DIY Barn Door Accent

by Jillian @ JST Design

2 Days

Medium

DIY barn door accent piece and fall mantle decor.

diy barn door accent, diy, fireplaces mantels, home decor, seasonal holiday decor

We are anxiously preparing for hosting our very first Thanksgiving dinner this coming Monday for my husband’s side of the family. Which means preparing the house and working on some last-minute fall projects. Today I am sharing what started out as just hanging a cute fauxidermy deer head over our mantle, but quickly turned into this fun barn door accent project. I purchased the deer head about a month ago from Z Gallerie to hang above the fireplace but the deer looked a bit lonely hanging on the wall by himself so I created a plan to use what looks like a barn door to accent the deer head.

We purchased our supplies from Home Depot and began the project by cutting each piece to the width of the fireplace insert. Once all the boards were cut, I lightly sanded them to smooth out the rough edges and prepared them for staining, by wiping off any dust with a damp cloth.

I then applied one coat of Min Wax Dark Walnut stain using a brush, leaving it on for about 5 minutes and then wiping any excess stain off with a cotton rag. I stained both sides, then let them dry for 2 hours. When the boards were dry, I applied Annie Sloan clear wax using a brush and again wiping off any excess with a cotton rag. I let these dry overnight before putting it together.

We used 1 1/2″ steel to create the look of iron pieces holding the door together. My handy hubby cut these to size and drilled holes using the drill press. Then I spray painted the steel pieces and screws, first with Rust-Oleum Primer spray paint, then with Rust-Oleum flat black spray paint.

To assemble the barn door we flipped over the boards, so the “good” side was facing down. Then with 1 1/2″ pieces of wood cut to size we applied wood glue to the back of them for extra support, then drilled screws into each piece of wood.

Once all the boards were secure, we attached the steel pieces to the front of the barn door in the same location as the supporting back pieces of wood, this allowed for us to use longer screws as they would be drilled into both the stained pieces of wood and the supporting pieces on the back. Hopefully that makes sense and the pictures explain it more clearly.