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1-22-felt1.jpgWe first became enthralled with thick felt over ten years ago when we frequented the SoHo showroom of J. Morgan Puett.

A onetime fashion darling, now working out of rural Pennsylvania with her son and partner, J. Morgan used super thick industrial felt to sculpt dressing rooms and doors that hung from the ceiling. We loved how tactile, bulky and soft it was.

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Only this past year did we get around to building our own felt doors, and we love them. They slide easily, baffle sound and take up no room...

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The toughest part was finding the right felt. It turns out that to get good felt you have to go to industrial suppliers who sell this stuff for aircraft engine mounts and other heavy vibration situations. Here's what we ended up with.

Ingredients:
• 1/2 inch white wool felt from Sutherland Felt Company @ $75 a yard
• Hospital track, endcaps and rolling hooks from MedicalProductsDirect.com
• Thick brown leather from a place on Bleecker Street that charged me too much
• White spray paint
• Silicone spray

Other felt suppliers:
• Southeastern Felt
• Central Shippee
• Aetna Felt

Tools:
• eXacto knife
• Drill with 1/4 drill bit

Steps:

1. Measure your doorway and order your felt large enough for both panels to more than cover the opening both side to side and up and down. It comes 72" wide so you are in the best shape if you only have to buy one length and have them cut it down the middle for two 3' wide pieces.

2. Order your hospital track to all felt door to slide out to the side in both directions. It only comes in silver, but don't worry, you can paint it.

3. Mount your track on the ceiling and as tight to the door as possible so that the felt will hug the opening.

4. Insert end caps and rolling hooks. Spray with silicone to ease movement.

5. Masking off area around track, spray with white paint to blend in with ceiling.

6. Hold up felt and measure to fit.

7. Trim felt down with eXacto knife.

8. Using 1/4" drill bit, drill holes in top of felt about 1" down and 3" apart. Also drill holes for leather handles as well.

9. Stitch leather handle on with leather thong.

10. Hang felt from hooks.

If desired (We haven't done it yet, but plan to) you can use extra felt to attach at the top and hide the hooks that are poking out. We would stitch it together in the same way as the handles.

(RePublished from 2007-01-22 - mgr)