Barn doors are all the rage these days, and for good reason. They are super functional, beautiful, and space saving in multiple design styles. I’ve been pinning barn doors for years knowing I would like to add one to my home at some point. Finally I broke down and made that happen in our narrow downstairs hallway! But not without some complications as I had baseboard heaters to work around. Read on if you’d like to learn how to add a DIY a modern farmhouse barn door in a space with baseboard heating. This tutorial will describe the process that I used to make it work!
Disclaimer: In the name of full transparency, please be aware that this blog post contains affiliate links and any purchases made through such links will result in a small commission for me (at no extra cost for you). As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Supplies/Cost/Time
Length of time for project: 2 days
Cost: ~$175 per door (I made two, this includes the hardware)
- What you’ll need:
- Barndoor hanging hardware, double door
- Door handles (I used 2)
- Floor guides: (I used 2)
- 3/4″ sanded plywood (one 4×8 sheet per door)
- 4: 1x4x8 trim boards (per door)
- 2: 1x2x8 trim boards (per door)
- 2: 1x3x8 trim boards (per door, if you have a gap to cover. Otherwise you could replace these with 2 more 1×2 boards)
- Total: $350 for two doors with Hardware. Approximately $120 per door for just supplies/wood, without hanging hardware (which will vary greatly if you are doing a single vs double door)
What I learned: Most homes are uneven. Measure literally everywhere the door will slide. I found out the hard way that my door was the perfect length when closed but that the floor slants, keeping the door from opening completely. If I had measured this ahead of time, I could’ve saved a TON of time and headache.
Adding Door Trim and Other Prep
So first let’s talk about the prep to get things ready for hanging a barn door. This hallway has a baseboard heater that sticks out about 4 inches from my original door frame. The door needed to be able to clear the heater while avoiding a large gap between the door and the door frame.
After asking around a bit in some of my social media groups, I got some great suggestions on how to make this work. The first thing I decided to do was to beef up my current door trim by adding a 1 x 2 board to the outside of my current door frame using wood glue and a brad nailer. This bumped out the door frame by about an inch or so. To finish, I added some corner trim to the inside between the wood and the door frame, then I caulked the seams.
Now that door trim was a bit beefier, I decided to add a little wall treatment to help take away some of that negative space. I went back-and-forth between board and batten and shiplap. Ultimately I decided on shiplap which you can learn more about here. This added about three-quarter inch thickness to the wall, minimizing the distance between the trim and the baseboard heater.
Next up, I hung a 2 x 6 board header, which is where your barn door railing will attach. This board was 12 feet long (I used two 6′ boards) because I was planning to hang a double door barn door rail and two barn doors; one for my office and one for the laundry room. This header was leveled and drilled into the studs and then painted. In hindsight, I probably didn’t need a 2 inch board since I was hanging it on top of the shiplap. I think this bumped it out a tad more than it really needed but these doors are also stupid heavy and a 2 inch board is probably much better for stability and security than a 1 incher would’ve been.
How To: Build the Doors
Next up, building the doors! After researching a ton of different styles and methods for making barn doors, I decided to go for a more modern clean style door using plywood and 1×4 boards for trim.
I don’t know about you, but the most intimidating thing for me to purchase at Home Depot is a sheet of plywood or MDF board. It is silly, but I think it is because I have to ask for help. I have difficulty lifting it on my own and typically have to find somebody to cut it down for me so I can get it home. I really hate that part of the process. If I could go in and grab it on my own and take it home whole to cut down, I would be much more apt to purchasing plywood. So I tried and tried to find a door style I liked using regular boards…but the clean look using plywood was just speaking to me.
Anyway, I found a sheet of three-quarter inch plywood, or as close as I could get, that was smooth but not crazy expensive. There are higher quality versions that I probably should’ve splurged for in this setting but I purchased the board that cost about $40 each. I needed two of them as I was only able to get one door per each sheet of plywood.
I had them cut them down in the store to width and brought the scraps home for me to use in other projects at some point. Length was cut at home using my circular saw so I could be sure to get it right (which I didn’t, by the way. Freaking uneven floors.). The dimensions of your door will need to be specific to your space. In fact, I had two doors in the same exact hallway and my dimensions were different for each of the doors, both width and height. So I’m not going to go into that here.
Adding Trim to Barn Door
The trim was cut to fit and attached to the front of the plywood. Two long full length strips were used along each vertical side and then four shorter horizontal strips were placed across. Two strips were for the top and bottom. The other two strips were to be spaced evenly across the middle. All pieces were attached using wood glue and nails and then followed up with a few screws just to make sure they were nice and secure. 1×2 boards were attached to the top and bottom as I knew I was also going to attach trim to the sides later. You could definitely skip this step if you want. Just make sure you calculate trim into your overall dimensions.
Painting/Finishing
Once the doors are built, fill the screw/nail holes with wood putty and caulk the edges. The wood putty should be sanded smooth once dry. Now they were ready for paint! I used this paint sprayer that I had first purchased for this DIY Industrial Farmhouse Desk I built a few months back, and I’m so glad I did! The sprayer made the process SO much easier and the finish SO much smoother. It goes on thin so it took 3-4 coats, but it also goes on fast. Cleaning the sprayer is the most time consuming part.
Once they were completely dry, it’s time to attach the barn door hardware (follow the instructions for your particular kit) and then hang them! I used this double door kit from Amazon! I am more than pleased with the quality, look, and price (even cheaper now than when I purchase it)!
Once hung, I was able to really assess the gap between the barn door and the door trim. I then added a 1×3 trim board to each side of the door. On the side with the baseboard heater, I had to cut out a little notch so it could slide over. It worked like a charm and the gap isn’t even noticeable!
I added this amazing barn door handle I found on Amazon. Then I ran across these floor glides that worked great for what I needed (I didn’t want to drill into my tile).
Final Thoughts
One quick final word of warning: Measure, measure, and then measure again. Measure the height of where your door will hang all the way out to wherever it slides. Turns out my floor is super uneven and the door wouldn’t open all the way and kept getting stuck. It was beyond a pain in the rear to fix that and I kinda messed up the bottom of one door in the process. You can’t REALLY tell…but I still know.
Don’t they look amazing though! These DIY modern farmhouse barn doors are the perfect addition to this hallway. I’m so happy I was able to work around the baseboard heaters and add these babies in. They really save space while elevating the space!