It’s been over a year! My first blog post was in November of 2012. That seems like ages ago! I realized that I have yet to do a thorough all-over-the-house post. I plan to do this soon and can hopefully dig up some pictures we took before we moved in so you can see our progress.

In the meantime, check out some pictures of our sliding barn door!

We measured the space for the track and door based on the custom console table Daniel built, but after installing the door, we just felt like the space was too cramped, so we switched it out for this gray piece. I like that it tones down the dark floors and door. You may have noticed that we moved the TV to this wall as well. We had always planned on having a separate room for the TV, imagining kids piled on ugly sofas watching movies and spilling popcorn at some point in our future, but we finally came to the realization that we just don’t have enough rooms in the house to have a “den” and a living room. The former den will become the new office (it’s the room behind the sliding door) and the 2 rooms at the back of the house will become a guest room and nursery, and probably eventually 2 kids rooms, depending on how long we stay in this house.

One important detail we planned for with this door was the width. We really wanted to make sure that when the door was closed, it completely hid the doorway molding behind it. We thought it would just look more finished that way. This detail is what made us decide to build our own door in the first place. We had a really hard time finding a salvaged door that would fit the dimensions of the space, so we made our own. We may have missed out on some character with that decision, but we are happy overall with the look.

Daniel built the door with red cedar tongue and groove panels we found at Lowe’s. We really wanted tongue and groove for this project to eliminate any cracks that would allow you to see light through the door. There were few choices for this type of material at Lowe’s, but we really liked how knotty the cedar panels were, so we went with that product. We also found all the track hardware there as well. We had to cut the upper rail to fit our space and Daniel painted all of the silver hardware with Oil Rubber Bronze spray paint before we installed it to make it blend in a little better. I was worried that the door would be hard to slide or bang against the wall. That has not been the case. It hangs nice and straight and looks awesome! As always I wish I had taken some “during” photos.

Here are the basic steps we followed:

1. Sand and stain cedar panels and spray paint hardware

2. Install stained 1×6 on wall for track to mount on

3. Cut cedar panels to appropriate door length

4. Attach cedar panels together with wood glue and clamp all boards together, leave to dry overnight, Finish by framing the panels with cedar boards on all 4 sides and 1 slated piece across the front.

5. Secure long door track using 4 brackets to the pre-installed 1×6

6. Attach sliders to the door using brackets and slide the door onto the track. DONE!

Although we love the door, our little pooch took some convincing. As she is with most things, she was terrified of the door when we slid it open or closed. She’s gotten pretty used to it now though. We still need a handle of some sort for the door, but it’s nearly finished! Daniel did a great job, right?

We went from this:

To this!