Sliding Barn Door How-to

As you'll recall, I recently added a pantry to our dining area (the closest area to the kitchen) and I wanted it to look better than your average boring pantry or closet. The opening is 81 inches wide so instead of doing 2 huge closet doors, I opted for three smaller standard doors that I picked up from a local building materials recycling company.

 

I also wanted all three doors to roll to one side or the other so I could get to the maximum sized opening possible when I need to access the food inside.

The easy part of the project was attaching the two back doors which are each 28 inches wide. I used a standard closet track system and followed the instructions in the box. I did buy a nice one knowing it would be used many times daily but it was available at my local Home Depot so this should be easy for you to acquire.

Let's start with just the track setup.

My track is 96 inches long, I wanted it to run wider than the actual opening of the pantry.

Materials:

• 1 - 8 foot long 1x4 stain-grade lumber
• Stain of choice
• 6 - 4 inch long screws that match the stain on your wood
• 2 pieces of 4 feet by 1 1/2 inch by 1/4 inch steel (Lowe's or Home Depot). NOTE, this must be 1/4 inch if you're going to use the same garage door pulley I'm recommending. Of course, if you can get an 8 foot long piece that's 1 1/2 inch by 1/4 inch thick, go for that instead.
• 6 hex lag screw - 4 inch long, 1/4 inch diameter
• 30 standard washers - fits over 1/4 inch bolt/screw
• 6 fender washers - fits over 1/4 inch bolt/screw but larger outside diameter
• 2 strong nails, at least 2 inches long
• Black spray paint (if you want the look I used)

First, I stained an 8 foot long piece of 1x4 hemlock to match other wood in our house. I hung that up using matching screws secured into the studs. I positioned those screws so that they would be hidden by the steel track later but was mindful to avoid where the bolts would need to go. The front edge hangs 1 1/4 inches down from the finished opening to the pantry. This was low enough to hide the metal track but high enough so I could still remove the back doors for repairs if necessary.

Next came the actual steel track. It consists of two pieces of steel that I purchased at Lowe's that I spray painted flat black. Each piece is 48 inches long, 1 1/2 wide and 1/4 inch deep. I used my regular cordless drill and a good bit to drill three holes in each piece; 4 inches from either end and in the center.

Using lots of clamps, I positioned the steel bars one at a time, end-to-end and marked where I would need to pre-drill through the wood. I positioned the bar 1/2 inch down from the top. I liked the way this looked and it allowed ample clearance for the bolt that will go through the center of the wheel.

I took the steel back down and drilled 1/4 inch holes through the wood and into the studs (where I hit them). Since I screwed the wood into the studs in an earlier step, it isn't as necessary that the steel be attached to the studs, as long as it is securely attached to the stained wood piece.

Next, I stacked my materials as follows for each screw:

1. One four inch long, 1/4 inch hex lag screw
2. Standard washer
3. Steel bar
4. FOUR standard washers
5. One fender washer
6. Wood

The goal here is to have the center of the track as close to 3/8 from the wood as possible. This was what I determined would make my 1 3/8 inch thick hollow-core door hang straight and glide easily without hitting the other doors. I did a little bit of experimenting with this so if you're using the same materials I'm using, save yourself the balancing act. 

I found that I needed to get each one started just a little bit before I could tighten them all down. Remember also that you will have a little bit of wiggle room as you're tightening so take care to ensure your two tracks are perfectly aligned and butted up tightly against one another. I tapped mine with a hammer before fully tightening down all the screws and my doors glide easily over the intersection.

The last step is to create door stops. I wanted something really subtle so I used a nail that I tapped in until I felt like it was really secure and then I used a hack saw to cut the nail off and I painted it black to blend.

If anyone gets up a bunch of speed with the door, it will fly off the end most likely but I felt like it was secure enough in our household. If you don't feel like this would work in your home, perhaps try using an L bracket to stop the wheel.

Now let's move on to the wheels and the door

Materials:

• 2 - 3 inch garage door pulley kits - This idea came from ShabbyLisaW
• 6 standard washers to fit over the bolt included in the pulley kit
• 2 - 18 inch long by 2 inch wide steel flat bars (or 1 - 36 inch long one and a good hack saw)
• 4 - 1 inch long by 1/4 inch hex lag screws
• 4 standard washers to fit over the 1/4 inch hex lag screws
• Flat black spray paint (optional)
• Brown spray paint (optional)
• Glue that can adhere metal to wood 

I purchased one 36 inch long by 2 inch wide steel flat bar because I liked where the existing holes were positioned. If you can't find that, you can drill your own holes. The top hole should be an inch from the top of the bar to achieve the same look I have.

