Build your own DIY barn door, including step by step PDF plans! It’s a great budget friendly project, even if you’re a beginner woodworker
I can’t believe we are almost there with this master bathroom refresh reveal! I feel like it’s been forever, but we’ve had lots of (fun) projects that I’ll be getting to share with you soon that have come up unexpectedly.
I’m sharing with you all today our DIY sliding barn door that is legit the easiest project even though it looks like it’s the most difficult. There are about 1.5 million tutorials for DIY rustic barn doors out there. Trust me. I’ve looked on Pinterest myself and they’re ERRYWHURR.
So, what’s different about our barn door? Come and see!
OH! And if PDF plans are easier for you to follow than a blog post, you’re in luck because I paid someone a lot smarter than me to make the PDF version of these DIY barn door plans! Just enter your info below and you can get your very own!
DIY Barn Door
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Supplies:
- 1x6x8 tongue and groove boards (x6)
- 1x4x10 boards (x2) for the trim around the edges
- 1x6x6 board (x1) for the piece in the middle
- Stain color of your choice (We chose our favorite, Minwax Early American)
- Wood glue
- Barn door handle
- Wall mounted barn door guide
- Barn door hardware
- Optional: Wood conditioner
- Optional: Full length mirror (like this one we got at Target – We got one in pink, but it’s no longer available)
- Optional: Command strips if you’re going to hang a mirror like we did
The reason I link to wood is because if you’re anything like me, sometimes the lumber aisle can be intimidating. So, by linking them, my hopes is that you can just place an order online at Home Depot or Lowes and go pick it up! Saving you some time! Don’t say I never did nothin’ for ya.
Steps to building a barn door for yourself:
First, you’ll want to measure your own width of your door casing and height because all your measurements will change depending on that.
For reference, our door is 29 3/4″ x 84 1/4″.
Cut the boards to size.
We also needed to trim one of the boards that would be used for the sides of the door so that it would be the right width for our casing so here we used THE WORLD’S MOST DANGEROUS TABLE SAW.
One of these days, we’ll have the money to get one that couldn’t so easily cut a limb off.
Next, lock in your pieces of wood using the tongue and grooves. We also added a bit of wood glue in the grooves so that we could have a little bit of extra support.
Not like we’re going to be swinging or hanging on this thing, but still.
Lay your trim pieces on the left and right sides and use a nail gun to nail them on.
You can see here this is the width of the barn door including the trim. It’s not thick at all so it’s also a space saver.
Don’t forget to use a small wild haired boy to test the weight limits of this budget friendly DIY project. Gotta make sure it’ll hold up under pressure.
Using giant clamps, slide in the trim pieces at both the top and the bottom of the door and nail them into place.
Measure your door from inside top trim to inside bottom trim to find the middle.
This is where you will put your 1×6 in the middle of your barn door.
Next, put wood glue on your piece of 1×6 and put in place.
Sanding and staining your DIY barn door
You’ll want to make sure you give your door a good once over with a power sander. You could totally do this by hand but let’s be real, why would anyone wanna do that if you ain’t gotta?
If you haven’t noticed, we have 90% Ryobi tools and for the most part, they’re great quality. I would say the Ryobi power sander is a great tool for the price – it’s under $50!
This next step is optional, but we always like to put wood conditioner on our projects (like our DIY farmhouse table, our open shelving in our kitchen and our guest bathroom shelves).
It seems to let the stain soak in better and more evenly – whether you’re using pine boards or oak or whatever wood you prefer!
Next comes time for stain! I don’t know if I ever want to use a different stain ever. I promise we’ve tried.
We have tried multiple stains on multiple different kinds of wood and we keep coming back to old faithful which is Minwax Early American.
Adding A Mirror To Our Barn Door
We had a full length mirror leaning up against our wall, but a certain one year old got buck one time and knocked it over and broke it.
So, we needed another solution. One that allowed us to have a full length mirror but not have it on the floor.
