Easy to install barn door

Oh man guys, I am really excited to get to sharing today! It feels like it has been a while since I have shared something new with my home, and I am all about this easy to install barn door!

** This post is sponsored by Wayfair, any opinions of product are my own**

May has been kicking my butt with our schedule. My kids have one week left of school and then we are full steam ahead into the lazy days of summer, which cannot come soon enough! I have a lot of projects I want to tackle around my house that I have been putting off. One area of my home that finally got some attention is a doorway into my kitchen.

I have two doorways into my kitchen, one that is by the dining room and the other that is in the family room. The dining room entryway opens up into my living room/dining room combo with a vaulted ceiling. It is a big space, but gets a ton of foot traffic. There is a small wall and putting any kind of art work is always awkward here. I had toyed with the idea of framing in the doorway but with the stove being so close to entryway on the other side a door frame will not quite work. I wanted to fill this little space with some kind of detail, fill the vast space that is a blank tall but narrow wall space.

None of my ideas felt 100% what was needed, then Wayfair came along with stunning barn doors and my problem area became a quick and easy solution! This barn door was sooooo easy to install. Dale and I worked on it one night after the kids went to bed (this is what a date night is considered after 10 years of marriage).

Because of the narrow wall space on each side of the doorway I went with these stunning Duplex pre-hung sliding barn door.  

These beauties have a little rustic charm with the dark wood and obvious wood grain texture. It comes in two different colors and I chose Taupe. I felt the shade of brown would fit better with my floors. The fact that this is a pre-hung door is what is amazing about these! As I said earlier, life is so busy right now. Getting a home project done in one evening is just what I need.

The first step for this easy to install barn door is to mark where the sliding bar will go. I did this without it hung so that I could measure on each side, making sure it was all level and aligned properly.

Then putting the backing board onto the wall. Making sure all is level and centered over the doorway. When hanging the barn door set up the barn doors at the height you want them before anything is nailed down. This will let you know how high or low the backing board needs to be on the wall.

Once all was level hold the board in place and screw in the provided screws. I kept these screws in the center of the board that way most will be hidden by the oil rubbed bronze sliding piece. So none of the screw holes will be seen. There should be one stud that you this on either side of this with these screws. It gives a little extra security to make sure this barn door is not going anywhere.

One big board up and on the wall!

Next step is adding the dry wall anchors, this is what will hold the barn door sliding bar up and secure onto the wall. I drilled the holes into the boards before twisting in the drywall anchors.

Insert the drywall anchors and twist away! Making the board for the barn door nice and secure to the wall. This thing will get banged up, ran into, and potentially hung on by my crew of kids. So I need this barn door to be a strong hold onto the wall.

Somehow I missed taking a picture of this, and I am sorry for any confusion. The dry wall anchors should be twisted until they are flush with the backing board.

Next is attaching the sliding metal bar onto the backing board.

Taking the large spacer piece, putting it through the metal board, coming out through the back.

Then twisting it into the the hollowed out center of the drywall anchor.

Now there is a backing board secured to the wall, and a sliding metal bar attached into the wall with drywall anchors. Lets get the doors up!

The hardware all came up with door.

The sliding door holes were already in place at the top of each door. So this process was really quick to attach the rollers.

Slide the doors into place.

So pretty!

With the doors up I slid it out to see where I wanted them to stop. Then sliding the stopper onto the metal bar and screwing it into place. This is needed to make sure the barn doors do not slide off one side of the bar.

So close to being done! This small piece gives a track for the doors to slide on, so they do not sway when being moved. There was two option sent in the barn door kit. One can be screwed into the floor and one can be attached to the wall. I chose the wall one.

Screw it into the wall, then attach the edge piece into it.

Slide the barn doors into each little track.

The final step is adding the door handles.

This has the same finish as all of the other door hardware and it matches the color or door hardware in the rest of my home.

Mark where the holes need to be to secure the handles to the door. Making sure both are in line with height as well as space on each side of the door handles. This was honestly the only part I got worried about, I did not want crooked handles.

Once I measured just a few times I was ready to commit to a space for each handle. Screwing them into place.

I breathed a big sigh of relief, they were even and my easy to install barn door is done!

 

Guys, this barn door looks amazing in my dining room! It was just the amount of color, wood texture and detailing that was needed to the doorway.

Functionally speaking it also really helps out a lot. I have an open-ish concept home. The dining room and living room are open to the front door as well as the family room. With only two entryways separating the kitchen and sunroom. So when I have one child doing homework at the dining room table, another practicing viola in the kitchen, while I am doing dishes and one is coloring in the family room these doors can be closed to minimize the travelling of noise.

I am all for open concept, but three kids in a home that has wood floors and vaulted ceiling means noise travels very easily. These sliding barn doors are out of the way from the hustle and bustle but can be closed when needed.

The wood detailing and coloring also makes them the prettiest barn doors I ever did see!

I have a lot of light colors and white wood trim in my home. These taupe colored doors add just the perfect amount of warmth needed.

They do have a rustic feel to them, but with the clean lines of the details on the doors and the simple handles it has a modern twist to them. My home is not filled with rustic charm, only a few smaller touches of it so they blend in nicely.

These doors created a real formal feel to the dining room. I mean, we still tell knock-knock jokes at the dinner table, but the space if a little more defined with the doors.

This is the view from the kitchen. I wanted to show how out of the way the barn doors really are. My kids had some friends over this weekend and these doors never got knocked down or even got in the way of the Nerf war that happened in my house.

They close wonderfully too. There is no clunkiness to them, with the small track at the bottom is keeps the doors from swaying.

The best port about these doors? When we have people over or someone stops by unexpectedly I can just close these doors and hide the mess in the kitchen! Typically from the front door there is a straight on view to the sink and I cannot guarantee it is always dish free. This solves that problem perfectly!

The mixing of the woods worked out so well. With them both having the appearance of wood grain lines and a brown undertone they mesh well together.

With these barn doors up in my home for a little over one week I feel like they have always belonged in this doorway. I love when I add something to my home and it feels natural right away, like it was always supposed to be there. These barn doors look right at home in the house and I am loving them! You can find these exact barn doors over at Wayfair.

Adding function to my home, improving how we can use the different living areas in our home and hide any mess in the kitchen…. this is a big win for my house! This easy to install barn door went up in one night, they were that quick and painless to install! That is just the type of home improvement project I need right now in my life. I can get back to big time projects when life slows down a little. These went up fast and look beautiful. Now I am ready for the extra traffic in my home this summer with kids running around, and I can control the noise in my home a little better with these beauties. Bring on summer!