I spray painted all the bolts, washers, wheels and flat bars with a flat black spray paint then just lightly dusted over that with brown to soften the look a bit. Once the paint is dry, assemble the setup as follows:

1. Bolt from pulley kit
2. Standard washer
3. Steel flat bar
4. 2 standard washers
5. Pulley wheel
6. Nut included in pulley kit

The goal on this one was to set the center of the wheel 5/8 inch away from the flat bar. 

Next, I used clamps to position the bars on the door while in place. I checked to ensure it rolled smoothly from end-to-end, appropriate gap under the door (matched the other doors) and that it looked good from afar.

Once I liked where it was, I marked the placement very carefully, took the door off the track, and removed the clamps. Then I glued the bars to the door as marked and clamped them back down. Finally, I pre-drilled and screwed the 1 inch lag screws with washers into the door. The lower two didn't make a great connection but they went through glue so while they aren't highly functional, they are stuck in there for good.

I allowed the adhesive to dry per the instructions on the container then removed the clamps and hung the door.

HINT: If you find that you didn't get the bars glued into place exactly right and need to adjust how the door hangs, try loosening up the bolt through the pulley and adjust from up there. There is a little bit of wiggle room there.

Now stand back and enjoy how awesome your new barn door looks!

Thank you for reading,
Julie

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Upgrading the Passthrough (Awesome Produce Storage)

We recently purchased a Vitamix blender and have really been enjoying the benefits of daily smoothies. I've never consumed so much spinach in my life and I can really feel the difference in my energy level. If you've read this blog for awhile, you probably already know that our kitchen is pretty small so it has been frustrating trying to figure out where to store produce.

This worked a little bit:

But it didn't hold a whole lot and it seemed like when we really loaded it up, usually one of the chains would break, sending fruit cascading all over the kitchen.

This was another thing we tried but I don't think I have to explain why this isn't ideal:

Clean dishes, fruit, appliances ... sure, just toss it all in that back corner.

Then I turned to the new counter area:

I said to the hubs, "What if we get all the crap off this counter and move the Vitamix over here?"

And then it hit me ... what if we used the passthrough (that's what we call that section with the little wood shelves there above the counter) to hold our produce?!?!? We could put plexiglass on the living room side then create bins tilting towards the kitchen side. Not only would it hold a lot of produce but it would look great from the living room side.

I headed off to Home Depot to get materials. As usual, they didn't have quite what I had in mind so I started wandering the aisles (I do love going there after the kids are in bed so I can think in peace). I ended up with a $10 roll of hardware cloth, some industrial strength staples for the staple gun, a bunch of stainable wood trim, a large piece of plexiglass and some stain. OK, I can't lie, it took three trips to HD to get all that stuff (the project just kept changing but that's OK, it is literally 1.5 miles from our house).

Here's the end result:

Here's the view from the living room side:

How did I create these baskets? I took some detail photos and can walk you through how I did it using 1/2 inch hardware cloth and some tin snips (you could also use wire cutters but these made short work of the longer cuts).

First, I measured how deep I wanted each basket to be. This was based upon my ability (as the shorter adult in the family) to reach over the counter and into the basket to the level a piece of fruit might be. I then added 1 inch extra to be folded down at the top:

And I added 4 inches extra to be folded in at the bottom to form the bottom of each basket:

I used the existing curve already molded into the hardware cloth from how it had been rolled so I wouldn't be fighting that. Once I had it cut to length, I placed it in the compartment it would eventually be secured to and determined the width of the piece. I wanted each basket to stick out 3 inches at the most so I held it in place and marked where I should cut it for width and used my tin snips to trim it down.

Next, I used my pliers to carefully fold over and pinch down the top edge so there wouldn't be any rough edges to catch our arms as we reached for things.

I then folded the bottom in at the 4 inch mark. I counted in 10 squares from each side then trimmed up to the 4 inch mark with my tin snips. I continued to count 10 squares in on each side from the previous cut until I reached the center. Make sure you work from each side, not just from one side to the other or you may not end up with symmetrical cuts.

Then I used my staple gun to staple the vertical sides of the basket into the wood cubby and carefully layered in the base and stapled the bajeebers out of it so it would stay in place. Finally, I cut non-adhesive shelf liner to fit in the bottom of each basket to keep the fruit up off the wood and away from any possible rough edges remaining in the bottom of the baskets. I used a frosted variety that is hardly noticeable.

Once the baskets were in place, I cut the plexiglass to size using my Dremel Trio and added trim to coordinate with existing trim. Unfortunately I was unable to get the stain to match perfectly but it is close enough for our house which honestly doesn't have the best lighting so when there isn't a camera flash highlighting the difference, it really isn't all that obvious.

