Barn Door Designs - Buying Guide

Traditional doors are an expected fixture of any room, known for the function more than their style. For a lively contrast, barn doors provide privacy, security, and charm. Interior barn door designs don’t swing out into the room. They are always flat against the wall, like a piece of art, and that visual trick makes them unique. 

There are many different types of barn doors to make these barriers interesting. It’s all about what looks good in your home.

Elevate Your Home Design

Designer Lauren O’Donnell opted to use an old door from storage for a new purpose with a recent bathroom remodel for Build.com. “Barn doors are a great way to elevate the design of a space,” she said about the choice. Here are some designer tips on how to incorporate barn door ideas into your home.

Choose the Perfect Color

The size, material, or color of barn doors can influence how large or small the room appears to be. A solid-color door may appear to take up extra space, while a door with painted accents can draw attention with a little personality. Interior barn door ideas can add visual weight and interest to the room.

Natural Materials

While barn doors are often painted, a stained wood door stands out against a cool-toned wall to add interest. Natural wood is a great accent to any space, the grain offering colors and patterns that catch the eye, just like artwork. 

In an airy sunroom, a glass panel barn door hung from barn door hardware can add modern minimalist flare as well as help delineate rooms. Even glass panels can offer the appearance of privacy without interrupting an open floorplan.

The Right Size Door

Smaller versions of the design can be used as cupboard doors, to display the contents inside. Alternately, simple, small wood panel barn door designs can hide bookshelf clutter. Use the narrow fit of barn door hardware to help hide hallway closets without taking up excess walking space. There’s no limit to the creative applications of barn doors.

A single track can accommodate more than one barn door, which can make the room seem larger. A track hung across the entire length of a wall can use multiple doors to add visual breaks between entry points. This creates the same balanced appearance as window shutters, and the panels can slide together to close off the entryway.

Door Styles

With wood frame barn doors, there are different types of barn doors to help accent the theme of the rooms where they are installed. The popular shaker-style design is built into the structure of the door to create a unique look.

Plank Doors - Interior barn door design can be as simple as boards mounted inside a lock rail frame, such as with plank doors. The boards that make up plank barn doors can run horizontally to create a shorter, smaller profile, or vertically, to add height to the room.

British Brace Doors - Inspired by the flag of Great Britain, British brace barn door designs have decorative panels that form the crisscross Union Jack when placed side by side. The outside frame of a British brace barn door is accented by two diagonal panels that connect in the center to a third board called a lock rail crossing horizontally over the center of the door.

Z-brace Doors - A simple variation on the plank door, z-brace barn doors have a single diagonal panel that runs from one top corner to the opposite bottom corner of the door. The planks of the door can run either horizontal or vertical, while the diagonal cross panel runs vertically.

The Functional Benefits of Barn Doors

Barn doors, like standard doors, are designed to divide two spaces. The only difference is that the barn door slides along the wall rather than swinging into the room. 

Even when it isn’t being used, a traditional door requires a full 180-degree sweep across the floor. While barn door designs require the full use of a wall space, they protrude only a few inches into the room from that wall. Utilizing barn door design ideas allows the space to look and feel open and uncluttered, even freeing up an area around the doorway that can be used as a walking path or for furniture. 

Barn doors hang from a track, so there has to be enough gap between the door and the wall for the barn door hardware to move smoothly, but they can still be arranged to block access entirely just the same as a regular door. Different types of barn doors are helpful as moveable walls, and locking hardware is available to keep a room secure. 

The size of the doorway can be limited by sliding the barn door partially closed, or the barn door can be hidden away along the wall for full doorway access. Barn doors can be used to divide an open space into individual rooms to offer privacy by closing an area off. One barn door can hang between two access points, such as closets or hallways, serving as a door for one at a time, or as a decorative accent.

Bring Home the Look

All it takes to incorporate barn door designs into your own home is the wall space and the right hardware. Lauren and the Build.com team recycled an old door that had been retired to storage to give a room a whole new look. You can remove an existing traditional door and repurpose it as a barn door, or buy a shaker style door brand new. 

What to Shop For

• A door, or doors, depending on the size of the door opening and the room. 
• A track to install against the wall above the door.
• Hanging hardware to mount the door onto the track.
• Floor guide to keep the door moving smoothly on the track.
• Endstops to prevent the door hardware from overrunning the end of the track.

Before You Buy

There are a few details to make sure are accounted for before you buy a new barn door or barn door hardware for your home. Here’s a quick overview of what you’ll need to know before you shop.

Check the Location

• Make sure there’s plenty of room for the door to slide along the wall you plan to install it on. 
• The wall should be free of obstructions for the entire width of the door.
• Don’t hang a door over electrical outlets or light switches. Even temporary obstructions along the wall could derail the door from the track and result in injury. Sliding doors also have the potential to damage electrical cords plugged into outlets along their path.

Take Measurements

The door should cover the entryway or closet space entirely, so you don’t want to just eyeball it and hope for the best. Grab the tape measure and take some notes. 

• The barn door must be installed into the structural support of the wall directly, so make sure the doorway can actually support the weight and movement of a barn door before you commit to the project.
• Make sure you can find the door header and support posts using a stud-finder. 
• Measure the size of the doorway height and width. If there’s trim on the doorway, measure from the outermost edge of the trim.

Match the Space

If you intend to use a natural wood barn door, make sure you choose a wood species and color that will match any existing accents in the room or hallway where it will be installed. Coordinate the barn door hardware finishes with the other hardware in the room, such as door knobs, locks, or the lighting fixtures.