There was a good recent article in the daily Realty Times feed about a new trend to use barn doors (not necessarily literally an old barn door) as a way to provide closures to rooms or spaces in your house. Click here to read that article and see the pictures that accompanied it.
In days long past people used pocket doors to achieve somewhat the same thing – a room or area closure that doesn’t take up the space of a regular swinging door. The “barn door” approach is a little easier to install and can be less expense. Some people actually go out looking for authentic, old barn doors although those are usually way too big for a normal house. Side doors to barns or other regular house doors work fine too and often you can use the old doorknobs as handles for opening and closing the doors. You can also have the doors custom made or modify ready -made doors by installing the hanging track hardware instead of hinges.
The doors, of whatever style and material, are hung on a track that is installed above the opening that will be closed off by them. The doors normally have arms at the top with wheels that allow them to roll very smoothly on that track. Smaller opening may only require one door, while larger openings, perhaps to a laundry area, might require two doors. You still need the wall space on either side of the door for the barn doors to roll in front of and those wall spaces normally can’t have things like art work on them that the doors might hit and knock off. Most of the time the barns door don’t have a way to secure them in the closed position; although it is possible with two doors to have them somehow attached to each other. Since the barn doors must move freely on the hanging track they do not usually seal against the walls of the opening so using this approach for an exterior door is not likely to work.
Barn doors can make unique and interesting doors for kitchen pantries, laundry areas, closing off the kids play area or other things like that. They might not work as well as the closure for a bathroom (remember the sealing and locking issues). You almost have to think of them functionally as if they were a curtain, because that is largely what they are – curtains made of a solid material that you pull shut on the track (curtain rod) that they are hung upon.
To add an eclectic touch to your home you might hunt for old solid wood doors out of historic homes. Hunt for the old door knobs at the same place. In this area the architectural salvage store in Ypsilanti – Materials Unlimited – is a great place to shop for both. You can search on the term “architectural salvage” in yur area to see where you might shop. Old doors out of historic homes are usually solid wood and quite heavy and most have lots of character (although some may need some refinishing). You can even use old French doors, but that won’t hide whatever they are closing off. That might be a good approach for a door between the dining room and the living room, for instance, or to close off a den or library.
If you live in a historic home this approach wouldn’t really fit, since they would have used pocket doors instead. Many historic homes actually used the barn door approach on their carriage barns, many of which were later converted into garages. I’ve seen some interesting approached where the doors open inside the garage with tracks that are curved around to the sides to allow the door to swing around when opened. Some of those old barn doors might work in a larger modern home with high ceilings.
If you are a fan of the HGTV remodeling shows you might occasionally see the remodelers using this approach, especially in tighter spaces that don’t have room for door swing. It is a much cuter look than using bi-fold doors and adds interest to areas that might otherwise be dull. So, think about using the barn door approach in your upcoming remodeling projects. Here’s a link to a good Pinterest site that has lots of pictures and links to some good DIY advice. Remember that you don’t need a barn to have a barn door.
