how to build a barn door

A few weeks ago, we completed our christmas mantel.

And with it, our barn door.

And today {It took me long enough} but I thought I’d share a little on how we made it. Obviously, it doesn’t have to be seasonal, and we plan on using it elsewhere after the holidays have passed.

This was touch and go for us, as we’ve never built a barn door before. Okay. Most of our projects are touch and go, as I can easily say we’d never built a screen door before, either. I know there are probably plenty of tutes and approaches out there, but I thought I’d share our version with all of you guys so you can tackle your own if you want. Our overall measurements came to a whopping 55″ x 46.5″ We ended up goofing a little with the final look. I think that ultimately, unless you’re a wiz at geometry {we never pretended to be} the perfect square would be easier to make in this particular design. As always, you can take what we did, and adjust it to your own sizes. Use this as a springboard for your own ideas! Obligatory, somewhat rambling disclaimer aside, let’s get started. Shall we?

I knew I wanted it to have a different look in the paint department, so I decided to combine the stain with the painted look. Combining the two, as you know, can be risky business. So I painted it before putting it all together. Here’s how we did it:

1. I had various sizes, in widths, of wood for the center most section of the barn door. These were exactly 8 different planks for the middle, that would contain stain, and 6 (4) outer + (2) crossing or ‘x’ planks. These secondary planks are finished off with stain + a topcoat of paint. The planks for the middle were slightly larger, and depending on your own measurements, will be large enough to frame out the overall innermost size. *Remember, that you can get your wood cut at your local Home Improvement store, to the dimensions you specify for free, but we decided to have a basic overall size, and then trim down from there. {Giving us plenty of space for mess ups} I arranged them all as I felt they would work in my head, and went to town with the stain.

2. As usual, I used my current stain color fixation: Minwax’s Early American. Arranged on the island as I knew they would go in the door, I put first coats on all, and then on alternating sizes, added additional, darker coats for a versatile, alternating + aged feel.

3. I’ve always wanted to try painting with beeswax. Someone mentioned it in an earlier post…I think it was our centerpiece tutorial. There was no such thing as pure beeswax to be had in our area, so I picked up this furniture polish instead. It did the trick, and can I just say, made the piece look {and feel} incredible? (I’ll be hanging on to this for our real wood furniture pieces.)

4. Basically, I made it up as I went, but on the outer pieces that I wanted to paint on top of the stain, I used my fingers to apply the wax on the very edges in different places. Before the wax was completely dry, I went over it loosely with my  brush, and then in a different direction.

5. I wiped it off on the edges, and the places that were treated with the polish came right off. That blue is my new go-to, worthy of swoon-age, color: Benjamin Moore’s Calypso Blue. Oh Calypso Blue, how I do love thee….

Once the pieces were dry, it was time to put them together.

1. Making sure they were aligned in a straight manner by lining them up against a sturdy plank, we laid them out as we knew they would go.

2. From there, it was a marking and trimming process for the outer planks. For the frame, We simply laid the top and bottom {horizontal} pieces on the flat plane with the stained pieces, and then overlapped on the side {vertical} pieces. This will be the door’s main support.

3. Once we knew how it would go, we trimmed it down accordingly.

1. – 2. Putting it all together, we simply flipped each piece over, and joined it together with good old fashioned hammer and nails.

3. Once it was back in place, it was time for the final step…and it’s all about angles. {cue NON celebratory robot dance.} You can pretend math is fun, or you can just wing it. We’re more of the “just wing it” types, because math may or may not give one of us, whose name rhymes with smashley, anxiety attacks. We made a guess at what we thought the angel was: 43 degrees. We then cut a test piece of wood. Wouldn’t you know it we were only off by 1/2 of a degree? We don’t mean to brag or anything, but we tend to be big fat smarty pants like that. So, once you find the angle on the first piece, measure + mark the length you will need, and cut. Nail in the piece, and then begin the process all over again. The second time around is a little more tricky since you have to cut the piece basically in half, to make room for the already existing first piece in the ‘x’, so that they are installed on the same plane for the barn door. It’s the same principle, and just an issue of working it, until you get it right.

As the math gods would have it, wouldn’t you know, that 0urs overlapped just a bit, and called for some trimming? Yep. It was a self admitted fail, and something no one will ever notice unless we point it out, on that outermost edge. Just a heads up in the cutting, measuring, general trickiness department.

So, lesson learned: go with a perfect square, or perhaps skip the ‘x’ altogether if you’re a bit concerned with our little barn doorage faux pas. Our recommendation: just have fun with it. It all comes out in the wash, we don’t expect any architects to be critiquing our barn door preciseness any time soon, and we love our new barn door.

So there you have it. A barn door that served as our mantelpiece this year, and is sure to be left out year round, once we find that perfect spot. What’s something you’ve conjured up for the holidays, or your home in general lately? As always, we would LOVE to see.

Here’s to having a wonderful, inspired, winging it kind of day, everyone!