Patio Door on a Rail

I brought it home and placed the carved wood panel by the patio door. It looked good there as it matched the style and the colors of of my office space. But every time I needed to open the patio door, I had to move the carved panel. A bit of a nuisance!

How about turning this carved wood panel into a barn door?

I found several old shutters on Craigslist. There were two larger and two smaller ones. When I laid out the shutters and the carved panel on the floor of my garage, it was obvious that I would need to do some adjustments as the shutters and the carved wood panel were of different length.

I had to buy a couple of 2x6x8 boards at Home Depot, cut them to size, and use those boards to nail and hold the shutters and the carved wood panel together. I put one larger and one smaller shutter on either side of the carved wood panel.

I also bought several feet of decorative trim to hide the screws and nails at the top and at the bottom of the barn door.

And I covered the seam between the larger and smaller shutters on either side with decorative trim and added nice handles. I got the handles for free on Craigslist long time ago - somebody did a kitchen remodel and did not need the old cabinet pulls. Lucky me!

When the barn door was assembled, I gave it 3 coats of Home Decor Seafoam chalk paint sanding before applying each layer.

The barn door was supposed to slide on a rail. Made of the old shutters and the carved panel, it was quite heavy, and I wanted to make sure the rail is properly secured and attached to the wall to support the barn door weight.

I cut 2x6 x8 boards and attached them to the wall with 3-inch screws making sure to hit the studs. This would be a support beam for the barn door rail.

I drilled the holes for the lag bolts that would support the rail. After the support beam was painted the same color as the barn door, it was time to install the rail.

Here is my barn door that can slide on a rail.

I can pull the handle on either side to slide the barn door on a rail to the left or to the right.

Not only does this barn door provide privacy, but it is also a nice décor piece in my office.

All in all, I spent about 4 weeks on this project working on weekends.

The carved wood panel was $50 at TJ Maxx, the shutters were $30 on Craigslist, the barn door hardware was bought for $109 on Amazon, lumber boards $12 at Home Depot (I like to buy lumber at Home Depot because they will cut it for you), Home Decor Seafoam chalk paint $16, nails and screws about $8. The total was about $240.