Now you see it open, now you see it closed.

Barn Door DIY- our own take.

One of my first visits to Madison via St. Louis taught me about AB's ingenious contraptions.  There is the fancy push light permanently placed on the front doorframe so that you can light up the keyhole in the dark.  Then there was the double bungee cord system that wrapped from a linen closet door handle to the door to the upstairs.  The door that leads to the upstairs/remodel/ master bedroom wouldn't stay completely open due to airflow.  Since the door opened into the living room, that was a problem.  The bungee cord system worked, but it seemed like a better solution might be used so that one might get into the linen closet with one hand and not feel the slap of the flying cord.  This DIY sought to remove the cord and I think we have solved two problems and improved the aesthetics too.

We often find ourselves perusing the local REstore here on the Eastside and in recent trips AB came home with a couple of roller blade wheels and a door with a little character to it.  We were seeking something that had some panels, a little age and looked just a bit more exciting than our previous flat panel.  These purchases in addition to me showing AB numerous images of sliding barn doors began to paint themselves as our best method for our upstairs door.  We used milk paint to color our door. A couple of coats in Slate gave us the surface we have now.

We began with locating our studs.  (Found him!)

Our home had very unusual spacing for studs, but in the end, we decided to use 5 studs in spite of odd spacing just to make sure the weight of the door was well supported.  The other trick that we had was that our stud finder couldn't quite narrow in on the studs.  This resulted in a few extra holes being drilled and a small wire to feel around for the actual wood supports.  In the end our track covered all our extra holes.

Next was engineering our track specific to our rollers (our roller blade wheels) and our door.  

Our track was cut to be a little over twice the width of our door.  We opted to hang it slightly above the current door frame (a small 1/2" spacer was added to the back of the track to make sure we cleared the door frame).  And then we debated the best manner in which to cut our groove.  AB set up our table saw to accommodate his router.  We also used a specific router bit which most closely matched the curve of our wheels. It took us a couple of passes to get it the width and depth that we felt would work best.  Above, AB takes measurements of the wheel in order to set the routing table.  Perhaps now is a good time to mention that you can purchase a kit that has all the hardware you need to do the sliding barn door on Etsy. (Here is one example.) We wanted to pursue this project from the perspective that we could do this with our own know how and didn't need a kit. 

ALSO, an important point that AB brought up along the way was WISE. The versions that are available on the market don't seem to represent our situation. Realistically, our upstairs needs an escape route.  The previous door situation wasn't exactly to code, but we were grandfathered in from the perspective of the inspector.  Just in case there is ever a fire or some other incident we wanted to be able to toss our door (from the interior side) off the track in order to get out.

Here you can see the finished chanel routed the full length of the track.

 You can also see one of our pre drilled holes that goes all the way through the track (and lines up with our studs.)We also drilled a countersink hole because we used 5/16" by 4" lag screws to attach to our wall.                                          

Here we have connected our track (one day soon this will get painted to look a bit more like metal.)

                                                 

We then worked out our roller system.  We used weldable metal strips from Menards to drill several holes in order to attach both the roller blade wheels and the door.

We used quite a few washers in order to space the bars out from the track.  I believe we used about 6 washers a piece, but this could be different for your measurements.

We then worked on propping our door up (in the end we raised it up about an inch and a half off the ground in order to maintain good airflow. (We used scrap wood to prop the door.)  The vent at the bottom of the stairs shouldn't be blocked.  We used our level to make sure that the top of the door was level before we connected the metal strips to it.

Interior

The completed work will take some time for us to work out any kinks- but rest assured being able to keep Marcel off the bed is a prime reason to keep the door closed.