We are so thrilled with how this turned out and I feel like I've found a new medium to work with. The hardware cloth is inexpensive and easy to work with and the results are really lovely. I could see how one could pretty easily create baskets attached to walls and cabinets and many other applications. it is sturdy, affordable and attractive - can't beat that!

Wow, what a difference!!


Thank you for reading,
Julie


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Another Kitchen Update

I guess it's natural that a room I spend so much time in gets my attention so often. I grew restless with the kitchen yet again and set out to make some updates. I'm going to take you through a little recap first though.

Our kitchen just after we bought the house:

I removed the microwave shelf (above dishwasher) and added bookshelves, changed out the cabinet hardware and laid peel-and-stick tile to cover the ugly scratched vinyl flooring:

Our kitchen after a lengthy low budget (under $400) remodel that I did:

Then I redid the counters using paint:

And the latest - I picked up a doorless base cabinet for free off of Craigslist, built doors, added a fake drawer front and built an upper cabinet to match all the rest of the cabinets.

         

 I also cut a hole in the butcher block counter top (from Ikea) to hold two containers.

I was thinking that these could hold ingredients when I'm working on a big project or waste when I'm prepping (I can just slide stuff off to the right and they'll fall right into the bins). I've already used one to hold flour as I was kneading the dough for our Thanksgiving dinner rolls.

That base cabinet more than doubled the storage space I had in that area which is really exciting for me. Our kitchen obviously isn't very big so I need to make the best of every square inch. I also love having an additional upper cabinet that now holds many of the bulk ingredients I use in so much of my cooking.

The project was really frustrating with lots of little adjustments along the way but in the end, I'm glad I pushed through the frustrations and now have 4 more feet of useful counter space with lots of new storage.

Thank you for reading,
Julie

I've Missed Blogging

What can I say, I've missed blogging. I vanished because there was suddenly so much to do, I couldn't get anything totally finished and didn't feel right blogging about unfinished business. I'm going to walk you through how I get myself deep into too many projects all happening at once. Let's begin with the problem ...

Here's what my kitchen looked like after I redid it (but before I did the faux granite counter tops):

I picked this picture to show you because over on the left is a rolling cart that was about 12 inches deep with a full depth butcher block top on it so I would have additional counter space. The storage was really inadequate though so I always had it in the back of my head that I would someday remedy that problem. Well, one day I got sick of that and the fact that the counter was always covered in junk (mail, laptop, more mail, bills, kid artwork, etc) and got to really dreaming which led me to an internet search for a cabinet desk. I found a beautiful one that would go great with our existing decor but they were out of stock so I was crushed. But wait! I kept checking and a week later, suddenly they had one online so I ordered it then waited very impatiently for it to arrive. As soon as it got here, I put it together then stood back to admire its awesomeness.

 

(I love it)

Well, that was all fine and good because I did manage to get that crap counter cleaned off but then I started dreaming of more kitchen storage which led me to Craigslist where I discovered the perfect sized base cabinet someone was giving away for free!! I jumped on it and brought this home:

OK, well, not exactly. The one I brought home didn't have any doors.

I should add this was all happening while I was getting the boys' costumes ready for Halloween. In case you missed it, here's a picture:

OK, back to cabinet making. I painted the cabinet to match my kitchen and built out the doors then painted those too. Unfortunately I realized I couldn't do 2 fake drawer fronts so I scrapped those and still need to create one long one to be consistent with the rest of my kitchen.

Here's the baby helping me get it loaded up:

I'm so excited about how much extra space there is in it and will be blogging about the process of custom building a cabinet or two when I'm finally done but you see, once I got that in (and not even finished mind you), I decided I needed to build an upper cabinet that I'd long been dreaming of. Here's the logic behind starting that part of the project before finishing the bottom cabinet: I needed more wood to do the fake drawer front so instead of just buying enough wood for that, I might as well get a whole sheet of MDF and use the rest of it to make the top cabinet.

Of course, I built it to fit in the space then found out that the side of our fridge bows out so I had to get a little creative with installation but at least I painted it before having the hubs lift it into place 'cause it was a tad heavy.

Sigh, I have to make a door for that now too but at least my stuff is loaded in and that's really handy.

Oh, hey, I forgot to mention .... besides Halloween costumes, we also had a garage sale where we made just enough money to cover the cost of replacing the shelter we borrowed from a friend for the garage sale (groan) and we also *finally* got the new driveway we've been waiting all summer for.

