We finally installed our double barn doors in our house. This was a loooong time coming! When we built this house (back in 2017) we customized an addition to the original building plans and knew we wanted a double barn door to close off the addition. Today I am sharing all the details of the barn doors as well as what I wish I knew before installing the double barn door.
The Planning
Like I said, we always planned on putting barn doors in our home. When we went under contract with the builder, we customized a sunroom off of the living room. The builder wanted to put a large archway between the sunroom and livingroom, but we knew we wanted to close off the sunroom sometimes. Instead of an archway, we had the builder square off the entrance into the sunroom with an 8 foot wide opening. We also had them install a header in the wall since we knew exactly where we wanted the barn doors.
Like with any home project, other priorities arose (like our kitchen backsplash and floating shelves) and we pushed the barn door project off. I’m happy to report that we finished them last month and I couldn’t be happier.
The Barn Doors
My father-in-law is a farmer and has built many barn doors in his day, so he was happy to customize and build our barn doors. He used tongue and groove white board for the doors. This post is a GREAT step-by-step tutorial on how to actually build the barn doors. Once he built them, I sanded, stained and waxed them. I really wanted a rustic look to the wood, so I used THIS WOOD STAIN. To get that rustic look, I then went over the doors with THIS LIMING WAX. This is the same stain/wax combination I used for our DIY floating shelves too! I did go darker on the stain for the barn doors because I had to use a paint brush to get in the grooves of the boards.
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The Installation
The cool thing about barn doors is they are popular enough that you can buy a kit with everything you need to install them. We purchased THIS KIT. The kit had the track, all the bolts/screws and the hardware for the doors to roll on the track. The kit DID NOT include handles, latches, or the soft-close mechanism (I’ll get to that in a minute).
The actual installation was fairly easy. Since we had the header installed when we were building the house, there was no need to find studs or use wall anchors as the entire track was screwed into the header. Once the track is up, simply install the rollers onto the doors and then lift them onto the track.
We purchased THESE HANDLES and THESE LATCHES for our double barn door and installed them after the doors were hung.
What I Wish We Knew First
We did NOT use the floor guide that was included in the kit. The guide that came in the kit required us to use a router and make a groove in the bottom of the door where a little piece of plastic would fit into and guide the door. We realized after about an hour that this would not work for the size of our doors. We ended up buying THESE GUIDES and are pleased as punch with them! The guides were easy to install and work so well. I am confident our doors are stable with these floor guides.
The kit also does not have a self-level. This is only important if you are working with double doors. You want the doors to line up perfectly and when they close, you want them to be even. If the kit had a self-level, you would be able to adjust the level of the door from the roller that is installed on the door. With this kit, we had to physically move the entire piece of hardware to get the doors even. This means we have multiple holes in one of our doors where we needed to lower the hardware on the door. Again, if you are working with a single-door, this is not an issue.
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Tips
I had tested out my neighbor’s barn door in their basement and fell in love with the soft-close mechanism they had, so I knew I wanted that on our doors as well. I purchased two sets of THESE SOFT-CLOSE KITS. These were also simple to install and adjust on the track and they work great! The doors soft close when you open them and close them, so they never slam shut! If you want a soft-close, definitely install these BEFORE putting the doors up!
Overall, I am so happy with our double barn door in our living room. We are able to keep the puppy out of the sunroom and it darkens the living room area, making it easier to watch the TV. Our new barn doors are definitely a statement and a focal point in our home!
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