We have a small portable A/C unit in our kitchen that does a pretty good job when the doors to the rooms off of it (bathroom and two bedrooms) are closed. But it also opens to the hallway with no door and we’d like to avoid cooling that hallway when it’s not needed and makes the kitchen warmer.
What could we hand in the open doorway to the hall that will help keep cool air in the kitchen? We need regular access through there so I think something like beads or hanging fabric strips would work, but I don’t know if either would do anything to stop the flow of air. And although a Mona Lisa bamboo curtain would be wicked cool, it might be a little tacky for the everyday visitor.
Ideally it wouldn’t require you to pull something aside and return it once you pass through. Any ideas?
A silky sarong, is what I use. It fully covers the opening, is light enough to put up with tacks, and silky, slinky, easy to walk through with things in your hands.
I use it more to keep the heat in the kitchen when I’m cooking, so the air con can keep the living room and dining room lovely and chill.
Go to a store like a Target. In the housewares section you’ll find spring-rods for curtains. They’re like those chin-up bars folks install in a doorway, but meant for light weights only. The rod is probably 1/2-3/4" in diameter and has what looks like crutch tips on the ends. The length is adjustable over a range of only a few inches, so measure your doorway width first so you get the right size.
Within a few feet of of the rods you’ll find pre-made fabric curtains. They’ll have a pocket sown along the top that the rod slips through. They also have a hem on the bottom and are sorta corrugated. The color choices aren’t too exiting, but there are some patterns. You want one as wide as your doorway plus about 6". This is not high precision stuff; close enough is good enough. If I had to choose between items 12" too wide or 2" too narrow, I’d probably choose narrower.
Bring it home and hang it up across the doorway. If you want to keep cold in the room, hang it so the hem almost touches to floor. Which will probably leave a gap at the top. If you want to keep heat in the room, hang the curtain as high as possible and leave the gap at floor level. If you’re lucky & the curtain is longer than the door is tall, just put the rod at the top, then hem or pin up the excess curtain at the bottom.
It only takes a couple days to get used to sweeping the curtain aside with one hand before going through. Even carrying plates of food you’ll quickly learn how to go through sideways leading with an elbow to push the curtain aside & not have it drag through the plates.
If you’re having a party, or elderly visitors, or whatever else would make the curtain awkward, just take it down temporarily. It’s only takes a minute to put up or take down once you’ve done it once.
Small warning: the rod ends will chew up the paint where they touch the door jamb. It won’t be a disaster, but it won’t be pristine either. That might matter to some folks.
Bottom line: For $25ish total this really works super for keeping air of different temps on the different sides. I’ve done it in several houses as a way to block airflow up and down staircases that lacked doors
Just to confirm what LSLGuy posted, hanging a curtain is very effective. My parents did exactly what LSLGuy described when I was growing up (they used a curtain made from a kind of burlap-ish material), and the temperature difference on the air-conditioned side versus the non-air-conditioned side was considerable.
I used to have to do this in an older apartment. I used a spring-rod and put a velvet curtain on it. The velvet was heavy enough to effectively keep the cold air in the living area and out of the hallway. It really wasn’t that big of a deal to duck around it.
Thermal drapes. Watch if they want a rod through them (grommets) or traditional drape hooks. If you don’t want to mess with hardware, just get a thin stick about 1/4" thick and SCREW it onto the top of the door casing (with fabric between the two).
If possible, find weighted drapes - they will hang straight easier, and make sure the drapes are full length - the cold air is at the floor, so you don’t want a gap there.
I also did this in a studio apartment. Spring-rod curtain rod and a not too thin curtain. Nothing to walking thru it all day long. Make sure you measure the doorway for the curtain rod length, you’d be surprised at how inaccurate a guess in the store is for this*!*