Make Your Own Barn Door

mare maddy smitty and door

We had some fun giving our mail room door a makeover the other day. Inspired by a door we saw at a tradeshow in Atlanta, we took the plain wooden door and transformed it into a faux barn door with “wood” panels. It was an easy to do, rainy day project. The entire project took us less than four hours.

pony brownmustardThe first step was picking the colors we wanted. So we headed over to Allerdice Building Supply and picked out two Benjamin Moore semi-gloss paints. The base layer is called Dark Mustard and the lines/board color is Pony Brown. We did get quarts but could have gotten a pint for each and still had plenty leftover. You will want a lighter color for the base and a darker color for the lines and brace.

door styles

 While we were at Allerdice we also picked up two 8 foot long 1”x4” boards to make the Z-Brace on the door. There are other styles but this one is really simple. We also just bought pine because it is easy to cut and drill into plus with it being lightweight it won’t affect the door’s swing. (If you want to be way fancier than us this is an awesome site for a real panel door)

 

 

Now for making the door!

1. Paint the lighter colored base layer onto the door. This took only a few minutes, we did two coats. It doesn’t have to be perfect because wood has imperfections.

 

2. Measure and cut the wood. We left a ¾” space on each side of the top and bottom piece of wood so the door could easily open and close. Once we measured out the top and bottom pieces of the brace we screwed them onto the door to get the measurement for the diagonal piece. We placed our braces 4” from the top and bottom, respectively, but that is just personal preference. Once we had the top and bottom board in place we just lined up the diagonal piece with where we wanted it, drew a line with a straight edge, and cut it.

 

braces

 

3. Tape the straight lines for the faux panels with painter’s tape. We again chose to do ours 4” apart on the 36” door so there were a total of nine panels. But you could make them wider if you wanted to.

  full lines  

4. Then paint a thin line along one side of the tape, the line will be crisp on one side but will have a little imperfection on the other, dividing the door into the faux panels. Once dry pull the tape off. 

lines

 

5. While you wait for the lines to dry paint the brace pieces with the dark color. We just did one coat.

 

 braces

 

6. Drawing the wood is the fun part! Get creative! We split it up so each of us would have 3 panels to paint, that way they would all be a little different. Remember to add knots, V-shapes, and thin lines. We used a thin paint brush and free handed the entire thing. They do make wood grain painting tools but we didn’t feel 

we needed them. This site was helpful too.

jamie  mare  maddy  lines

7. Now the easy part, just screw the brace pieces back in place on the door.

 door braces

 

Tada! The door is complete!

final

We added a brass plate to make it look more stall like! Enjoy your new creation!

private  

 

Be the first out of the gate! Join our Mailing List!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.