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My New Barn Door

I have a door!  I HAVE A DOOR!  Do you hear angels singing?  I do! I’ve lived in this house for TEN YEARS WITH NO DOOR!  I don’t know who designed this house, but why would you not put a door on a bathroom?  It doesn’t even have a door to a separate toilet area – just NO door at all until NOW!  
Here’s the before shot.  You can imagine how this must light up the room, when someone gets up in the middle of the night or gets up early for work.  It was an extra wide opening, so we had to special order a door that would fit.
Because of the shape, you couldn’t really just add a door frame without cutting the wall and evening out those corners.  Even if you cut the corners and ordered a frame and door, it would still all need to be custom because of the size.  Custom = $$$.

I don’t care anymore.  I have a door!  
We went up to The Door Store in Marysville with our measurements and my PInterest board filled with barn doors.  They said, “Oh, sure.  We can totally do that for you.  The door will be about $1,500 and the track is about $500.”  Then I mentioned that I want the cheaper version.  They showed me the cheaper version but it still wasn’t in out budget, so I forced them to get a little creative.  They said they could do a special order door, that wouldn’t be a true barn door, but would at least have a couple of panels.  They found an unfinished door for me, so I could finish it myself and save a little more money.  The unfinished 4 panel door cost us $350, which was a much better price for this project.  It’s solid and heavy, which is what I wanted.  
I was a little disappointed in the finish on the door.  We have been stripping, staining, and varathaning all of the doors, cabinets, and trim in the house.  It’s been a long project and we are only about half way done.  When I was staining the doors (we bought a new door to the garage too) I ran out of Varathane.  I took a picture of what I wanted and sent my hubby to Lowe’s to pick up a new can.  Well, either I took a picture of the wrong can or he bought the wrong thing.  (I’ll go with me taking the wrong picture since he’s always nice enough to run out and pick up anything I need for my hairbrained projects.)  Well, the lighting in the garage isn’t very good and I didn’t even notice how shiny the doors were turning out until I had them hung up.  They are shiny.  Really shiny.  I must have had my hubby buy semi-gloss instead of satin.  Grrrrr.  It really, really, really bothers me when I look at them, but I have no desire to take the doors back down and go through the whole process of refinishing.  So, the doors will stay.
The hardware was another area we had to get creative to cut costs.  The barndoor hardware I really wanted was about $450.  A bathroom door in my master bedroom, that no one will ever see (except my blog reading friends) is not the place I want to spend $450.  So, I asked my Door Store friends if they had any other bright ideas.  They sent us over to the economical version of a track for a sliding door.  This one was only $80.  Perfect!  My first thought was just to spray paint it black and call it done, but then I thought that a burlap valance might be a nice way to hide the track.  My neighbor also suggested a barnwood cornice.  I do have a few pieces of barnwood in my garage, so that may be an option.  For now, I will just be happy to have a door!  I have a door, friends!!

Yep, angels singing.  

I think I’ll go down to my local Farm and Garden Feed Center to see if they have any barn door handles.  
It’s a happy day!

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The Comments

  • Leslie
    July 21, 2014

    I love love love your new barn door here!! What a unique way to add style and function to the room. Kudos to you for living for so long without a bathroom door, haha! Enjoy your privacy. 😉
    Blessings,
    Leslie

  • Karen
    October 10, 2014

    It's the little things! Isn't it just SO much fun? I LOVE that you haven't had a door for so many years – sounds like my house . . . so when you DO get one (out of dozens here) project done it's SO thrilling! Can not tell you how thrilled I was when my husband finally got up on the roof and removed years of moss . . . it's the little things . . .

  • Fred Richardson
    June 26, 2015

    That’s a pretty cool project. Sliding doors are the best, since they are very aesthetically pleasing, and you can save some space with it as compared to an ordinary door. Anyway, did you get those handles yet? Thanks for sharing!

    Fred Richardson @ SGK Home Solutions Inc.