Create Your Own DIY Barn Doors Without Breaking Your Budget

If you’re a DIY guru—or even if you’re not—adding a barn-style door to your house is a beautiful and functional update. And, you can make a barn door without spending hundreds on pricey wood and vintage metal fixtures. The most expensive part of the project will be the actual doors, but you can always get recycled wood or antique doors at a architectural salvage stores or antique stores. Hardware stores also sell nice, cheap wooden doors online.

Here’s what you need to make your own beautiful barn door.

1. The Hardware

You have a few options for the hardware for your DIY barn door. You can purchase a barn door kit, like this one from Barn Doors & Hardware for $198. Or, if you want to really commit to the DIY-ing, then you can buy each of the specific parts and some cool pipes from a hardware store. Thankfully, Kristi at Addicted 2 Decorating compiled a complete list of all the parts you’ll need for a barn-style sliding door. Her version of the kit came to just $60.

2. The Doors

Like the hardware, you also have a lot of options for how you can get the doors for your barn doors. If you’re on a super tight budget, but you’re ready for quite the DIY project, then you can build your own doors.

Leslie at Paper Daisy Design built three contemporary, four-panel barn doors for $150. Yep. Talk about an update on a budget. Find her step-by-step process here. You can also make the doors yourself from shipping pallets. The wood is virtually already cut for you, and you can stain them any color of your choice. Find a shipping pallet tutorial by Crates and Pallet at Instructables.

If you aren’t really interested in building the physical door from scratch because you’ve got lots of Netflix to watch (hey, there’s no shame in that game), then you can purchase doors that are already done and paint them or stain them a color of your choice. Home Depot sells plain, hardwood doors online for about $42 each here. Or you can visit your local salvage or antique store to find something that looks more vintage.

Or, if you really don’t mind dropping a pretty penny on your beautiful, rustic home update, then buy a custom or vintage barn-style door online. They start at around $250 and climb as high as $2,000 per door.

3. Consider Decorating Your Door

Add some kind of quirky rustic element to your door, or maybe even think about putting glass panes in them if you’re not necessarily using them for privacy. It’s your DIY project, and you can go all out if you want to.