Barn Doors

My neighbors caught wind that I dabbled in woodworking and asked if I could make them some barn doors in their hallway office/den area. I was honored they had faith in me and trusted me to do a good job.

I will tell you that barn doors are very difficult to get right because they are prone to warping and not being perfectly aligned. However, if you take your time and have plenty of clamps and straight edges, it will come out halfway decent.

I went to the local big box store and found some long tongue and groove boards and made sure they were all straight. I also picked up some special screws that had a minimal impact and can easily be filled in.

As you can see from the diagram below there were lots of designs to choose from, but they really liked the “British Brace” design so that’s what we did. Of course there are a lot more to choose from out there.

After getting home I did the angles and math and started the project.

I had just moved from Elk Grove to our new home and did not yet have a work bench. This made it extremely difficult not having a nice flat surface to build on. I used two saw horses, plywood, and some 2×4’s. It did the job in a pinch. After assembly, I sanded, tack clothed, and stained the doors. I then set them upright to dry.

My greatest fear was they would warp while curing. But after they had a slight curve but not even noticeable. This was the state the barn doors were left in for around a week due to Thanksgiving vacation to Southern California.

When I got back they were ready to install. I’ve never installed barn doors before and was careful to find the studs and make sure all the measurements were correct. The barn door hardware I found was from Amazon and they were surprisingly good. After installation my neighbors were thrilled and pleased with the barn doors which was very important to me. They say that every time visitors come over they ask where they got the barn doors from, and they tell them it was right next door.

I’m glad my neighbors and myself had a positive experience in what may have been a disaster due to wood being very unpredictable. Below are the list of materials and tools that I used. Unfortunately, I did not make a YouTube episode due to the time constraints and how busy we are during the holidays. There are also some images of the finished doors below. I wanted to say thank you to my neighbors for trusting me to make these beautiful doors for them.