Creating A Barn Door-DIY Project

If you have been following my posts you know that my friend and I harvested a number of hardwood trees last year. These were fallen trees that were slated to be ground into pulp. Many of them were white oaks, and so I decided to give them a new life by processing them into wood planks. Some of those planks were created from imperfect wood and were not suitable for flooring, but they were very interesting and unique in their grain. I didn’t want to use them as firewood, as they had so much character. Instead, I decided to give them a new life by turning them into a barn style door. This doors will close a large shallow closet that in a basement music room. See the photos below for my construction progress.

The boards were secured on a plywood sheet that served as a substrate.
I used a flooring adhesive to make sure that they were well stuck.
Sections were clamped down after glueing.
The planks had many gaps and knotholes which I filled with an epoxy resin.
Filling some of the imperfections with epoxy.
A torch was used to remove any bubbles in the resin. You do this using very short blasts of heat.
A floor scraper was used to remove excess resin.
Then I used a sander to refine the area.
For fun, I secured this Canadian penny in a knothole.
I continued to build the doors one plank at a time.
A rotary saw and its rail were used to make the “X” pattern in the doors.
Barn door hardware was attached to each panel.
Almost ready to mount!
Here is the shallow closet that they will enclose. Note that the rail is already in place.
The door mounted. It gives the room a completely unique and customized look. The wood will eventually be finished, likely using linseed oil.