The Barn Door Bug Hit Us Too - Part Two

Welcome back! In Part One, we told you about choosing a door and refinishing it. Part Two is all about selecting the necessary hardware and installation.

The increased popularity of sliding barn doors has made the required hardware more readily available. Ron spent a good deal of time reading up on the subject and researching artisans. The set we chose is from The White Shanty on Etsy. We liked seeing the actual wheels, as well as the look of raw steel on the model we chose. There are many styles and finishes available and you're sure to find one that suits your home décor.

Step One involved screwing the wheel hardware to the door.

Drilling holes for wheel hardware © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Wheel mounted to door © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Step Two required using a stud-finder to locate the studs around the existing door opening. The hardware definitely had to be mounted to wood, not just screwed into sheetrock. There was lots of careful measuring to determine where the holes in the mounting bar would need to be drilled in order to line up with the wall studs. Ron found it helped to lay everything out on the living room floor. His two assistants did their best to make sure he didn't mess up. That's what they claimed to be doing anyway...

Step Three required a drill press. It's a much safer, more accurate way to drill through steel than trying to use a hand drill. Since we don't have a drill press, we turned to Google and found a machinist in Raleigh. His name is Jim Cobb.

Jim Cobb at work © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

He charged $25, and did a perfect job. We also got to meet Toby, who spent quite a good long time pressed up against Ron's leg, enjoying a nice pat.

Toby © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Step Four was where it all came together: the careful measuring, the precision-drilling, the putting together of all the elements. There would be more photos, but I was on a ladder holding an end of the bar and/or handing tools to Ron much of the time.

Bar installation © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

As you can see, if you look carefully, Ron had to notch out a small section of molding. If he hadn't done that, the door would hang well shy of the floor.

Mounting hardware close up © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Step Five was pretty easy. We just needed to decide where to put the guide. Because the mounting hardware sticks out from the wall, the door slanted in a bit toward the office, so we decided the guide was best used to keep the slanting at a minimum.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Sliding doors don't provide complete privacy, but they do offer some. This door also added a lot of visual interest without taking up much space.

Door, Hall view with Buster exiting the office © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Door, Office view © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

If you have any technical questions, feel free to ask in Comments and we'll be happy to answer them as best we can. (And by "we", I mean Ron).

Quince Cottage Design Mantra: Create a beautiful, comfortable home that reflects your unique style and personality. 
In our own place, patina is valued, rustic rubs shoulders with opulent (we call this "agrarian chic"), and you're sure to get a terrier-style welcome!

The Barn Door Bug Bit Us Too- Part 1

If you watch HGTV or the DIY channel, or read interior design magazines, you've seen sliding barn doors used inside the home. They're cool, right?
Okay, maybe they're trendy, maybe they've lost a teensy bit less of hipness due to overuse, however, there are scenarios where they really do make sense.
Case in point: the office door at Quince Cottage.
The office is IMMEDIATELY to the left as you enter the front door and the hallway is narrow. Did we mention the office isn't huge? And, coming from a bigger house with two offices, we had to cram a whole bunch of furniture into the new office so we could share it. Good thing we like each other's company! To gain privacy and more importantly, quiet, (hey, we have kids), a door was essential. "Swing" created its own issues. Opening into the hall would make the already skinny space even MORE cramped. Opening into the office would gobble up valuable real estate in there. A sliding door offered the perfect solution.
Rustic barn-look doors have been done a lot, (I was going to say, "to death", but that seemed mean). We wanted something unique in style, venerable in age, and of course, budget-friendly.
Here's where the ReStore stores came in super handy. In New England there used to be a store whose slogan was "Good stuff, cheap!" Habitat For Humanity might consider snagging that phrase. There are several ReStore stores in the Raleigh area and we went to them all, looking for the perfect old door.

Here's a brilliant idea - if you're shopping around for something in particular, take pictures AND notes, so you'll remember exactly where you saw that thing that you now know is the best choice. We ended up making at least one trip more than necessary because we couldn't remember where we'd seen which doors. Sigh.

ReStore Apex © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

ReStore Fuquay Varina © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Of course there are all kinds of goodies in a ReStore: lighting, flooring, tiles, furniture, windows, plumbing fixtures, kitchen cabinets... Here's a shot of the door aisle. Good stuff. We paid $22 for it. Cheap. See? Good stuff, cheap.

Doors at ReStore © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Door Original Finish © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Now, there were a few things not quite perfect about the door. Its finish for one, which was orange-y. It had no knob. Naturally, it wasn't in perfect condition, but since we were looking for a piece that had "character", that was actually a plus.
Ron got to work refinishing the door. He sanded and also cut a piece of a paint stirrer to fit the hole where the lockplate had been. ..

Covered lockplate

He cleaned it...

He taped off the windows...

He painted each door with a coat of latex paint, Milk Paint on one side, Scandinavian Sky on the other. Then he sanded the paint off in areas which would likely have been banged, scuffed, or handled a lot...

White side © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

He further antiqued each side by applying a thin coat of dark stain and then wiping it off. Finally he used paste wax to provide protection...

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Blue side © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

We found a funky metal handle at the Raleigh Flea Market. It was rusty, which made it even better (but Ron did put a coat of poly on it, to keep rust from coming off on our hands when we used it).

©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

At last the door was ready for hanging...yep, we're going to tease y'all and make you wait until our next post to see how that was done, with the help of a metalsmith from Utah, a welder from Raleigh, and a couple of dogs.

At Quince Cottage we love patina. If an object shows its age, some wear and tear, well, that's a story. Now, not EVERYTHING in our home is chippy and dented and rusty - we don't want you to get the wrong idea! But the look we're going for is about character and a room full of fresh out of the box furniture and decor, is just not as interesting (at least to us). A long time ago, Rhiann worked in a retail store with a merchandiser who was ahead of her time. She was always on the look-out for chippy old doors to use as backdrops for the housewares she was styling. Her catch phrase was "I need something dirty-rotten for this photo shoot." We like some things dirty-rotten too.

Quince Cottage Design Mantra: Create a beautiful, comfortable home that reflects your unique style and personality. 
In our own place, patina is valued, rustic rubs shoulders with opulent (we call this "agrarian chic"), and you're sure to get a terrier-style welcome!