Mother Trucker Designs

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Easy Farmhouse Rustic Barn Door

Easy Farmhouse Rustic Barn Door

I love a barn door. If I can find a place in a home where it makes sense to add one, I will. You must have enough space on the adjacent wall for the full width of the barn door to slide to or it just won’t work. If you purchase a custom barn door, they can be pricey. Considering the fact that I was able to make one for under $40.00 in under 40 minutes, it is definitely a DIY worth tackling. I do think that this barn door is a project that even the beginner DIY’er can accomplish with great success. It requires minimal tools and minimal effort. The impact, however, is very impressive!

List of materials needed:

  • 11 inexpensive 1 x 4″ x 8′ furring strip boards from Home Depot @ 1.98 each. – $21.78
  • Wood Glue
  • 1 pine 1 x 6″ x 6′ board (Common Board) for header and footer – $6.63
  • choose your finish – stain, paint, or do a combination. I am guessing this door shouldn’t cost but about $8.00 to finish it off nicely.
  • Total cost of needed materials is about $40.00
  • Optional items: 1 handle https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-6-1-2-in-Black-Door-Pull-20194/203339987 – $4.58

List of materials needed for mounting door:

The first step is to begin cutting all your boards to the same length. For my barn door, I cut all the boards to 83″ length. (click here to see what I created out of the 13″ remaining pieces: https://mothertruckerdesigns.com/2020/03/30/rustic-wine-rack-from-scrap-wood/ )

Since I was utilizing 9 boards combined for the width, I cut my header and base to match the width of the 9 boards. The width of my 9 boards equaled 30.5″. My doorway needed a barn door with a width of 30-31″ so this ended up working out well.

Once I had all my pieces cut, I began to assemble the door. I glued each board together and secured them with clamps. While the glue was drying and the clamps were attached, I added the header and footer to provide more stabilizing that the boards would stay connected.

At first I was only going to add one cross support and this may be the look your are going for. I just felt like the door needed more. Plus I had an additional board left.

I really like the “X” design. It made more of an impact statement for me. This barn door will be going in a space where the majority of the time, it will be kept in the open position and not covering the doorway. I just felt the wall needed a little more impact.

The $40 and 40 minutes will only get you to a sanded basic door. You never want to rush a finish so let’s slow it down now. You can either choose to paint, stain, or do a combination of the two to finish off your barn door to your liking. Whatever finish you decide to do, this is still easily an easy DIY project that you can finish in a weekend. Since I am doing all white faux shiplap walls in the breakfast nook, I really wanted a stained door. I figured it would coordinate well with the stained open shelving I added to the kitchen. Plus I wanted it to pull from the same stain color as my newly refinished antique table that I was able to save from destruction.

I chose a medium stain. I had a hard time deciding between the Minwax Early American and the English Chestnut. I also like Provincial when trying to find a medium stain.

I apologize for the messy laundry room. It has not been my priority yet. It is the one room that was never upgraded or painted. It has the dated wallpaper from 1997 still apparent. Very soon we will be painting, updating the washer and dryer with a newer set, and organizing the space to work for us. As you can probably see by the remnants of door closure hardware there was a door here that would close off the laundry room to the breakfast nook at one time. Sometimes you need the noise buffer from your laundry room. The previous owners had removed it. Since the laundry room also has the door to the backyard and lake access, I easily understood why they wanted it off. It just creates a obstacle between you and the lake that is not needed. Especially, if several people are trying to file in and out at about the same time and are trying to merge through that door frame.

The benefit of a barn door allows the door to be fully stored on the wall and it will still allow me to block the noise of the laundry room with ease. This allows the door frame space to be unobstructed by the width of the door and the hinges which can sometimes make a door frame up to 2-3″ narrower. Already a mobile home has narrow doorways. Why make them any narrower. Plus the barn door can just be the rustic decor that the wall needs to blend the room and furniture all together.

My husband removed the existing trim so I could replace it with 1 x 3 boards on each side of the door frame and utilize a 1 x 6 for the header up top. Barn hardware needs a minimum of a 1 x 6 board for the header. Since the boards were already primed, I just needed to attach, caulk the seams and finish off with one coat of paint. Eventually, I will be adding faux shiplap to these walls to finalize the look of the breakfast nook. The barn door will be easy to lift off from the hardware so I can add the plywood pieces that will create the look of the faux shiplap.

A wreath made from just greenery or with flowers can be added to the front of your barn door. It can be changed out with the season or be an all seasons look. This is just one more way to add personality to a functional decor item within your home.