It's been a few months since we tackled Grace's bedroom's pink barn doors -

They have been holding up very well - no warping or twisitng - and been awesome to use - acting as closet doors and a privacy door on the entry as needed -

All while not not taking up an space in the room and adding a bright, fun element.  (Someday we'll get a closet organizer built ... )

We love this door system so much in Grace's room - 

We built the same exact doors for Hayes' room.  Love them!

I wanted to share with you guys a quick tutorial for these barn doors.  They are plywood based - so perfect for paint - and are much more dimensionally stable than a solid wood door.  Also, since they are plywood based, the doors are much easier to build (as opposed to planks of wood).

First up, sizing - since these doors are plywood based, you can't build larger than a full sheet of plywood.  I wouldn't recommend that anyway, as the door would get VERY heavy and cumbersome to use.

Height wise, I make my barn doors the height of the opening.  Once the hardware is installed, it brings the door up an inch or so, giving you the clearance you need at the bottom for easily sliding the door.  Widthwise, I like to go a little wider than the opening, so the door fully coveres the opening.

I like to use 3/4" plywood, as it's less likely to warp and more likely to hold the wood frame square, but you could probably get away with 1/2" too.  Cut the plywood to the size of the door.

Then set your circular saw or table saw blade to 1/8" depth, and make decorative cuts in the face of the plywood to give the look of planked wood.  Remember there is a frame going on top of the door, so you don't need cuts where the frame goes.  

Now for the front frame.  I used 1x6s - for a narrower door, you might want to use a narrower frame (for example 1x4s).  The sides of the frame are always the height of the door.  Lay the sides on your plywood panel, measure and cut the horizontal top and bottom pieces to fit.  

I like to Kreg Jig my frame pieces together, but it isn't necessary structurally - it just guarantees your frame pieces won't have a gap in between.  

Then I glue and nail the frame to the top of the plywood using an 18 guage brad nailer and 1-1/4" brad nails.

For the hardware, we use the National Hardware Track system, it's available at our local home improvement store.  

I like it because 1) we can get it here in rural Alaska 2) it's very strong 3) it's easy to install and versatile (we've used it everywhere from elevator beds to sliding closets).

If you'd like to see us build and hang the barn door, check out this video

And you can grab the plans for the platform bed here.

Please do share if you build, we love seeing your projects and getting out built!

XO Ana

PS - Please do pin and share!