I'd seal the vent in the closet! Is it useful for anything? Can you replace the vent cover with a solid cover? That should divert/increase the airflow into the bedroom.

This may not be the solution you're looking for, but have you tried closing and covering the vent in the closet so the air that generally comes out of it has to go somewhere else?

This is going to sound insultingly basic, but first check and see that the bedroom vent has its little slats set for maximum air flow. You'd be amazed how often the things get themselves set in a closed position.

For the door, you just need a rod and a pullback-thingie (what you loop the curtain over to tie it back) that coordinate with the style of your furniture, plus a curtain panel that coordinates with your linens.

is it just me, or have there been a ton of these questions recently... all have the same answer.. hang a curtain.

Since you own, I would figure out a way to bring the vent directly into the bedroom. How hard could it be?

If you want to put in a curtain, it is very easy. First, take the door off its hinges and store it somewhere. If you don't want to drill holes in the frame, get a tension rod from the hardware store. If you don't mind drilling and screwing, the hardware store has more permanent options, just measure your door frame width, and tell the guys at the store what you want to do; they'll tell you what you need. It's basically just a closet rod with a cup at either end that gets drilled into the wall, to hold up the rod. You could also choose to hang the curtain on the wall inside or outside the door.

Just think of your closet door as a window, basically.

Thanks for those hints, but the airflow was the first thing we checked-- vents, slats, including the valves that shut off the airflow to the conduits themselves in the basement. Nothing has worked to increase the flow to the vent in the bedroom-- so aside from having a professional come out and re-do the HVAC routing, it seems like cold air out of the closet is our only option at the moment! If anyone has any photos they could point me to that would be great too!

Instead of installing those dreadful bi-fold doors on my closet, I installed a curtain. I attached the curtain rod brackets to the underside of the door jamb. The brackets had little screws on them to hold the rod in place that worked well, even though they were meant to be installed on a wall. I got everything from Target.

we have bifold doors in our apartment that look nice. half slat, half solid. I think curtains in place of doors looks cheap and post-college like.

That is one ugly door. Get rid of it immediately, especially if it is hollow-core and textured wood grain! Assuming you've tried redirecting the air to no avail, perhaps you should consider a sliding slab on a barn-door track. This will glide parallel with the wall, rather than jutting out perpendicularly as shown in the photo. Go with a flat-panel door slab or try making a door slab out of wood slats (with openings for airflow).

Boomer- thanks for the link-- those look like they are worth checking out. I tend to agree with sammie2 that curtains can look a little post-college but was hoping to see some attractive examples, perhaps mounted on the inside of the door frame. erinn and greer-- good ideas too.

I think it would be worth it to have an HVAC person to come in and re-route the vent.

I do like the barn-door idea, if hiring someone to fix the vent is out of the question.

Pocket doors? They are an expense but will help keep or increase the value of your townhouse. I agree with a curtain being a cheap looking solution. A pocket door will not interrupt the flow of your room and you can leave it open most of the time to allow the air to flow into the room and just close it if you have company. If pocket doors are too much of an expense, then louvers is a better option than the curtain.

Pocket doors? They would keep/increase the value of your townhouse (unlike the curtain) and can be left open most of the time without interrupting the flow of your room..or the air. If they are too much of an expense, then agree with louvers. The curtain does seem to be a cheap (looking) solution and fromt the photo your style/taste appear to be grown up

As many of the posters said, close off the vent in the closet. I know it sounds like it won't work, but I had the very same issue in my bedroom, except a bit opposite. The vents in my bedroom blast me silly, but the one in my dressing room was wimpy. I was complaining about it to my boss (who has an engineering degree and has planned 'airflow..erm... stuff before) and he had me close two out of the three vents in the bedroom and POOF.. my dressing room got ice cold.

It may be a good interim step at least. The other thing I would suggest is not to do the 'curtain' thing unless thats really what you want. I'd probably go for a transient window at the top over the door, or the louvered doors.

good luck :)

oops, sorry about the double post.

Pocket doors will interfere with the electrical wiring, not that the outlets by the closet door are all that useful.

Y'know, we rent a townhouse that has those same hollow-core plastic "colonial" doors and that same beige carpet and those same baseboards... and it's a common complaint in this development that the AC does not reach the master bedroom of the 2-BR units. I strongly suspect the builder here popped the same capacity AC into every place, regardless of square footage. Your AC unit may just be underpowered for the size of the apartment.

Really, it is pretty easy (probably) for that vent to be extended into your living space. I'd have the a/c guy come out and do that. If you can get into your attic, you could do it too. It will mean cutting a hole in the drywall in the ceiling. Assuming there are no obstacles, you should take a look up there and see if you can tackle it. Or a handyman could do it. There won't be electrical or plumbing, so that's a good DIY project.

What about a Dutch door? One of those ones which has a top half and a bottom half and just remove one of the halves during the cooling season?

I agree that blocking the closet vent completey should redirect airflow through the remaining registers, thereby increasing the cooling in the bedroom. You would have to get all remaining registers rebalanced after doing that.

I also agree that re-routing the ductwork is not a huge undertaking but can see why some would not want to go that route.

If the register is on the ground then perhaps this would work
http://www.improvementscatalog.com/product/id/100686.do
I have no idea if it performs well at all but if the register is on the ground and in line with the door, the gap under the door is at least an inch and a half, and you would not trip over this thing (I know, a lot of ifs), then it may be a possibility.

BTW casa3, the op already came to your conclusion. They were asking how to hang a curtain.

If blocking/moving the vent doesn't work, do Plantation shutters. More flow and flexibility than standard louvered doors.

I just don't understand why there'd *be* a vent *in* a closet.

I'm not sure about the aesthetics of it:but what about a retractable black fiberglass screen door? That way you have the advantage of the curtain--airflow, and the pocket door--it won't take up any space.

An interior mounted curtain can look good if you integrate it with the rest of the space and treat it like a big block of colour, if that's your taste. Whatever, it should coordinate with your bedding and window treatments.

How strange. This is all I can add.

I like the idea of a screen door. You could use a storm door with the option of a screen during the summer and replace it with glass in the winter and put up one of those cool plastic decals that you can put on windows.

patrick (the other one)-- the fact that there is a vent in our closet is one of several strange things about our townhouse! But I'm starting to think from the comments that maybe we should get someone else out here to look at the HVAC again-- perhaps the original person we had out here just didn't want to do the work and made it seem like it was going to be a bigger deal than it actually is-- the consensus here seems to be that it really shouldn't be that difficult. The idea of the screen door with the decal is intriguing, but I'm just not brave enough for that. However, the louvered doors also seem like a good option. Thanks to everyone who has commented so far, you guys are really helping me think through my options here.