Here's her link to her instructions, Jenna Sue Design Co. Barn Door DIY they are amazing and super easy. In fact I plan on coming back to this page because she explains how she made two smaller doors as well and I want to follow those for my master bathroom doors. Yet I still doub. Did I mention I barely passed any math class my entire school career. I am sure in later posts as this goes on I will be more confident and less doubtful of my skills, but I really was unsure whether I would build from scratch, find an antique door at a salvage yard or buy a new interior door and throw some barn door hardware up and call it good. As I debated I decided no matter what route I went I needed to pull off my trim and replace it with the new craftsman style I was "crafting" from scratch (pun totally intended) So with my trusty spackle knife, hammer and razor blade and went to work with shear panic and shaky hands.
I wasn't sure this was how it looked under framework, I had never seen any of this before, but it was safe to say I was in too deep to stop here. When I took my door off I used wood putty to fill where the hinges sat and the door jam.
You can buy it at Home Depot here,
Home Depot Wood Filler
I planned to let it sit until I had put my new trim up and sand it all at once. I have found in my venture that sanding not only sucks, but is also extremely messy. This part of the job would have to be done within my house which meant I would have more filth and dirt and dust than my usual amount with kids and dogs and I didn't want to clean every time I sanded a section, so I went into the plan thinking, "I'll just do it all at together when the whole job is done and ready to paint." I found that may have screwed things up for me later on I will go into that with more detail.
So once the trim was off I was looking at the actual door opening and noticed a small chunk of wood running vertically, i.e. door shoe, door stop, lattice I've heard it called all those things. It's basically what stops the door in place. Now this may seem extremely naïve but I truly didn't know it was a separate piece within the door frame. For all I knew door frames came with them. But I was feeling like gambling. And what'd-ya-know? It came off with great ease. I filled all the holes and sanded some more to smooth things out. Once I had the opening I got to work on my barn door.
Inspirational Photo 👊
My barn door actually went amazingly well,,,,,in the beginning. Like I said earlier, I ran into a few mishaps and spent days weeks, ok, ok almost a month on the door, but to my defense I actually built the doorm rebuilt it again, sanded it, painted it, cut it down, resanded it, repainted it, and attached the hardware twice. I wish I would have taken more pictures throughout the process to show you my mistakes to avoid you making the same ones.
I followed the plans, which I still swear are so easy anyone can build this thing. My hurdles were completely my fault. My first wrong turn was my 1 x 4's we not straight. I didn't even think of making sure that they were when I picked them out at Home Depot. That's a rookie mistake. That could of been an easier fix had I spent the money on a simple, yet beauitful tool called The Kreg Jig! It's a joining tool, simple in design and more effiecient for "newbies" like me. You can get it at any hardware store, my Home Depot didn't have them in stock but you can order it online from them here, Home Depot Kreg Jig or from their awesome website Kreg Jigs.
After I had all the boards together, one board bowed out more than the others. I was going for a smooth, clean cut line look on my door. I didn't want the weathered worn look like my plank wall, so the fact that one board came forward more than the others drove me insane, well, not at first. My "newbie" brain kept telling myself "after alittle sanding it will blend right in and you wont be able to even see it." WRONG
NEWBIE LESSON- you can't sand uneven to even if it's noticable with the naked eye
It stuck out like a sore thumb with a wart! This is where I wish I had taken pictures because in my head I believed I had sanded enough and adding paint will help blend it. As you can see, it didn't. I got the same color, brand and sheen as my trim so it would match.
NEWBIE LESSON- Glossy paint will amplify any and all imperfections.
So I completely resanded all the paint off and stripped the door down so clean it was back to the bare wood. I then repainted it. I came to term with the eye sore uneven plank. A Kreg Jig could of helped pull it into allignment better by putting a joint or two on that plank pulling it even, but I didn't have my Kreg Jig yet, so I measured and drilled the holes for the hardware on the door. I purchased the hardware at my local Home Depot, Barn Door Track Set. I bought a handle separtately, I think it was $9.99. Plank pretruding or not I felt justified. I felt amazingly accomplished at the fact that I built this door from scratch and it looked pretty darn good after all. I ran in and measured the 72" for the track and followed the instructions to a tee. I used my level to make sure as I bolted it into my 1 x 4" I had already attached to the studs in my wall.
