DIY Sliding Barn Door Makeover for Under $100!

Hey y’all!  When we decided to renovate our home, we wanted to give it little touches that make it more “us”.  One of the style decisions we made to make the house a home was the addition of a sliding barn door on the laundry room.  The laundry room is located directly off the dining room, so it’s a high traffic area.  When we purchased the house, there was a doorway between the two rooms but no door, so the laundry room was always open.  The door will probably stay open most of the time, but I’ll want it closed if guests are over {or if there’s just a horrendous… er, let’s be real – normal… amount of dirty clothes in there}.  You know I am ALL ABOUT that budget, so the fact that this project was under $100 makes me pretty dang excited!

DIY Sliding Barn Door Makeover - Under $100!

We found a brand new solid core door at our Habitat Restore for $7.50 – SCORE!  The rest of the doors in the house are all 6 panel hollow core {aka pretty standard looking} doors, but we wanted to give this one some flair.  To make it mesh with the others, we painted it the same charcoal-y gray color as all the interior doors.

DIY Sliding Barn Door Makeover for Under $100!

PROJECT BUDGET
Solid Wood Door $8.03
Sliding Barn Door Hardware $64.99 {*We were given this hardware in exchange for an honest review, but $64.99 is the current Amazon price if you were to purchase it.}
Barn Door Handle $6.73
Total Project Cost: $79.75 – cha ching!  

Let's talk about how NOT to install the hardware.

Let’s talk about how NOT to install the hardware.

We found barn door hardware on Amazon and installed it in one evening.  {Word to the wise: Read the instructions, yo.  My oh-so-handy and not-so-instruction-driven husband glanced over the instructions, then had to switch the hardware a few times after realizing it wasn’t on the door properly… whoops.}  The long bar on the wall was drilled with holes every 18″.  Here in the US, the standard stud spacing is every 16″.  We just added more holes so that all of the bolts could be anchored into studs.  It looks totally normal with the extra holes.  We also had to drill holes in the top of the door for the hardware, but that was pretty straightforward.  You could also use the holes as they are spaced and use drywall anchors, but I wanted to make sure this bad boy was solid so I went with extra holes to hit all studs.

DIY Sliding Barn Door Makeover for Under $100

I purchased the barn door handle separately {also on Amazon}.  It fits perfectly with the barn door look and is super functional!  ***The best tip I have for the installation of… well, anything where you have to pre-drill holes, then screw something together is this: There is a magical drill attachment tool that I lovingly call “the flippy thing”.  It’s worth its weight in gold.  Seriously.  My husband bought one size locally, but I found a kit online that has interchangeable drivers and bits.  LIFE CHANGER.  It’s super easy and handy to use!  When I installed the door handle, I just pre-drilled the holes then flipped the “flippy thing” around so the phillip’s head screwdriver bit was exposed and drilled that bad boy in.  It makes working alone so much easier!***

DIY Sliding Barn Door Makeover for Under $100

I’m planning to add some sort of quote or decor to the inset on the top half of the door and my mom {aka official child-centered-home-consultant} suggested the addition of chalkboard paper/paint on the bottom inset portion – how fun!  You can tell that we still have some finishing touches to go on the house, but I’m excited to see how this neat door morphs with our family.

We were provided the sliding barn door hardware in exchange for an honest review.  All opinions shared are completely my own.  This post may contain affiliate links.  I earn a small percentage of anything you purchase through these links but you don’t pay anything extra.  Thanks for helping to support Borrowed Blessings.

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