Barn Door

A barn door can add some much needed separation to two spaces while also adding an element of design and some character.

In my home, there is a laundry room off my kitchen which has a door to the backyard. There is a doorway separating the kitchen and laundry room and I’ve wanted to enclose it since I moved in. The laundry room is colder than the rest of the house and the door would help trap my dogs to clean their muddy paws before running wild into the house.

I researched barn doors for months because I like what they add to a room. Purchasing one was looking to cost me around $350 at a minimum. I thought this was more than I wanted to spend so I decided to do some research on what it would take to make my own.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn how easy it is!

MATERIALS:

Wood Planks – 8 Pine planks 1” x 6” x 8’ 8 x $5.12 = $40.96

Trim Pieces – 4 Pine Trim Board 1” x 4” x 8’ 4 x $6.33 = $25.32

Paint – Behr – Swiss Coffee (Leftover from painting the living room so free in this case)

Screws – 1.25” General Purpose Screws – $5.97 (You definitely don’t need a pound but that was the box I got)

Handle – 12” Sliding Barn Door Handle – $14.98

Door Hardware – 6ft Heavy Duty Sturdy Sliding Barn Door Hardware Kit – $38.99

Wood Glue – Gorilla 8 oz Wood Glue – $3.97

Wood Filler – 3.75 oz. Natural Pine Wood Putty – $3.68

PROCESS:

1. Measure your door frame to determine how wide your door needs to be and how many planks you need to purchase.
2. Measure the door frame and how far you’d like the door to slide to make sure you order the correct size hardware to hang your door.
3. Purchase wood, wood glue, hardware for door and mounting, screws, wood filler, and paint color or stain of your choice.
4. I purchased 8’ planks so I needed to trim them down to the height I wanted the door with my circular saw.
5. Attach wood planks. I suggest using shiplap or tongue and groove pieces because you can easily glue them and piece together. Otherwise you’ll have to use a Kreg Jig to drill holes at an angle to attach wood planks with screws, possible, but much more time and effort because you have to hide the screws from view.
6. Allow glue to dry for 24 hours, then attach trim pieces on the edges, making it appear more finished and reinforcing the pieces you have glued together. You can add a more decorative design across the front of your barn door if you’d like. I preferred keeping mine simple with just one piece across the middle.
7. Fill in holes made by screws with wood filler.
8. Paint or stain door your color of choice, I would recommend 2 coats. You can sand off some of the paint for more of a farmhouse or antiqued look.
9. Once the paint has dried, attach your handle. Mine came from Amazon with instructions and was super easy to install.
10. Attach your mounting board to the wall above your door frame. This ensures that you have more support. The hardware I bought for hanging had pre-drilled holes to attach it to the wall – your wall studs may or may not line up exactly with those holes so it’s best to add a mounting board to make sure you’re drilling the board into studs and supporting the weight of the door as much as possible. It’s heavy!
11. Attach your hardware to the door as well as to the headboard on the wall. Be sure it’s level! If it isn’t, you’ll know – the door will keep sliding downhill. Your hardware should include stoppers so your door doesn’t roll off the track at any point as well.
12. Hang the door on the track and give yourself a high five because you’ve done it!

This project’s total cost was around $135.00 for everything you need.

Without the glue needing to dry for 24 hours, this could easily be completed in one day.

I built this door myself and saved $215.00 off the price of a door I could purchase at Home Depot. I call that a win!