It’s difficult to mask the excitement surrounding events such as: birthdays, anniversaries, or any momentous occasion that warrants an excuse to pamper someone you care about. Material gifts and extravagant dinner plans themselves are rarely what makes these moments so special; it’s the element of surprise. The thoughtfulness of an action, the meaning behind a gift, the not knowing what someone has in store for you, or if they have anything planned at all. Surprises are truly a special thing in a marriage, friendship or relationship of any sort, unless of course whoever you are planning to surprise is not a huge fan of them…All the more reason to do a fantastic job if say, you are planning to replace a sliding barn door while your wife is away for ten days.

Inspiration for the Project

Every house, no matter how perfectly suited to your personality and needs, has that one tiny element that irks you. Whether it’s an accent window placed a little too high up, or a compartment for a fridge built too close to your kitchen island; it can often be the single barrier between you and aesthetic bliss. In this case it’s a barn door that, though it might have its own place stylistically in a more rustic setting (think 50’s log cabin in a wooded area), is not in line with the overall modernity of the rest of the home.

The Goal

The aim here is to replace an outdated sliding barn door, featuring dark, exposed hardware, with one that has no visible mechanisms and showcases the beautiful simplicity of its surroundings. The time and effort put into this project must yield a new door within ten days for the surprise to be just that… a surprise.

Materials

The main component for this sliding door project, like any woodworking project, is the right wood for the job. For this door, steamed Walnut boards were chosen for both the way Walnut’s natural grain will interact with the final finishing products, and how it will foster a uniform colour throughout the door. (Pro tip: Without the proper tools at home things like jointing and planing can be extremely difficult. Asking your local lumber supplier for S4S wood or “sanded four sides” can save you a ton of time and effort and will provide you with any dimensions of boards you need.)

Joining the Walnut

To begin, the collection of boards were manipulated using a planer, jointer and table saw to ensure that each board had the proper thickness and width, and to create two straight edges on the outsides of the boards. Next, the boards needed to be joined. Note:When watching the video for this door build you may notice the use of tools such as: the Festool Domino during the joining of the Walnut boards. Though this is not a tool readily available in everyone’s shop, it is important to know that the use of dominos for this type of joining is not crucial. The wood glue itself is strong enough to hold the wood together and the dominos in this situation were used to maintain alignment.

A Visit to Creative Woodworking NW

Once the boards had rested in the clamps for roughly 24 hours and the glue had set, it was time to load the door up to take a quick trip to Creative Woodworking NW to use their wide-belt sander. Including the help of an employee this cost about $75 and left enough time to square up the door with their sliding table saw. Commercial spaces like these allow woodworkers access to an incredible amount of equipment and expertise. Blacktail Studio has created a website called Makerbook to help you find commercial spaces like these near you.

Hardware Difficulties

With the door beginning to take its full form it was time to begin installing the hidden hardware responsible for the smooth hanging, opening and closing of the door. The chosen Milcasa hardware presented unexpected difficulties due to the lack of included instructions and ultimately some variations on the installation were required. One of the crucial elements of this door was that its hardware would remain hidden, so rather than following the instructions “to a T”, a large notch was created in the back of the door. The notch left a 1/4” of Walnut on both sides, allowing the hardware to rest inside, without disrupting the continual wood grain on the outside of the door.

Holed Up

Drilling into the wall to install the brackets that would ultimately hang the door presented a worrisome issue when a black tube behind the drywall was punctured. After a very nervous phone call to the utility company, some reassurance that it was not a gas line and a minor ventilation tube repair, the project carried on. If you feel resistance when drilling, don’t push.

Finishing

Apart from making the decision to use some playing cards to shim one of the floor-level wheels and a bit of drywall TLC, the door was ready to hang. However, before it was ready to be hung up for its timely reveal, the door needed finishing. To stain the steamed Walnut, a half and half mixture of Rubio Monaco Walnut and Monaco Pier was used. This mixture allowed a less pushy, subtly dark tone to accent the real Walnut. Without a handle this door is susceptible to the inevitability of dirty hands. Blacktail Studio’s N3 Nano coating was used to protect the door from any dirt or wear, while providing it with a clear sheen.

The Big Reveal

Elana showing up a day early was only a minor misstep in an otherwise entirely successful surprise.

The updated sliding barn door’s reveal took place the next day and did not disappoint! To see her reaction to the brand new door, how to do things the easy way vs. the hard way and the rest of the building and installation process you can check out the full video here.

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Barn Door Surprise