If you would have told me two months ago that I would be telling you about a barn door my husband built, I would have laughed out loud. Then there was this day he came home and told me he was going to build a barn door. I brushed it off and immediately thought of other projects I would rather get done first. Little did I know, the wheels were already in motion and this project was a go.
Let’s rewind. The kids’ bedrooms are right off the kitchen and we had talked about how we wanted something there to divide the space, more so to act as a sound barrier. We love hosting parties and get-togethers, so we figured it would be used for many years to come. Our initial thought was to install a pocket door, but the door frame would have to go inside the wall that houses the pipes for the laundry room sink. We quickly realized that this would be a much bigger (and more costly) project than we wanted. One that would require hiring someone to move pipes, tear apart the wall, then install the door. No thank you.
[[ laundry room on left / kenley’s room ahead ]]
[[ kitchen ahead ]]
[[ kids’ rooms on right // guest bathroom straight ahead ]]
[[ kids’ rooms on left ]]
I had put this project out of my head while Greg was busy thinking up a solution….and then it came to him: a sliding barn door. After doing some research, he came to the conclusion that installing a barn door would address the issue of separation and sound while also being more cost effective and significantly easier to install. Not to mention it would look awesome too (hopefully).
As usual, Greg looked on Craigslist to find a beat up door that he could re-purpose to fit our needs but there wasn’t much out there. There are websites that sell custom-built barn doors but we needed an 8′ door because of the arched opening and those aren’t cheap. Greg then began researching tirelessly on how to build one. One of the pros to building our own door was that we could pick the stain color to match the wine rack to maintain some uniformity throughout the house.
Once he knew he could do it, Greg drew up the specs and headed to Lowe’s for the supplies.
For the door:
2 – 1 x 10 x 8 piece of wood
7 – 1 x 6 x 8 piece of wood
1 – 1 x 3 x 8 piece of wood
2 – 1 x 12 x 4 piece of wood
Wood glue
Stain
Wood & pipe clamps (borrowed)
…and so it began…
Greg divided the door build in half to make the gluing more manageable, once both halves were dry, he glued the two pieces together. To keep the boards flush while gluing, he clamped the door with six clamps and two pipe clamps and used cauls (crosspieces shown above). He worked on gluing the boards over several days since he had to wait for the glue to dry before moving on to the next step. Once it was a complete door, he began sanding and staining the wood over the course of several days. Once one side was complete, he and my dad flipped the door over so he could work on the backside. Once both sides were sanded and stained, he added the trim pieces for the door.
We chose to get the barn door hardware from Rustica Hardware, specifically this one. We figured it was worth the money to get a nice track system since the door will be used so often. It’s amazing how easy the door slides for how heavy it is.
Kenley can open and close it with no problem.
The finished product…
Greg installed a small track on the tile for the door to slide in, so it will stay flush against the wall while sliding. I don’t think this is entirely necessary, but since we have small kids, we figured it was a good idea just in case someone were to push on the door from the backside.
The door handles were purchased from Amazon: Large Pull
and Flush Pull
.
This project was very labor intensive but overall not too difficult given all of the research he did and the videos he watched. It took about two weeks to complete but most of that was down time since we had to wait for the glue and strain to dry after each step. It was nice that he decided to do it over Christmas break while my parents were in town, both to help with the kids and to help carry and hang the door. We definitely benefited from having two extra sets of hands around.
I will be the first to admit that I had doubts about this project, so I can honestly say that I am blown away by how awesome this door is.
I also cannot believe that Greg BUILT A DOOR!
It works wonderfully and looks so freaking awesome (if I do say so myself).
If you have questions regarding anything about this project, leave them in the comments, or you can shoot me an email!
and waking himself up, so we are back in the 
.
The Gilbertson Family 