Results 1 to 13 of 13

Thread: My take on the Barn Door

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Columbus, OH
    Posts
    40

    My take on the Barn Door

    For my wife's birthday, she requested a sliding barn door to replace the in-swing door to our very tight laundry room. This is what I came up with. It has a 1 1/2" thick hard maple frame dyed black. The joints are bridle joints. The infield is rustic pine with Jacobean stain. The pine is tongue and groove and epoxied together at one spot on the end tongues to allow wood movement. The maple frame received a couple layers of wax just to get the sheen I desired.
    IMAG0282.jpg
    IMAG0255.jpg
    Some of the progress pics
    IMAG0150.jpgIMAG0126.jpgIMAG0105.jpg

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,685
    That's a beautiful sliding door!
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Location
    Elmodel, Ga.
    Posts
    798
    Darin, I'm showing my ignorance here. Is there any reason to have your pine boards horizontal instead of vertical? I've lived in a rural environment most of my adult life,(close to 45 years), worked farming most of my life, so I've seen a lot of barns, but cannot recall seeing doors like this. BTW, they do look nice.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Columbus, OH
    Posts
    40
    I am sure you haven't seen horizontals on a true barn door, Steve. This is a modern aesthetic loosely inspired by a barn door. Most others do traditional, I had to be a bit different as usual.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Columbus, OH
    Posts
    40
    Thanks, Jim!

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Atlanta, GA
    Posts
    421
    Very nice! I'm also working on a set of barn doors for our office at the wife's request. Barn doors seems to be making a come back in the home's now, everyone wants them.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    WNY
    Posts
    9,647
    Nicely done.

    Twenty years from now people are going to look at all these barn style doors and say "What were they thinking.".

    John

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by John TenEyck View Post
    Nicely done.
    Twenty years from now people are going to look at all these barn style doors and say "What were they thinking.".
    John
    Perhaps the rustic aesthetic will go in and out of fashion. However, I did barn doors for my daughter's room, and the reclaimed space in the bathroom and closet has been fantastic. It feels like the spaces are twice as large as before. I think these are great functional additions to homes. Of course, they don't seal that well.

    I love them.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    WNY
    Posts
    9,647
    Quote Originally Posted by Prashun Patel View Post
    Perhaps the rustic aesthetic will go in and out of fashion. However, I did barn doors for my daughter's room, and the reclaimed space in the bathroom and closet has been fantastic. It feels like the spaces are twice as large as before. I think these are great functional additions to homes. Of course, they don't seal that well.

    I love them.

    Yep, personal choice, just not mine. Pocket doors solve the same problem in far more elegant manor; probably why they have been around for hundreds of years.

    Remember when avocado colored appliances were all the rage?

    John

  10. #10
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Columbus, OH
    Posts
    40
    John,
    The Barn Door Fad is definitely in the eye of the beholder but I do see a couple of advantages over pocket doors. A sliding door like this can be installed in an afternoon if the door is bought along with the hardware. If tastes change the door and hardware can be changed out easily. The existing opening can be changed back to a normal hung door just as quickly as well. I definitely like pocket doors, especially the nice solid feel of those in older homes but that wasn't an option in this case.
    By the way I always read your posts in the Finishing forum with great interest. I've learned a lot from your experience.

  11. #11
    The old loft fire doors proclaim " we're not just for factories anymore".

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,685
    Quote Originally Posted by Darin German View Post
    John,
    The Barn Door Fad is definitely in the eye of the beholder but I do see a couple of advantages over pocket doors. A sliding door like this can be installed in an afternoon if the door is bought along with the hardware. If tastes change the door and hardware can be changed out easily. The existing opening can be changed back to a normal hung door just as quickly as well. I definitely like pocket doors, especially the nice solid feel of those in older homes but that wasn't an option in this case.
    By the way I always read your posts in the Finishing forum with great interest. I've learned a lot from your experience.
    I agree and have at least one place in our home where I'm considering one for where we "forgot" to specify a pocket door, rather than a swing door.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    WNY
    Posts
    9,647
    Darin, you are absolutely right that the barn door approach works a lot more easily on an existing wall like what you had. It takes someone with a lot of motivation to tear out an existing wall to add a pocket door, even harder if that wall is load bearing. So I understand why they are used, and I have to admit I've seen a few that I thought looked pretty good.

    John

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •