Throwing back to building a Barn Door Closet

I’ve thought about taking out this barn door closet for years but we actually really use it! Lodi keeps all of our boot dryers in the bottom of it. On the back of the door, I hung some basic hanging shelves that we use for odds and ends etc. At the time I built it I was not a happy camper (as you’ll read going on lol) but I think I did the best I could with the situation at the time. We also, obviously, use it to hang coats whish is incredibly convenient right by the front door.

Here is the original post from January, 2016:

Building a barn door closet. So I’ve had this incredible eye sore in my entryway since the very beginning of my house renovation.

We can blame me and the epic lack of communication with my electrician remains a VERY sore spot for me because it apparently never occurred to anyone that we needed to discuss the location of the new panels SO they ended up right here, right by my front door. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly.

(8/1/2019 OMG I can’t believe its been three years since this post came out! Since then my entryway has gone through a ton of transformations, almost as many as I have myself! I’m a single gal now and if you would like see my brand new, totally remodeled entryway Click Here!)

Horrible eye sore that I’ve been planning and scheming to get covered up this entire time. Outside the house it looks just as horrible, a nice electrical conduit welcome greeting for anyone coming in.

But, unless I win the lottery some time and want to hire someone to undertake the immense (and extraordinarily costly) task of moving the panels, all I can do is make the best of this ugly situation.

Of course, my plan began with the idea that I wanted to make a barn door closet, as I’ve got several wonderful old barn doors laying around 🙂 So, this is where I started.

NOTE: My final walk-through Electrical inspection was AFTER this was built and I passed without incident. On a related note MN’s electrical code is considered one of the harshest in the country and this wasn’t an issue. But, before building anything in your own home make sure and check your local state electrical codes. Thanks!

I went to my stash of left over 2x4s and 2x6s and managed to build the entire frame out of scrap lumber from the house renovation. A barn door closet has to first start with a good frame! Really, I just built a little room.

It is not the exact right way to frame in a closet, but it is sturdy and level (screwed to the ceiling joists and the floor) so I’m ok with it not being perfect in wall building standards – it certainly isn’t holding up the house or anything.

I used a 2×6 on the right side of the door frame to give extra support for my old barn door. Like so many things in the house this old door was actually the old wood shed door and, amazingly, this is the old wood shed that is now my entryway.

I just took down the wall between it and the house and added a floor as it all shared the same roof line and, suddenly, I had 200 square feet of more living space.

It used to be my Grandma would step out the front door, turn a step to her right and go right through this old barn door to access the wood shed, so, this old barn door is literally only about two feet from where it used to be 🙂 Here it is:

I got to work then covering the entire frame with leftover bead board. If you’ve every worked with ply bead before (plywood that looks like bead board) you know you only have two sides with a tongue and groove to work with so, to not have any seems, you need to keep your wits about you.

If I had just bought full sheets of new ply bead this would have been a much quicker task, however, I saw no reason not to utilize the scraps I had and, low and behold, it was enough to cover my entire barn door closet!

Some one, who shall remain nameless (me), forgot to take pictures after I covered the entire cabinet in trim! Amazingly, I had enough scrap leftover from trimming the house and out in the barn to do all but one piece of all of that trim! So, for a cost of all of $2 I grabbed a 6 foot 1×4 at my local lumber yard after work and completed all of the trim using my air compressor and brad nailer.

Then I got to painting! If you’re going to believe me when I say that painting bead board is easy then I have a bridge to sell you 😉 I did two coats and then hung up the barn door and my beautiful coat rack to finally complete our barn door closet!

Finally I have a place to hang my coats and leave my shoes after work at the end of the day!!

My dining room is to the left there in the picture so, inevitably, every day I would come home and my coat would be hung on a dining room chair and, pretty soon, it looked like my entire closet was hanging out around my dining room table.

Not good. Now, I come home to my barn door closet, have a spot for my shoes, have a place to hang my daily coat and, a place for my guests to hang their coats too! Yay!