Monday, February 16, 2015

Barn Door; Antique French Door Progress

I thought I'd let you see the progress of the sliding door for our bedroom.  Just to recap why we are doing this. Our bedroom door is in the middle of the long well of our bedroom. I am not a fan of this but with the shape of our house, the staircase requirements and the how close we are to the boundary on our western side, we weren't given much choice. If we elected to go with a normal inwards opening door either the door would open over the ensuite door or one the other side would open onto the side of the bed and you'd have to squeeze past and it would also block the view of the Sydney Harbor Bridge (most important!!) unless the door was fully open at 180 degrees.



Sam suggested he could build us a cavity slider but I Just. Couldn't. Do. It.  Then I had the bright idea of a sliding barn door. Okay, okay...not that original and bright as they are all over the interwebs but I still feel mightly inspired :)

I had a great conversation with Olivia from the Merry Barn about how to turn my antique doors into a sliding barn door. Olivia and her husband make barn doors and they in turn introduced me to Sharron who owns Barndoors Australia and sell the tracks. I was really impressed with the barn door hardware they provide and so have partnered with them to write some tutorials on the sliding barn door build and set up in return for the hardware at cost price. You can see the range of barn door hardware here.  I've chosen the classic track with a 4m extension kit.



Sam an I have to turn 2 * 1.6m doors into a one 2.4m tall door. So we are stitching the two doors onto a large panel of MDF. To surround the doors and make them taller we will use skirting boards and timber. 



Sam is so good to work with - most of our design is done on the fly, and he always has a lovely smile. We have been blessed with a good builder who has made this process very easy.

It will be a few weeks till the doors are ready to hang as we work our way through the mountain of cabinetry to put together beforehand but I look forward to sharing them with you.

I do have to laugh as Carla, our builder's apprentice was asking how I'm going to fix all the worm holes and old damage in the old walnut doors...she obviously doesn't read my blog...I'm more wondering how I make the new skirting boards look old!

yours in all things old and French.

Fiona xx







3 comments:

  1. Sam does have a lovely smile...and not hard to look at either! *wink wink* Those doors are great!

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  2. can't wait to see the result.. looking good! Maryann

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  3. Looking forward final effect. It's going to look great - doors are fantastic and exposed sliding mechanism is excellent idea!

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