Sliding Faux Barn Door

10 Materials
$60
2 Hours
Medium
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Here's another project that I'm so overly excited to share with y'all! I've been wanting a sliding barn door for forever, but Rob and I weren't exactly sure how we could incorporate one in our house since it's so small. We finally figured out the perfect spot for it and as a team, we got it done! We want to help you DIY, so some of the materials in this post are linked to sellers. Just so you know, Hometalk may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.
BEFORE: As with most people who have kids and/or pets, Rob and I had to install a gate between our kitchen and living room in order to keep our dog off the couch and to keep our toddler somewhat contained. It wasn't the prettiest thing in the world, but it served it's purpose. I'm so happy to see that thing go and introduce a more sleek, put-together look with our sliding faux barn door!
SUPPLIES: -door(s) that fit your wanted space (*Note: Rob decided that for our space, we would look for two 20" doors for him to join together...we found our 3-panel doors at our local Habitat Re-Store for $10 each. The final joined door now matches the rest of our 6-panel doors throughout our home.) -3" paint brush (I shot 3 different sizes in my photo but really only used the 3" brush in the end.) -Behr Premium Plus Ultra Interior Semi-Gloss Enamel Paint & Primer in one (color: Cherry Cola, 1 qt.) - Sliding Barn Door Hardware -12V DCF610 DeWalt drill -13/64" Milwaukee drill bit -13 mm GearWrench -Zircon Center Finding HD900 Multiscanner (aka: Stud Finder!) -Everbilt 7-1/2" heavy duty gate pull, black finish Not pictured: -level -7/64" Milwaukee drill bit (this was used for installing the door handle)
STEP 1: Join doors (optional) To start this project, as I mentioned in my supplies list, Rob joined two 20" doors for our 39" door opening between our living room and kitchen. Rob used expensive power tools at work to join our doors together, however, if you are also going to join doors for this project, check out STEP 3 in a previous project he completed back over the summer for the same concept of joining doors together (http://www.hometalk.com/diy/home-office/furniture/pallet-and-staging-plank-workstation-19401710).
STEP 2: Paint doors (optional) Again, this is another optional step. If you're able to find door that don't need TLC, you don't have to worry about this step. However, Rob and I agreed on barn red for our faux barn door -- we felt it would really pop against our light grey walls. We ended up applying three (3) coats of Cherry Cola red to our door -- one quart of paint was the perfect amount for us. *Note: the overall time for this project was about 2-3 hours, however, it took us about a day to get this project completed considering drying time for the door. If you are just mounting a door and not doing any work to your door, it should only take you about an hour.
STEP 3: Find studs, mark and drill After our door was completely dry, I used a stud finder to find the studs above our room opening. I marked where the studs were, used a level to mark X's on the stud marks and drilled a starter hole on my marks.
STEP 4: Assemble wall hardware and mount After my marks were made, I put together the sliding hardware for the wall. I put the two long pieces that came in our kit together, end-to-end, then placed the 4-hole piece on top and screwed in the screws with the Allen wrench/key that was provided in the kit.
Next, Rob and I placed the little cones (not sure how else to describe the little do-dads that came with the kit) against the wall, held the long assembled piece on the "cones" and used a wrench to screw in the long black screws that came in the kit.
Here is the long piece attached to the wall above our room/door opening. You'll want to make sure to measure the opening before you choose your door and mounting the wall piece to ensure that you have about a 1/2"-1" space at the bottom so that your door doesn't scrape against your floor.
STEP 5: Install door hardware Finally, it was time to install the door hardware. For this step, Rob took over and measured the top left and right corners of our door.
Next, he drilled holes on his marks and used a 13mm wrench to drive the screws through.
He then attached the nuts to the top-side of the hardware and tightened everything with two wrenches.
Lastly, Rob used the provided hardware (round piece and screw) and installed them on the outside of the sliding hardware on the outer edge of the top of the door. These little round pieces will prevent the door from coming off the track. STEP 6: Attach/install stoppers For this step, Rob slid the stopper hardware on to each end of the mounted wall hardware. You may have to loosen one or both wall bolts (the ones are each end) in order to slide the stoppers on (with ours, we had to undo one of the wall bolts in order to slide one of the stoppers on...the other end was fine where it was). Once the stoppers are in the position you want them at, use the provided Allen wrench/key to tighten them in place. These stoppers keep the door from sliding past a certain point.
STEP 7: Install handle Finally, it was time to install the handle for the door. I chose a heavy duty gate handle that, to me, matched perfectly with the sliding door hardware. I positioned the handle where I wanted it to be, marked the holes with a pencil, then used a 7/64" drill bit to start the holes, and attached the handle using the screws provided.
I'm so uber excited about how this sliding faux barn door came out!!! I feel like it makes a huge statement in our home and ties the different elements of our kitchen and living room together. I'm not crazy about the blank wall when the door is closed but the door will primarily be open, except when we're away and at night.
Suggested materials:
  • 3" paint brush   (Home Depot)
  • Behr Premium Plus Ultra Interior Semi-Gloss Enamel Paint & Primer in one (color: Cherry Cola, 1 qt.)   (Home Depot)
  • TCBunny 8 FT Sliding Barn Door Hardware Black Antique   (Amazon)
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Frequently asked questions
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3 of 9 questions
  • Pat Swafford Pat Swafford on Jan 15, 2017
    You could put a measuring your kids heights on the wall
  • Mary Ruxlow Mary Ruxlow on Jan 21, 2017
    Suggestion for blank wall: www.magicmurals.com, or have artist paint a mural on your wall. Mary Ruxlow (mlruxlow@gmail.com)
  • NotHermione NotHermione on Sep 06, 2020

    How would you use this same technique with double sliding doors? I have to use all of the background wall for storage. Have to have one door sliding behind the other in order to access both sides of the storage wall. I can build out relatively as far as I want for support 'studs.'

    Basically, i have a blank wall that I can finish however I want, in order to hide what I want to store. Or, should i build a closet structure to face with this treatment?



Comments
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  • Janice Duffell Kubina Janice Duffell Kubina on Apr 30, 2018

    Just a suggestion for your blank area...remove wallboard between two sets of studs and make a shallow book case for Knick knacks etc. You could also glue some books together you don’t want to read again and saw them lengthwise to fit the shelves and add to the ‘look’!

  • Rhonda S Rhonda S on Apr 30, 2018

    I like the look. We are going to install a sliding door like this on a shop powder room. Thanks for posting! In the house, we had to tear up a wall into a hallway to repair other damage, so while we had the wall open, we installed a pocket door at that location. I like it too, but the barn door look is really cute.

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