Oh my word, friends! I did it!! I finally finished hanging Lauryn’s sliding barn door! I don’t know about you guys, but when I have something I am dreading, I will find any and everything else to do to avoid it! Clean all the kitchen cabinets, inside and out–Check! Wipe down all the baseboards–Done! De-Ice and thoroughly sanitize the freezer we rarely use in the garage–That’s next! No! I have to get this door hung! And I did! And it honestly, wasn’t that bad!
Give me a building project any day! Give me something to assemble and follow directions on…tomorrow! Not my cup of tea. So when I was challenged by Everbilt Hardware to NOT call Max (my handyman) and, rather, tackle this sliding barn door myself, I began to break out in hives….No, not really. I accepted the challenge.
It was fun to peruse through all of the many choices of sliding door hardware available from Everbilt. I finally decided on this one…Stainless Steel Decorative Sliding Door Hardware (model #60012).
I’ve always stuck with black hardware, so it was kinda fun to change things up a bit. And the stainless steel definitely fit with the style I was going for in Lauryn’s room.
While waiting for the sliding door hardware to arrive from Home Depot, I built and painted the barn door for Lauryn’s room….
Barn doors are honestly my favorite thing to build. They are so easy and add so much character to any room. A conversation piece through and through. I have an easy to follow, step by step tutorial on how to build your own sliding barn door right here on the blog. My obvious obsession for these things shines through in my home. Three of them! With plans to hang many more….
And now that I have tried my hand at hanging one by myself, I will never hire Max to do this again! Sorry Max 🙁 There’s just no need. It really was simple. And why pay someone to do this, when I can do it!
My first inclination was to scrub the internet for a YouTube tutorial on “how to hang a sliding barn door”. But I honestly didn’t find one that caught my eye. So I resorted to following the paper instructions provided by Everbilt. I should have looked at those first, because they were actually very descriptive and easy to follow. So let’s dive into this….
HOW TO HANG A SLIDING BARN DOOR:
STEP ONE: Measure up from the floor the length of the door plus an inch and a quarter.
Using a level, draw a horizontal line, the length of the sliding door track…
STEP TWO: Secure a 2×4 across the center of the line you drew in Step One. Be sure to drill your screws into studs, so as to ensure the tracking can sustain the weight of the door. Because of the board and batten wall treatment, I had to cut 2×4’s to fit in between each vertical board on Lauryn’s wall…
STEP THREE: Measure from the floor again…Length of door PLUS 1 3/4 inch (to allow door plenty of floor clearance to slide smoothly). Draw another leveled horizontal line.
STEP FOUR: Drill pilot holes…This part is kind of a 2-man job, at least for this girl…those tracks are heavy! So, I actually solicited my son, Chase’s, help with this. Holding the track, mark with a pencil where each of your pilot holes will go. Be sure to use a level to ensure your track is straight. Then drill your pilot holes.
HUGE TIP: Paint your boards at this point to match your walls. Much easier to do it before your track is attached!!! I can’t stress this enough because I didn’t do that and had to be very meticulous in painting around the track. NOT EASY!!
One more…HUGE TIP: Slide your door stoppers on each end of the track before attaching your sliding door track. Unfortunately, we didn’t think to do this and therefore only have one door stopper on the track. We were not able to add the other door stopper because it was already tight up against the corner wall. Thankfully, because it’s up against the corner wall, the door isn’t going anywhere. But it would be better to have the door stop on there to give the door a smooth stopping point.
STEP FIVE: Ready to attach the sliding door track… I found it easiest to keep Chase handy for one more task—holding the track while I screwed the center bolt in first. Once the center of the track was attached, I could easily line it up with the remaining holes and screw in the last 3 bolts….
Now your track is hung!! Notice the bare wood…remember the HUGE TIP earlier. At this point, you’re happy you already followed that advice. 🙂
STEP SIX: Ready to move onto adding the hardware to the door…Determine where you want your hangars to be attached to the door. Then ensure that you have about an inch and a half space between the door and the wheel. For me, that was 6 inches….
Make sure your hangar is straight and mark your holes….
Drill your pilot holes….
Screw in your bolts…
STEP SEVEN: Now you are ready to hang the door. The EASIEST step of the entire process. Pick up your door and place the wheels on the track. It’s that simple!!
To keep your door from swinging out when opening and closing it, attach the floor guide to the floor. Ensure that you have enough space for the door to slide through with ease….
You cannot even imagine my excitement once this thing was hanging and sliding effortlessly. I remodeled Lauryn’s room from floor to ceiling, (you can see the before pictures here) but to accomplish this…I felt like I had conquered the world. To say that I was a bit intimidated in taking on this challenge is an understatement. But I am so grateful that I did. It was probably one of the easiest projects I have taken on.
Let’s just say, adding the door pull was ten times harder than hanging this door. Who would have thought? But that task took enormous muscle power. Crazy! I’ll save that story for another post.
But I do love the finished look of this stainless steel door pull….
And Lauryn’s room….
With the barn door…
Perfect…
As always, feel free to email me with any questions. I love to help people realize we can do this stuff!! Let’s figure it out together!
Until next time,
Happy Building!!
Huge thank you to Home Depot Everbilt for providing me with this sliding door hardware and the push of confidence to install it on my own.
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