Interior DIY Double Barn Door Tutorial

We just built a set of interior DIY double sliding bar doors for the North House. I’ve been patiently…or maybe not so patiently waiting to finish writing this so I could share my new bathroom barn door photos and the DIY double barn door tutorial with you guys. This is a project that looks harder than it is, which I love! Head over to the Home Tour of North House Lodge #52 and see the whole home.

Also be sure to check out my hollow core door makeover and my shaker cabinet door DIY!

The upstairs bath in the North House Lodge has been a challenge from day one. It’s really small which is typical for houses built in the 1800-1900’s. It’s so small that when the door would open inward, half the room was blocked by the door. It can only fit a small shower, vanity and commode.

I can’t share exact DIY barn door plans with you all since this doorway is not a standard size. No worries though, barn doors are so easy to make it won’t matter. I’m sharing the most important details of making a set of sliding interior doors, the stuff you really need to know in order to make your DIY project turn out stellar. That’s all that matters, right?  Get the free plans to build your own in this Beginner’s Guide to Building a Barn Door.

This is what we started with. Note the top and bottom of the door was cut off to accommodate the vintage door size. Fancy, right?

Interior DIY Double Barn Door Tutorial

I use affiliate links to help you find the supplies I used. You can read my full disclosure policy here.

Supplies needed to make a set of double DIY interior sliding bar doors.

• 6″ shiplap
• double barn door hardware  I used this hardware
• 1″ x 6″ wood for door trim and cross supports on the barn doors
• exterior wood screws
• set of barn door handles
• cabin hook for interior door lock

Helpful tools

• drill
• long level
• miter saw
• bar clamps
• sander

Step one: Decide how you’ll mount the door, on a header or into the wall studs.

We decided to install a header board to mount the hardware on. This eliminated the need for us to use the studs to install the barn door rails at the top. To do this we built new trim around the door and a header along the ceiling.

The ceiling is crooked and so is the floor, both are typical for an old house. We had to do a bit of trimming to get a good fit to match slope of the ceiling.

Step Two: build the double sliding barn doors.

There are lots of ways to build sliding barn doors. We used shiplap for two reasons. First, it overlapped which meant if it shrunk there wouldn’t be cracks that you could see through into the bathroom. Important for obvious reasons! 🙂  Second, we could use the overlapping wood where the two sliding barn doors closed for privacy as well. The wood planks are held together with counter-sunk screws on the three cross-boards. I used deck screws because they’d be rust resistant and this bathroom door will be exposed to moisture.

Step Three:  Add the top sliding door hardware onto the door and adjust them as needed.

Dry fit your doors in place after adding the hanging hardware. You’ll need to make sure they hang straight and there are no gaps in-between the two doors when they slide shut. We had a small 1/2″ gap near the bottom when we tried the first time. We fixed this by moving one of the pilot holes up slightly on one door. The larger hole straightened the way the barn door hung and the hardware hides the goofy hole. Easy!

Do check out my link for barn door hardware. After a ton of research I found the best prices for barn door hardware for double doors or single doors and with a variety of top rail lengths to fit different size doors. I looked all over the internet before trying here.

Step Four: Paint or stain the double barn doors.

I took the hanging hardware off the doors and filled the screw holes with wood filler before painting them.

Step Five:  Install the double barn door handles and lock.

The handles are set at an angle because our cross boards were a tad short to fit the handles on. After I added them, I realized I liked them better angled inward. 🙂

This is what the other side of the barn doors look like when they are closed. You can see a peek-a-boo view of the new vanity from my bath makeover and speed painting tutorial I shared a few months ago.

The doors do slide together flat, this picture was before we installed the bottom guides. I needed more substantial floor guides than what the barn door hardware kit I purchased came with and wanted them attached to the baseboards and not the carpet.

One of the things I love the most about this DIY double barn door tutorial is that the doors can be made in any style. Rustic, modern or farmhouse style barn doors all work the same and all hang the same. Having a door to my office has been on my wish list forever. Now that I’ve designed one set of interior sliding barn doors I know can do the next set faster and easier!

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Have you wanted to add sliding barn doors to your home? Share with me below where you’d put them!

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