing it then? I think your jurists would correctly assume that borrowing the bottle could only be because he intended to use a bit of it. And no, saying, “Can I borrow your shampoo?” does not specifically refer to the contents, that would imply you are expecting him to hold out his hand, you pour some shampoo into it, then wait for him to give it back. That makes no sense at all. I enjoyed your article about the latch, especially since it was so well-documented with photos, but try not to get sued for anything because you may find that your interpretation is too literal for the average bear. 🙂
I hate to say this about something you were so excited about, but… you actually installed it backwards. The arm goes on the door. The catch goes on the wall. Of course, it does work your way. But think about it – the ball on the arm goes into the socket on the catch. Your door swings a little, so it can slide right over the “lip” of the socket and into the “cup”. But it rubs every time it goes in, doesn’t it? If the ball were mounted on the door, and the socket on the frame, it would simply snap right into place.
Like I said, your way works for your installation. But there are many situations where it doesn’t. Just thought you might want to mention that to your readers, so they don’t get confused and wind up with a less-than-functional doorstop.
Yes – the actual directions say to do it with the arm on the floor or the baseboards. I don’t have these on any of my other doors but I know for this situation, I did what worked. If the arm with the ball part was installed on the sliding door it would have been a trip hazard and never would have latched correctly. But yes, for a generic swinging door, the setup is more flexible. Of course, you gotta do what works for your house, right?!
xo – kb