How to make a barn door easy and cheap

I found this easy and cheap way of making a barn door. If you are looking for something a little different, this is for you:

How to make a barn door easy and cheap

I always wanted a barn door in my house. Especially since I have been watching HGTV Chip and Joana. They put barn doors in every house they renovated and it looked beautiful.

I like the look of a barn door and I like that you can make the way that it fits to your interior style.

My house isn’t rustic looking, more a midcentury modern look, but I like things a little different. And I like to combine different styles too.

All of our doors in the house are not really pretty, so it is a good thing to draw the attention to something different,  away from the ordinary.

Of course I started reading through a lot of tutorials how to make a barn door and I just got overwhelmed with it. Somehow it seemed pretty complicated to make yourself.

Get a barn door custom made?

My head was spinning and I started to see if I could order a barn door.  I checked on how to get one custom made, but wow, this is expensive.

I gave up on a barn door in our old house.

 

But in our new house we have this narrow hallway and the door going down to the basement was just ridiculously small.

So here it was, this was my chance of incorporating a barn door I actually needed and it made so much sense too.

The research started again and this is how it looks now:

 

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Material List for making a barn door:

• Door slab in the size you need
• Hardware (see below for different options)
• interior paint however color you want to paint it)
• Door knob, a pull or something fancy?

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This is how I made the barn door pretty easy:

I bought a slab door at Lowes. It is called an unfinished wood door. Just a plain and simple door slab, with no pattern or anything fancy on it.

This is exactly what I wanted. And the door is not very heavy, which is good. I paid 19 Dollars for the door size I needed and it fits perfectly.

Here is the link to the door I bought in case you are interested:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/JELD-WEN-Unfinished-Flush-Hollow-Core-Veneer-Slab-Door-36-in-X-80-in-Actual-36-in-x-80-in/4363179

As soon as I got home,  I painted the door, front and back and the sides of course and let it dry over night. (Just use a regular interior paint, I normally buy Sherwin Williams paint).

You can also paint it in different colors or add some kind of a design or pattern to it, but I wanted it plain and simple. (Just rethinking this, maybe I will add a stencil on the door).

I was looking for stainless steel hardware to fit to the interior of my house.

I found the perfect hardware one at Amazon.

There are actually a lot of different hardwares to be found on Amazon.  Also some cheaper options than the one I bought, but I wanted stainless steel. And this one works pretty good.

 

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For your convenience here is the link to the hardware we used:

There are of course more hardware options. The first one is the one I used and it works very well.

Check which design you like best. Just make sure you buy the right size.

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The hardware is actually pretty easy to mount, just follow the instructions then nothing can go wrong.

You do need to drill some holes to screw the hardware into the wall. Don’t have a drill? Check out my review for best drills here.

After the hardware is mounted on the wall,  hang the painted door onto the hardware. Don’t forget to put the stoppers onto the rail and you are almost done.

 

Get creative adding a door handle on your barn door

Instead of using an ordinary door handle, I found this very cool wooden X at Michael’s for 1 Dollar. I bought 2 of them, drilled a hole into the door and attached the X on both sides of the door.

If you want the barn door look more rustic, cut plywood stripes and glue a big X from top to bottom of the door. I am sure this will look stunning.

Add a rope or a leather band instead of a door handle and your rustic barn door is done. You don’t even need to paint it if you use tape for the pattern.

I am sure you have a lot of ideas that will fit to your style, send me some pictures, I would love seeing your ideas.

 

Get even more creative designing your barn door the easy way

So I started stenciling a couple of months ago and of course, I was stenciling a lot. The blue barn door was a good object to add a stencil and I love it.

It is so easy. Just find the middle of the door, use tape to keep the stencil in place and then use a small paint roller and roll your favorite color over it.  If you want to get all the details how to add a stencil, here is my easy read. How to add stencils on furniture.

 

And this is how it looks now:

How much did it cost to make a barn door?

Altogether this cute barn door was plus/minus 120 Dollars.

This is not as cheap as I was hoping for,  but mainly because we bought the more expensive hardware to mount the door on.

The stainless steel hardware is pretty sturdy and works well. And this is all what matters.

You can buy hardware starting at 40 Dollars if you want to make it cheaper, but we haven’t tested them.

 

 

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Summary on ‘How to make a barn door easy and cheap’

It was a very easy project to do and it took only 2 days until it was finished.  I painted the door slab twice and let the paint dry overnight.

The next day we mounted the hardware and it was good to go.

Just make sure that you buy the right size door and of course the matching hardware to the size of the door.

 

I am so glad we did this. You can do it too.

See you next week,

Conny xoxo

 

 

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If you love to do DIY, check these blog posts out. My absolute favorite DIY project is my little wooden bench. You can see it here:

How to build a bench easy

DIY faux shiplap for first timers

Awesome Bathroom Remodel under 150 Dollars

 

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