How to make a Barn Door

Tutorial on how to make a barn door

I have been wanting to find a solution for an odd closet in the Dining Room for quite some time.

Well, today I get to share what we have finally got around to doing. Making our own barn door for a tiny closet.

I have had this antique door for over a year now. It's enjoyed many a tour through my home. When we first brought this beauty home it got cleaned up and propped up in the living room when we Updated the baseboard moulding.

Then for winter it found it's way into my entry for a Winter Entryway Decorations post.

Now it's time to give it a permanent home. After "G" gets the paint stripped off.

All under the watchful eye of his junkyard dog.

I freely admit that I brought the belt and orbital sander upstairs to strip this door. So when "G" started sanding, I had every intention of taking it over so I could say I did it myself.

Until the hard wearing 40 year old enamel paint started clogging the sandpaper so bad, that he literally had to use a box cutter to scrape the paint clumps off the sand paper.

Every 60 seconds.

The belt sander did a beautiful job on the large flat areas and the more "G" sanded, the more I loved it.

Gorgeous oak was underneath all that paint. Along with an unknown story about the door. We knew when we bought it, that the door has been "enlarged" by someone adding more wood on all 4 sides. But once the paint started coming off, we noticed that the bottom trim that had been added on?

Has large saw cut marks on it. The kind you only see when an old saw mill cuts wood or it is hand cut.  Check out below

on the left 

When he brought the scraper out and started working on the crevices I knew he was doing a much better job at the details then I ever would.

Spending over an hour sanding the larger areas and cleaning off the tar like paint that clogged the sandpaper, then this?

Yeah, I would have quit by now. I would have called it texture and grabbed an alcoholic beverage.

If you check look closely, the side pieces that were previously nailed into the door, are gone.

For several reasons. One - my dining room closet isn't that wide. Two - the paint on this "addon" really didn't want to come off. Three - The add on pieces that the previous owner put on, are actually "thinner" than the door itself, so for aesthetic reasons and it really didn't need the width.

I made a judgement call to have "G" grab a jigsaw and cut the trim off. It was simply nailed on with ginormous nails anyway. I did leave it on the top and bottom, because I need the height to cover the closet opening.

Add one piece of leftover corrugated metal as an insert.

Quality check

Sand the center bar.

We used glazing points to hold the corrugated metal in place. And now I get to play with it.

Just for my rustic obsession, I put it on the living room for a day so I could admire it from the couch.

Now onto its permanent home. The dining room.

Next on this to do list is remove the curtain rod hardware, update the trim (or remove it) and buy or build the barn door track system.

So stay tuned for part 2. 

XO,

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