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Simple DIY Sliding Barn Door Tutorial

Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.

Thank you to the wonderful people from Rockler for partnering with me on our Master Bedroom makeover!

Here we are in Week 4 of the One Room Challenge hosted by Calling it Home, and I am so excited to share this week’s big reveal with you! We’ve been making progress on our His and Her closets, but this week is all about our DIY Barn Door and how easy it is to convert a builder grade door into a sliding barn door.

For this One Room Challenge, I wanted to make our Master bedroom match the rest of our Almost Farmhouse and I knew that adding a barn door would be so cool.  And when we added the new door for my husband’s closet conversion, all I could see was the same 3 doors lined up.  In this situation, switching out the door to our bathroom for a DIY Barn Door would break up the monotony. Bonus – it’s a super easy DIY!

Ready to see how we did it? Here’s what you need to make your own. Affiliate links are provided for your convenience. You can read my full disclosure here.

DIY Barn Door Supplies

Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.

The Build

To begin with,  I first distressed the boards.  I used nails, planers, a hammer, chain, my anger and frustrations – whatever I could to ding up the boards to make them look old and beat up. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, and you can’t mess it up – just whack away at those boards to add the weathered look.

Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.

First, I stained the inside that would face the bathroom with Dark Walnut. The other side that we would see everyday I stained with Minwax Weathered Oak stain, but after the first two coats, it was too light for the look I was hoping for. I made a custom mix of the weathered oak stain with a little bit of Dark Walnut and it was a perfect mix.

After it dried, I finished each board with the Antiquing Glaze focusing on all the distressed marks to help those stand out.

Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.

The Rolling Barn Door kit came with short brackets to hang the door. Originally, I planned on hanging the rolling bar directly on my wall. For that, we would need long brackets to clear the door frame, which are sold separately.

Unfortunately, this happened.

Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.

See all those tiny holes? See that ginormous space between those holes?

That’s where the studs are – and notice there aren’t any studs over the door.

(sad trombone)

We were concerned that the span between the studs wouldn’t hold the weight of the door. It baffles my mind that there isn’t a stud in the header, and I was so upset that I couldn’t go with my original plan. So, Plan B was quickly concocted and  I had to use a board that I was going to use for the closet as a mounting bracket for this door. So I had to go back to the staining table, but opted not to distress this board.

Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.

After I stained it to match the door, we attached it to the studs.

Rock n Roll! Now we felt it was secure enough to hold the weight of the door, so we installed the sliding bar.

However, don’t be like Jenny.  Jenny didn’t read the instructions closely and Jenny had to redo her mistakes. Read all the instructions first.

Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.
Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.

Iit turns out that I actually love how it looks! Happy dance! It was DIY Barn Door time! First, we removed the old builder door.

The reason why you don’t build the barn door first is because it needs to be the correct measurement from the sliding bar to the floor.

Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.

We laid the boards out how we wanted them to look, and then cut the pieces to the correct measurement.  Our door is 33 inches wide and 87 inches tall.

Here is a breakdown of the sizes on each board.

Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.

Now here’s where another surprise happened.  I wanted to attach the boards with screws, but we realized that the screws we purchased were too long and would poke through the other side. Then Trent had a genius idea. Since he was using our pneumatic nail gun for his bench in His closet,  we thought we would try it on our door.

It worked! Surprisingly, no trip to the hardware store was needed!

No screws, no glue, just pop, pop, pop of the nailgun and it was super secure.

Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.

Using the template that came with the barn door kit, we added the roller straps to the door and hung it in place.

It was so simple!

Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.

Next we installed the floor hardware – the door stops and guide track.  This keeps the door from swinging out.

I have to be honest and say that it hurt my feelings a bit drilling holes into our new Hardwood Floors that we worked so hard on, but it is so necessary to have those in stops and guides in place. In time – I quickly forgot about those tiny screws in my floor!

Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.
Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.

Last, we installed the door handles. Unfortunately, the screws that came with the handle we chose were too long.  However, a piece of wood was the perfect solution as a fix. For the back of the door, we went rustic and screwed a piece from the wood scraps.

Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.
Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.

I still have touch ups to do, but I love the two-toned door with the darker stain on the closed door. So one side looks sun bleached and the other side appears untouched.

Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.
Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.

I just love my DIY Barn Door and I can’t get over how easy it was converting my old bathroom door into this beauty!

However, the closets – – oh the closets.

We continue to make progress and have finally started one side of my She Chic closet. Still, there is a lot of painting in my near future.

Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.

And I am slightly losing my mind that all the things that were in their neat little spaces are all over my bedroom.

Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.

So let’s check out the updated to do!

The One Room Challenge Plan

  • Converting the 1/2 bath into a closet
    • Opening the Wall and adding a door
    • Sealing the other Wall
    • Replacing the flooring – Still have to poly
    • Build a DIY closet system with a bench – bench is built
    • Adding a mirror – in process
    • Moving the light
  • Glitzing up and feminizing the existing walk-in closet – in process
  • Replace the bathroom door with a DIY barn door
  • Hang woven shades in windows
  • Replace curtains
  • Modify the ceiling fan into a Farmhouse style fan
  • Replace the lamps – purchased
  • Find new side tables – switched out from other rooms
  • Paint the existing dresser (I’ve decided I’m leaving it black for now)
  • Adding a reading nook so I have a quiet place to escape to
  • Create DIY artwork

AHH!! Still so much to do and I’m starting to panic. Still lots of late nights ahead.

Head over to Linda’s site, Calling It Home, to see all the other amazing rooms being transformed.

To see our design plans for this room, check out my previous posts:

week one, week two, week three, week four, week five, Reveal

Simple DIY Barn door tutorial - Jen @ Noting Grace shares how easily it is to switch out a builder grade door with a sliding barn door.

This post contains affiliate links. Rockler Woodworking and Hardware
provided product for this post and we are so thankful to be partnering with them.
While I may receive a small compensation, all prices remain the same for you. Thanks for supporting me!

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5 Comments

  1. Thanks Jennifer! We used a nail gun to secure the boards together. It’s been almost a year and it’s still holding strong! Hope that helps!

  2. I love the way this door turned out!! Great job! I was wondering how you got the verticle boards to stay together? Is it just wood glue? Thank You!!