This barn door is super easy to install with the barn door hardware we got so if you’re wanting to add a full length mirror like we did, add command strips on both sides of the mirror as well as the top and bottom.
Then make sure you’re insanely happy and hang that bad boy.
Is it weird that my favorite part about doing this DIY barn door with tongue and groove is how the back side looks beadboard?? I honestly didn’t know this is what it would look like but it does and I COULD NOT love it more!! It’s absolutely perfect!
Open and closed, I love it all!
Oh, just ignore the fact that our bedroom currently doesn’t have floors. More on that later 😉
My husband just built this door using your instructions. It’s amazing!! Thank you so much. I’m wondering what you used on the bathroom side of the door to open the door. I can’t tell from your post. Thank you.
It’s a handle that’s part of the hardware we bought! You can also see the same hardware on our guest bathroom post here: https://www.livingletterhome.com/guest-bathroom-makeover-reveal/
How do I get the plans?
It’s in the post! I tried to make it as easy to figure out as possible 🙂
Just like you, I’ve spent hours looking at various DIY barn doors and this looks easiest to wrap my novice head around. I have all the materials and am excited for this. Curious, though, can you confirm adding wood glue into the grooves is what y’all did? Makes sense to me, but I want to make sure I’m doing everything right!
Yes! We did use wood glue in the grooves 🙂
For those asking, I’m making this door today and the materials are going to run me about $90 for the wood and about $75 for the hardware. This does not include stain and finish but I’m going to use the same that will be going on the floor. I could get a barn door made from MDF, with hardware, at my local lowes, for about $180 right now. Still a savings but not as much with wood prices like they are. I’m sticking with this style because I purchased the hardware a while ago but if you are starting with nothing and wood prices are still really bad, you may be better off with saving the time of building and finishing your own door and buying a premade one.
This is so helpful, thank you for sharing this!!
Hi, so I made these for my bedroom about 6 months ago. They looked great when I finished. Now that winter is here I have a problem with them coming apart where I joined them and bending so that the wheels on the track have pressure on them. Do you have any suggestions?
Unfortunately I don’t. I’m so sorry that’s happening! We have had no issues with either barn door we’ve built in our house and they’re both in bathrooms.
Hey what stain did you use? I’ve been stuck on Special Walnut by minwax but love the color you used. Thanks
It’s mentioned in the supply list! Early American is our go to 🙂
Love it – do you recall about what it cost you?
Oooo, great question. The issue is with the price of lumber because of the virus has SKYROCKETED. I would hate to misquote. I will say it was WAY cheaper at the time to make it than to buy it.
Looking into making our own barn door. Your guys looked amazing. How much did you guys end up spending to make the door (hardware included)? Looks beautiful!
That’s a great question. I honestly wish I wrote it down, because I don’t remember. AND now that wood is priced SO HIGH right now because of the current state of affairs, I would hate to misquote. I will say for us it was significantly cheaper to build this than it was to buy it. I might suggest maybe taking the wood that we used and plug it into either your Lowes or Home Depot or other lumber store website to see what they’re currently charging to get a better estimate. Hope that helps!
Love your design. Do you have more detailed instructions such as which boards you cut and the lengths etc? I am interested in making the same door with the same door measurements you referenced. Thank you in advance!
I’m working on getting some plans made for this door!
Did you use a track (on the floor)? If so, how did you make the grove on the bottom of the door for the track?
Not a full blown track, but the hardware we bought came with a piece you simply screw into the floor that acts as a catch for the door itself. Hope that makes sense!
What color stain did you use?
It’s mentioned in the supplies list. Early American is our go to 🙂
what type of nailer did you use? Looks like an 18 gauge brad nailer?
That’s exactly what it is!
Can this door be hung like a regular door
Do you mean with hinges? Probably, your dimensions would just have to be different 🙂
This is amazing, thank you!!
Awesome, so glad it’s helpful!
LOVE THIS! The most intimidating part to me is the hardware. How hard was it to attach the hardware?