How To Build Barn Doors, DIY Barn Doors, How to Make Barn Doors
Barn doors are a rising furniture commodity for ulterior interiors. They are perfect for revamping your classic, boring doors and make your interiors look classy and unique like never before. You can either opt for the classic wooden barn door or get it tailored according to your preference of color and design.
Barn doors can serve as excellent entrances to your garages, pantries, main rooms or even serve as a classy yet solid main entry gate for your house, leaving the steel gates way behind. They come with single wood panels on the front, or the panels can be customized with colors and arrangements to make a barn door that differs from the rest. First, however, have you ever wondered how to build barn doors?
For all the woodwork geeks out there or those who like to build their house with their own hands from scratch, you all can DIY barn doors using a good few things and taking care of a good few measurements.
Moreover, barn doors at interior outlets can give you a legitimate sticker shock as their prices soar high and make you go out of budget. However, with a few things from the shops, and tools already available in your toolbox, you can make your very own barn door in a matter of few days.
Tools Required:
- 3/8-in. rabbeting bit
- Angle grinder
- Brush knot cup
- Router
- Standard DIY tools
Materials Required:
- 1-1/2-in. wrought-head nails
- 1x6 x 8 ft. No. 2 pine boards
- Barn door hardware kit
- Brush or roller for poly
- Dark stain, Gray stain, and light gold stain
- Knot cup brush for grinder
- Polyurethane
Hurry and get this stuff from your nearest hardware store so that you can get going with constructing your very own barn door. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to make barn doors and some points to ponder over before starting the procedure.
Steps To Make Your Own Barn Doors
1. Analyze your area well:
Before you go shopping for hardware, analyze the area you decide to put up the door to decide on the quantities of hardware. Then, take a careful look around and ensure that the area doesn’t have any interruption or obstruction with light switches, scone lights, heat registers, or anything that might interfere with the door installation.
However, suppose your space doesn’t allow for the installation of a double-sided barn door. In that case, you can always opt for stacking or overlapping of doors in such a way that they slide off to give a good entrance on one side of the opening.
2. Take accurate measurements:
To determine the door width accurately, always add at least two inches to the width of the opening or the outside dimensions of the door trim.
Now that you have analyzed the place of the barn door, choose the hardware, and then get on with measuring perfectly. Again, ask your manufacturer to aid with the measurements or check the measuring instructions available.
A great rough idea would be, measuring to the top of an opening with no trim or the top of the frame and subtract 1/2-in from your measurement. This is now the minimum height of the door required to allow enough clearance for the door to be lifted onto the track and then be fitted and can slide.
3. Fix your tracks:
The door needs to be perfectly fitted into the tracks, and for that, the track itself needs to be solidly mounted to wall framing. For this, you can either install continuous wood backing between the wall studs at the track height or mount a header board to the wall surface, making sure it’s securely screwed to the studs; however, this method has a restriction, as the maximum weight of the door that it can support is 75 lbs.
4. Get the Right Spacers and Floor Guides:
To complete the track mounting, you would need some sort of spacers that holds the track away from the wall so that the door can slide freely. Now you can either get spacers in different lengths or get adjustable-length spacers supplied. The size of the spacer required is determined by your track mounting method.
5. Prevent the door from slipping:
You need to install some form of floor mounts so that the door does not swing away. The simplest thing you can do for that is using an L-shaped metal bracket that mounts to the floor and fits into a groove cut in the bottom of the door. However, if your barn door doesn’t have a groove at the bottom, then you can opt for roller guides as well. This totally depends upon the type of hardware you go for.
6. Construct the Ship-lap Boards and grind them up:
To see the number of shiplap boards required, divide the width of the door by the board's width. Next, adjust the board till they are all equal and then distress them to get a unique look.
7. Make Wormholes:
Here is how you can take your distressing to the very next level. Use an awl to create wormholes by dragging a screwdriver or any other sharp object on the board to create a fake crack and then using a hammer claw or any other heavy tool to create dents and gouges.
8. Apply the stains to give it a rustic look:
Now that your boards are done, and the door is constructed, let's rust things up with stains. Start by applying your first base coat of light gold stain. Next, wipe off excess stain with a rag. Once it has dried, coat with a darker paint and wipe off the excess with a rag.
Finally, once that dried, finish the color by applying a grey stain all over the board and wiping off the excess. You can also use a min-roller to speed up the process.
9. Fasten the rails and mount the Track:
To install the door, attach the rails to the frame using adhesives and nails. Finally, mount the track depending on your track support.
10. Hang the DIY Sliding Barn Door:
With the track-mounted and the paint job done and dusted, hang the door on the DIY track. Carefully roll the doors into place and mount well from the ends and on the floor.
There you have it, the perfect, rustic yet chic-looking barn doors solely constructed by you and mounted to level up the looks of your interiors like never before. Call upon your family and friends and see them drool over your interiors while asking where you got that door from as you fight through your proud beam of a smile to tell them that you made it yourself.