It seemed to go up smooth and instructions were easy enough to follow. Which at this point I felt I deserved because of the hassle I forged through to get to this point.
Because the door is made from scratch, from real hardwood it was heavy, extremely heavy and solid. I hollered for my husband to come help me lift it in from the garage. Side stepping through the entry door. On the count of 3 we hoisted up the door and set the wheels on the bar. I felt like a kid at Christmas, my husband stepped back away from the now hanging door and I stood there confused for a moment. The door was on the bar, the bar was attached firmly to the wall, but something didnt feel right. It didn't feel like it was hanging. I stepped back letting my grip on the door go and looked down. It was on the bar, only it was at a 45 degree angle and NOT hanging. The door was about an inch and a half too long. My husband says, "womp, womp, womp womp,' in the Price Is Right failed melody. After I got my breath back from the punch in the gut feeling I had, I had a quick thought of making it look rustic by bringing into the backyard, beating the hell out of it and kicking it.
Instead I yanked it back into the garage insisting on doing it alone. I threw it up on my work table (poker table covered in Monster High hot pink sheets,) agressively grabbed my circular saw and carlessly cut across the bottom without any measurements or straight lines. Wood chunks were flying, sparks were everywhere and the sound was ear piercing before I realized I broke another blade by sawing through screws and nails I used to put the door together.
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My saw stopped before I could get a line across and left a chunk, I took a hammer and beat the hell out of it.
NEWBIE LESSON- Dont lose your shit while using power tools.
My hot headedness and frustration technique actually worked. It wasn't pretty but it served it's purpose. Somehow I still had the strength of many and carried that door back in by myself and hung!!!! It actually hung on it's own, and it slid, just like it was suppose to. I swear I heard angels singing in my head! It was a beautiful moment,
UNTIL.......
I rolled it all the way to the left and looked, well, it's crooked, it's top half is leaning forward. I stood there for a moment seriously considering whether I could live with it because that this point I was mentally done with Project Barn Door. Slowly the door started to roll closed on it's own, well that's convenient! LOL Aside from an automata tic closing barn door was the added eye sore of it being noticeably worse when it was in the closed position, it was definitely crooked, and very badly I might add. So I go into the laundry room and slide it open, (maybe if it's opened from the other side it will magically be level.) I swear I made sure that track was even, straight and level at least twice, but apparently my head was cocked to one side, (probably doing math measurements in my head) Either way the fairy dust was not on my side because standing inside my laundry room the door still closed on it's own.
And then I noticed, well, I don't have a handle to open it from the inside. A small detail I apparently overlooked. It wasn't all that big of a deal considering it's not a "latched" door so it's not that anyone would ever get stuck, but definitely one I needed to rectify at some point and considering I obviously was going to need to take the door down to level out the track bar I figured what better time.
STRUGGLE!😭
So after a few deep breathing exercises I leveled out the track, realigned the wheel brackets, filled the previous bracket holes and repainted that area of the door. And?
Perfection
I cant believe I pulled this off, overall I am thrilled with the results and can say with great certainty: this will not be the last barn door in my house that I make. Loved it.
I even chiseled out a small measured area that I traced with a pencil for the backside of the door handle. then used a small soft rubber mallet to pound it in place. As they say in Rome, "Perfetto!"
There are a few slight rough patches, a slip of the chisel here, a twist of the wrist there, etc.
caused my grip to slip on occasion but after all the rest of the goof-ups I made I decided to pick and choose my battles and live with that.
Okay, so now back to the beginning. Remember these pictures? Remember when I said this ended up being the biggest uphill climb of the whole project. These came off so easy and I was so happy. I assumed "how hard can it be? I can replace this trim with nice square cornered trip, a little wood putty and some trim paint and I have Craftsman Style trim up,, in less than a day!" I was so so so wrong.
So a few things went wrong in this process, first I put way to much faith into wood putty. I lobbed it on like a 1st grader with Elmer's paste in art class. I waited days to sand it and I assumed it would blend well. Bad! all bad choices. I will have to redo this process with some thin wood planks.
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