Phew!!! We dabbled a little in side yard progress but not a whole lot. The weather has turned mostly nasty so we haven't done much over there. We did have the driveway guys pour a slab at the back of the garden where we can put the "Crapport Memorial Pergola" but it is out of sight in this picture since the cement is still curing.

Oh, one other thing - I got a screamin' deal on 25lbs of zucchini at Cash and Carry so I prepped all that for freezing:

Soooooo, if you'll recall, the inside project all began because I was irritated by all the crap sitting on that one counter so I'd like to leave you with one final picture:

Yeah, that's totally better. (In my own defense, most of the stuff up there pertains to the project but still, when will the chaos end?)

Thank you for reading,
Julie

Guess the Project

Now what have I gotten myself into?

Care to take a guess?

Thank you for reading,
Julie

Countertops Complete

We recently took a vacation to visit my family in St. Louis, MO, for a week. Before heading out, I knew I had my perfect opportunity to paint the rest of the counters so they could cure for that entire week without us being inconvenienced. It was a real treat to come home to. We've since settled back in to using the counters so I opted not to fully stage the kitchen before taking pictures. I figured it would be more telling to see the counters in action anyway.

Just for fun, I'm going to show you a series of pictures of our kitchen from where it was before I started tinkering with it a few years ago to now.

It started here:

Then in the Summer of 2010, I took it upon myself to refinish the cabinets. That turned into adding trim to the cabinet doors, moving the dishwasher, uninstalling "the amber wall", installing a new light fixture and a myriad of other little tasks but in the end, the change was HUGE:

Then I tried to paint the counters using a paint designed just for that purpose and it was a huge fail. That left me a little cautious about moving forward with any budget fixes to the ugly countertops. They weren't horrible so I convinced myself to just live with them as they were ...

... until a friend painted her counters using craft paint with a glossy topcoat and I couldn't get the idea out of my head. I attacked my counters with wall paint left from other projects and bought a can of Minwax Polycrylic to give it that freshly polished granite shine. The end result:

Yep, I pretty much love the darker counters and I'm really excited to have granite-look counters ... at a glance anyway.

Here's how you can do your own faux-granite countertops.

Oh, and in case you're a detail person and noticed that our fridge changed, yes, I (with a little help) hauled the garage fridge into the kitchen because I decided just a few days ago that I wanted a side-by-side fridge. Added bonus - it has the in-door ice dispenser. Yeah, we're really getting high-tech here.

Thank you for reading,
Julie

Granite Countertops - Yippee!

I mentioned that I started an indoor project in the last post and promised to let you in on the secret so here it is: I'm painting our kitchen counters to look like granite. You might recall that awhile back, I tried to use the Rustoleum countertop paint (the cheap one-can variety, not the big expensive kit) and had horrible results. Well, I'm remedying that situation in a big way. I was inspired by a friend who painted her counters using basic craft paint then added a glossy finish with the Minwax Polyacrylic clear coat which is water based so it won't leach chemical flavors into our food like the Rustoleum product did.

Here's how I did it:

1) I started by cleaning the countertops using a deglosser to ensure all grime was removed. This product also takes the place of sanding when you're starting a project like this.

(the clip is there to give my camera something to focus on)

2) Next, I primed the countertop with Kilz primer. I use the one with the green on the label because it is low voc and low odor.

3) Then I started sponging on the colors I had chosen. I used containers of paint from other projects throughout the house. I liked the idea of keeping the colors consistent with the rest of our decor. I even used the left over cabinet paint as my light color.

I'll admit, I stood back at this and wondered what I had started. It looked a whole lot like baby poop sponge painted on a counter. I decided to walk away from it to let it dry so I didn't mix the colors together any further.

4)  I returned and put a blob of each color I was using onto one paper plate then resumed the sponge painting.

Here's what the paper plate looked like after awhile:

And here's what the counter looked like:

That's much better!!

5) I let that dry over night, added a little veining here and there then brushed on a light coat of Minwax Polyacrylic glossy clear topcoat. I allowed that to dry for 2 hours then sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper. I repeated this process about 8 times as the sponge painted layers were more textured than I wanted them to be so I had to even out the top coat. In the end, I was thrilled with the final result.

Here it is without a bunch of shadows (a bit dark but the shine photographs better with the light coming from the next room rather than overhead):

Following the advice of a friend who refinishes furniture, I'm going to allow the poly topcoat a week to dry before we put stuff back on the counter. Once this counter is functional again, I'll attack the other side of the kitchen which holds three times this much counter space (it's a tiny kitchen but still lots to paint). I'm beyond excited to have updated counters and love how this finish turned out.

Thank you for reading,
Julie

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