How to Build and Install a Double Barn Door

In our basement, we have a rec room with a cased opening leading to a work out room. We wanted a way to close off the workout room when needed. So we decided on double barn doors.

Our basement already had a bit of a modern vibe with the acid stained concrete floors. Because of this, I thought it would be fitting to come up with a modern design for the barn doors.

In this article, I’m going to show you how I built and installed these modern barn doors.

What You’ll Need

• Finish Nailer
• 1 1/4″ finish nails
• tape measure
• clamps
• miter saw
• wood glue
• 8 primed 1×4″x8′ boards
• 6 primed 1×2″x8′ boards
• 2 sheets of 3/4″ MDF or plywood
• 2 Barn door hardware kits

Step 1: Determine the Size of Your Doors

The first thing I did was determine how big the doors needed to be. I measured the opening and divided it by two. Then I added on 1″ to allow for some overhang on the sides.

Once I had the size nailed down, I designed my doors. Here’s what I came up with:

Step 2: Build the Doors

For the core of the door, I used a 3/4″ piece of MDF. You can also use plywood. I chose MDF because it has a smoother finish and its more affordable. You can have it cut to size at your home improvement store where you buy it.

I started by gluing and nailing the top and bottom pieces of 1×4 to the MDF.

Sometimes glue will cause the board to slide as you are nailing. So I used clamps on these pieces to make sure they were held in the right place while I was nailing them.

Next, I glued and nailed on the side pieces.

Then I measured and marked the halfway point to know where to start my inside pieces of 1×4. All of the ends of the inside pieces are cut at 45-degree angles.

I measured, cut, and added the remaining 4 inside pieces using the dimensions in the diagram above.

To hide the seam between the MDF and 1x4s on the side of the door, I added a piece of 1×2 all the way around sides, top, and bottom. I cut the ends and a 45-degree angle.

Step 3: Fill Holes, Sand, and Paint

After I built both of the doors, I filled all of the nail holes with spackling and gave it time to dry.

Then I sanded all of the spackled holes plus all of the corners and sharp edges.

We decided to paint the doors with Sherwin Williams Pure White, which is one of the best white paint colors. I used a foam roller to get a smoother finish and used a brush in some of the tighter areas on the door.

Step 4: Install Hardware

First, I measured and marked 6 3/4″ from the top of the door. This mark indicated where I would place the bottom of the hanger.

I placed the hanger on the barn door so that the bottom lined up with the mark. Then I marked both holes.

I drilled small pilot holes on each mark. Then used a 1/2″ drill bit to drill bigger holes.

Once I had drilled all 4 holes in each barn door, I attached the hangers using the supplied bolts.

Step 5: Hang the Barn Doors

Since this project involved two doors, this meant I would need two hardware kits. I ordered two 72″ kits. I marked the middle of the door opening and mounted each track from that point and centered them vertically in the middle of the top molding.

The tracks come predrilled. I held each track in place and marked my holes.

I drilled pilot holes on each mark.

With spacer behind the track, I screwed in each bolt. Make sure that you are screwing into a stud. We planned ahead and had the framers add blocking in the wall where we knew the barn door track would be.

After I had both tracks installed, I lifted each door onto the tracks and added the supplied stoppers on each end.

We couldn’t be happier with the way they turned out and what they added to our basement.

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