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Friday, February 1, 2013

barn doors

I wanted a barn door right after I saw it here. P and I agreed that it would make sense to have a barn door in lieu of a regular door in our upstairs bathroom, as the door was swinging into the already small room. The existing bathroom door was cheap looking, dinged up and unfinished and not worth saving, pretty much like almost all our upstairs doors. Of course I started to search craigslist and Ebay right away for the perfect door for my project and found it around Christmas of 2010 (yes, 2010!) in Connecticut. The door was located near friends and we planned to visit our friends after picking up the door. Our friends cancelled last minute because the whole family came down with a stomach bug but we still headed to CT to pick up the door. When we hit the road it was snowing lightly, there was some talk about a blizzard the day before which we both shrugged off as being totally exaggerated. The roads were pretty clear until we left the freeway, this was when we realized it had snowed more than we thought. We loaded up the door, grabbed a quick bite to eat and started our journey back to New Jersey. The drive back took forever because it was snowing pretty hard and driving got worse by the minute and I was a nervous wreck when we finally made it home in one piece. The next morning I opened the door and we had three feet of snow. After all we had to go through to get the door home we stored it in various rooms around the house until we started to renovate our guest bath and powder room and had our contractor put it up. I was afraid if I would give it a try it might fall off the wall as I am very good at missing studs by a millimeter.



It all started with a peach colored hallway and cheap and beaten up doors. First thing we did was to throw out the door to the room on the right, my office, because it was falling off its hinges. A week later we remembered that my parents had to stay in that room because they helped us paint the house and move in. Classy people like we are I just nailed an old bed sheet to the door frame and called it a day, at least it gave them some privacy. The left door leads into P's office, it needs to be replaced as well. Although it doesn't look so bad in the photo the wood veneer is coming off in several places, where it has been nailed back into place. My office is still without a door as is the hallway closet and our "walk-through closet" that leads to our bedroom.

We love our new barn door and I cannot believe it took me so long to finish this project. At first we thought about painting the door but we think its imperfections make it look just the way we like it.

It's funny to talk about all the snow we had back when we picked up the door because I snuck away to sunny Florida yesterday and when this post goes online I am either on my way to or already at the Disney Hollywood Theme Park. Miss Piggy & Kermit here I come!

Here  is a list of items used in this project:

-door, found on Craigslist for $40 but be sure to check out your local Re-store or other places that sell reclaimed building materials
- hardware from McMaster-Carr

 Have a great weekend everybody!

20 comments:

  1. Everytime I visit your blog I am amazed about your creativity and ideas and, most of all (because I normally leave it at daydreaming...), your realization of it. Simply wow. :-)

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  2. Wow! What a fantastic door! Great choice, it looks fab. Have a lovely weekend. /Niki

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  3. It looks fantastic!! Clearly it was worth the wait, the result is just phenomenal. It puts the other door to shame! I'm so impressed that you pulled this off, I've been dreaming of one of these forever but I just don't think we have the wall space anywhere in our house to accomodate one (lots of weird angles!). Have a great weekend!! SO sneaky you jetted off to Florida. xoxo

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  4. I too think it looks fantastic! I love the hardware with the old door.
    Hope you have exellent time in Florida!

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  5. Oh my goodness, it looks AMAZING! I always drool over barn doors. I totally love the look ... I have an IMAGINARY home that holds all the cool finds that I love, but that doesn't fit/flow well in my current home (haha). I LOVE the bedroom sheets too (white color flows well with the door frames ,,,, hahaha), hey we r problem solvers + it solved the problem :)

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  6. fantastic! absolutely great job you busy bee :) such a space saver and looks lovely

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  7. Einfach genial, sehr schön ists geworden!! Ich liebe die warme Farbe von dem Holz...

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  8. Nina, this looks freaking awesome - way to go you two! Have a wonderfully warm trip

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  9. Wow, wie toll ist das denn bitte?? Muss unbedingt mehr von Eurem Haus sehen, werde gleich mal viele alten Posts lesen!
    Liebe Grüsse aus Australien, Kristina x

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  10. i love the barn doors. For some reason I had no idea that I could actually find the parts to do this myself. I wish my bed room doors were placed a little different so I could do this. For now I will admire yours. Well done.

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  11. I love it when a piece of furniture has an interesting story, now every time you see that beautiful door, you will think of that scary story in the snow and how badly you wanted it! It looks brilliant. Hope you enjoy your time in Florida!

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  12. You know I've been dying to read this post! We're putting one in in our kitchen hallway...I'd considered on for our master bathroom (we have the same problem with small space), but really have no location to hang it. The hallway is begging for a barn door, and I can't WAIT for Neel to get on it! I'll get him to read this post and hopefully it won't take three years! ;)

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  13. Thank you all for your kind words! I enjoyed my time in Florida and now I have a hard time getting back into the blogging groove..

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  14. wow, you are so creative! Honestly you should do tours through your house!

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  15. Looks fabulous! I wish I had your creativity (and endurance to finish my projects...).

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  16. This turned out SO great. And as someone who used to work for Habitat for Humanity- thank you for the Re-Store shout out!

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  17. I know I'm a bit late to comment but this project really interests me. Who would have thought that a barn door can also look good in a residential house? Awesome, right? Anyway, retaining its original state is a wise decision because it added more character in the room. -->Ryann Hoyer @ YanceyCompany.com

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  18. It doesn’t matter how long it took for you to finish this project. What matters most is that it looks great and wonderful! Your barn door truly has a strong appeal against the white wall. It was definitely an excellent project! Great job, Nina.
    Jannet Gassaway @ Walker Contracting

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  19. I can’t blame you for loving your door; it’s definitely a beauty! It stood out against the regular door opposite it. It is definitely worth the wait and the money you spent for it.

    Francisco @KatchMark.com

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