DIY Crawl Space Barn Door

The Cofran Home
by The Cofran Home
11 Materials
We still have a long list of projects since we’ve moved, but one of the features we love best in our new house is our huge finished basement. It is the perfect place for both the kids and adults to hang out and relax with friends and family. There is so much to love about our basement and we really can’t complain about much in this space…. except for one tiny (ok, major) eyesore: the giant unfinished crawl space hole under the stairs!
Here’s how it looked when we bought the house.  The base trim was falling off and severely damaged.  The trim around the crawl space hole was unfinished wood that stuck out like a sore thumb from the rest of the basement that was kept perfectly manicured!We honestly couldn’t stand looking at it for another minute, and were so excited to come up with a pretty solution for this one.   I am obsessed with the rustic barn door look and with so much extra space on the right side of the opening, I knew it would be a perfect fit.  My husband, Joe, took little convincing (isn’t he the best?!) so we got right to work on our new mini barn door!
Joe started by buying all new base trim to replace the damaged trim (there was really no way to salvage the old piece).
We had plenty of white paint left over from our living room makeover and our fireplace refresh, and I was SO happy to give that unattractive wood trim a clean, crisp face lift!
To make the door, I picked up a piece of 1/2″ thick plywood and had it cut down to 27″x27″ (Home Depot will cut the wood for you at the store!).  I also picked up 6 inexpensive poplar wood slats that were 3′ long x 1/4″ thick x 4″ wide, for the barn door detailing.
We started by measuring the poplar slats and cutting them down to fit into a perfect border and X on the plywood.
We secured them with wood glue and a nail gun.   Once the poplar was secured on the plywood, we sanded and caulked to prep the door for paint.I painted our new door white, and set it aside to dry.Then we did the fun part…. the hardware!  After looking into purchasing barn door hardware, we realized the cost of pre-made hardware far exceeded the cost of the time we would spend making it ourselves, so we chose to DIY our own.
We ended up spending about $40 on the material to DIY the hardware. I have all the details on how we did it in my blog post - so be sure to click the link at the bottom of this post to find out how you can make it too!
We spray painted the hardware that we made black, and were ready to assemble the door!
We set it back up, and it was ready for business!
We love how it turned out and the impact it makes in our basement!Be sure to click the link below to see more "after" pictures and get ALL the details on how we made our own Barn Door Hardware for $40!
The Cofran Home
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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  • Margaret Green Margaret Green on Mar 09, 2018

    Is the space under the stairs a crawl space with a dirt floor or the unused rough finished space normally found under the stairs? Could you make the door opening larger and use the space for storage?

  • Robyn Garner Robyn Garner on Jan 25, 2019

    Doesn't the bottom of the door rub on your new baseboard? Do you wish you had made it end at the top of the baseboard now that it's finished? 😎

  • Shawn Shawn on Mar 12, 2019

    I have a square space like that in a bed room that is access for the plumbing. I would like to make a door out of snap together wood flooring. have any suggestion?

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