Building a barn door

mkh1991

Hi All,

I am keen to put a barn door for our lounge room. I've searched online and in-store but was unable to find a door meeting the required dimensions. Now I am a newbie in DIY world but have hung a few pictures and floating shelves :). The dimensions of the room opening are 2130mm x 1070mm. Hence I will be going for a 2200mm x 1100mm barn door size. I went in the store and I am thinking to get a few panels of this DAR pine

https://www.bunnings.com.au/285-x-19mm-2-4m-dar-pine-premium_p8401478

and have it cut from the bunnings custom section. Once I have the pieces cut to the specs, is it just a matter of screwing these together with 2 horizontal pieces holding the verticle pieces?

I know it doesn't sound as simple as I am saying hence looking for some advise.

Ps: I am in WA.

Thanks

MitchellMc

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @mkh1991. It's wonderful to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about constructing a barn door.

Just to let you know that we can have our supplier Hume Doors create a barn door of size 2200 x 1100mm. You'll just need to enquire with the Special Orders team at your local store.

If you wanted to create a door yourself, I'd encourage you to read through some of the barn door projects contributed by our members. I'm sure you'll pick up some tips and various methods of construction. One of my favourite approaches is using an 18mm thick sheet of MDF as the core and fixing a sheet of VJ panelling on either side. You can then add your horizontal and/or diagonal rails to the front. Using this method saves you from having to glue multiple timber boards together.

The approach you've mentioned would be the basic steps. However, a concern that I have is even with the appropriate sash clamps, you can see a fair bit of twisting when trying to glue numerous boards together into a wide panel.

I'll be looking forward to following along with your project. Please let me know if you have further questions.

Mitchell

mkh1991

Thanks Mitchell,

The customized door option is a bit higher on the cost side and hence looking for DIY advice, I like your idea of using VJ paneling, so essentially we put together the MDF sheets and screw the VJ sheers on the top, and hence no glue at all in between the MDF sheets?

MitchellMc

I'd recommend glueing and screwing or nailing the outer VJ skins to the MDF core, @mkh1991.

Mitchell