How To Build A Barn Door

I am so excited to be showing you guys how to Build a Barn Door today! This tutorial may seem like it would be overwhelming, but it actually is fairly simple but don’t worry if DIY isn’t your thing Bowalker Doors offer some great doors that you don’t have to make yourself, even so if you are a bit of a DIY’er then keep reading! While giving Winstons closet a makeover we knew that we not only wanted to give the inside a serious makeover, we wanted to change the outside drastically too. One of our friends had mentioned how he was inspired by the wooden doors he saw on Overhead Door Houston and other similar sites. We also did our own bit of research before finalizing the design we wanted for our barn door. Here is what we started with for his closet doors:

Yep, pretty old mirror doors. They were only good for one thing, and that was taking selfies;) Haha, so I guess thats why Jeremy wasn’t too sad to see them go!

To get started, we cut two large pieces of MDF to size. Nothing fancy about that! We measured the overall width and then subtracted 3/8 in total and divided by 2, this will allow for 1/8′ space between the doors and the frame. We had this cut at Home Depot using their big boy saw.

The main beauty comes when you add the trim. We used 1×4’s to trim out the entire door in the pattern we wanted. First we boxed in the door, lining the trim flush with the edge and using mitre cut at the corners (45 degrees). We then placed a horizontal trim piece about 3 feet up from the bottom.

To add some detail we want to have an upside down V pattern when the doors were closed so J opted to create a jig of sorts instead of doing math.

Since he had the trim of the door in place, J placed a piece at a diagonal over the top. He then laid a second and third piece of the existing trim that has already been attached to the door. This allowed him to trace out the angle that is needed so the diagonal piece can fit right in. He used a coping saw to cut the angles.

Once all the angles are cut exactly, we made them extra secure by using wood glue and finish nails to keep them in place. Once everything was nice and snug, we patched over the seams and then painted with our favorite Sherwin-Williams Pro Classic in Extra White. That will forever be my all time favorite paint for any doors, furniture, etc. Its the same one we used when we re-did his campaign dresser for his room!

While we were getting the new barn door installation done, we were also able to make use of the old hinges we had prior. Remember back when we bought like 20 vintage doors from a home being sold off? We always knew every last piece would come in handy! And the end result? These beauties!!

I am loving Winstons closet so much now. While I do miss having my favorite selfie spot in the house {only kinda kidding;) } I loveee these doors! And I love whats inside too!

Be sure to check back this week for more details, and a seriously easy tutorial on how we made the handles for these barn doors.

Disclosure: Sherwin-Williams partnered with us on this post in exchange for paint…because we love it!