Barn Doors

The materials for the door build were donated by National Hardware. The build and opinions are my own.

I’m not sure what part of my mind thought I could maintain everyday demands, create a wonderful Christmas for the family, get a new puppy, potty train my 2 year old and remodel the crab shack simultaneously. A little crazy, but it’s coming along! The crowning project of the crab shack, in my opinion, are the barn doors. I have debated different kinds of doors and originally bought 8′ doors that matched the rest of the house, but my husband convinced me I should build the doors. I’m glad he did. Although going to the hardware store with four kids isn’t my favorite thing in the world, I was excited to surprise my bff after a business trip with new doors:

Here are the materials I used for each door (so if you’re building two doors make sure you double this):

• Two 1x4x8 pine boards
• One 1x4x6 pine board
• Two 1x6x8 pine boards
• 1 wood siding board (cut to size at Home Depot)
• Miniwax wood prep
• Miniwax Dark Walnut wood stain
• Poly Urethane
• sander
• paint brush
• mitre saw
• wood glue
• wood clamps
• 1 1/4″ wood screws

Before beginning I have a small disclaimer.  Although I love to build stuff my garage or side yard serves as a messy, primitive wood shop… so excuse the mess!

I started by cutting the wood siding at the hardware store to an exact 8’x3′ size. Then I built the frame on top, using the 1x4x8 on the vertical sides and the 1x6x8 cut into three horizontal beams. The best way to get wood to attach together is to 1. Glue, 2. Clamp 3. Screw.

If you don’t have a bunch of wood clamps use heavy objects, big wheat buckets or salt bags have always done the trick for me.

After adding the horizontal and vertical boards I added a diagonal one for the barn look. Clued, clamped, and let it dry overnight then flipped and sunk 1 1/4″ wood screws to the back. Of course, my best helper super helpful.

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With the building done, it was time to prep and stain:

In retrospect I wish I would have just hung the doors with bare wood. But, I was persuaded again by my husband. Prepping anything is my least favorite part of any project and usually I am just thinking “enough already, let’s just stain this baby and be done.” This is a great youtube video on how to prep your wood for staining. It’s kinda like watching a cooking show with all the materials ready to go, only with wood (which is way better):

I often clean wood in preparation for staining with a dry paint brush, tack cloth, and my hairdryer (my favorite trick)

Finally the doors were ready:

This is the part where the project went awry. From the moment I started staining I knew it was too dark. Then I felt like I would never be able to sand it off of the siding and have it look normal so I just kept going. I put on two coats and added a poly urethane protective coat. When I finally finished, I cried. The doors are beautiful and everyone I have shown raves about them, but for me they are different than this imaginary picture I had created in my mind and so they are still hard too look at. I hate when that happens. I’m sure it’s happened to you before, you get an idea of what you are going to create and then even when the projects turns out, if different than imagined, you’re disappointed.

Ah well, they will be beautiful anyways. And next post, the BARN DOOR HARDWARE.

Happy Creating!