• 1,2,3 Painting the sliding door in a bold, contrasting color highlights the unexpected quirkiness of employing a barn door indoors.
• 4 A regular door can be mounted on the barn door track in place of the standard swing hinge system.
• 5,6 We love the idea of using them in closets and pantries, especially in narrow, high-traffic hallways or kitchens where outward swinging doors are often awkward and inefficient. They are also an ideal alternative for system for spaces that would otherwise need a custom-sized door.
• 7,8,9 We especially love love the eye-catching industrial look of double barn style doors used indoors.
• 10,11 While we love the idea of an open floor plan, it's not always an ideal situation for a home of many. Because of they can be designed exceptionally wide, barn doors are a great solution for partitioning off areas when you need privacy.
• 12 We love the look of these sleek modern steel and glass doors in the rustic barn style form — this example is from Geoffrey Holton & Associates's design for a studio space in Berkeley, California.
To buy the hardware or to find more information about installing your own barn door system, check out Barn Door Hardware or Johnson's Hardware.
MORE BARN DOORS
•Sliding Barn Doors
• Barn Door Hardware
(Images: 1: Skona Hem, 2: Southern Living, 3: via delightbydesign, 4,5,9-12: Sunset, 6: Cottage Living, 7: via Jessekpeak, 8: via The Pioneer Woman)
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Great post! Love #s 1, 2, & 7.
view brittney's profile
Love #2!! Also love the bookshelf in the 1st one... where is that from???
view leen's profile
the doors always look great, the hardware almost always looks clunky and unattractive
view sousa609's profile
The bookshelf in #1 can be purchased from the Conran Shop....and I'd provide a link but the site is down!
view Aaron's profile
I'd love to know where you can get that sort of hardware. I LOVE the look!
view MODERnestS's profile
Does this really have much of an advantage over a pocket door? Other than cost?
view omamia's profile
I like the hideaway office in #5. Cool idea. Of course, I would kill for the house/patio of the last photo! lol
view dharmabum's profile
As far as "advantage," omamia, I think there are several:
1) Aesthetics: pocket doors tend to be plain and look like, well... doors. Of course you can have anything custom made, but with the track system you can use anything flat and large enough as a "door" whether it really is made for that or not. Going along with that, the tracks themselves lend a nice look for people who like that, which is not achieved with a pocket door.
2) Ease of installation. I'm sure they both have their tricky moments, but overall I'm guessing that the barn door is a way easier project than the pocket door... no wires or pipes or anything to worry about, everything is externally mounted and there is no trim work to have to do. I think your average handy person could probably mount one of these without too much trouble, but then again I've never actually done it.
view dharmabum's profile
Love the look and concept, and agree w/dharmabum that these do have advantages over pocket doors. Another advantage (if you love the look of your door): you get to see the door whether it's open or closed, unlike a pocket door (though I guess a disadvantage would be that, when open, it would hide anything that was hung on the wall behind it).
view mirandabee's profile
Sometimes a pocket door is impractical and is always difficult to install properly. We are thinking of doing this in our hallway. The hallway upstairs is quite narrow and currently the bath has some goofy bifold door that just isn't functional. A barn door will give that hallway some panache without taking up the room a regular swinging door would, and doesn't pose the installation issues that a pocket door would. This was a very timely post and I love #7.
view mntwmyn 's profile
Can you please post the link to #1? I went to the skonahem website and can't find it... Love the doors, am dying for the "allt kommer att bli bra" hanging.
view oliviadc's profile
Another advantage over pocket doors: you can't install a pocket door into a load bearing wall because of the studs.
The disadvantage is that you need a blank wall space for the barn door to be when it's open. However we have a barn door for our bathroom and just love it!
view ammanda's profile
Thanks for posting this. I want to get one of these but didn't know where to start looking?
I have a recessed pantry in our new Kitchen that looks very unsightly and the shelves do not match the rest of the kitchen. I want to have a panel door to slide in front of it to cover it along with all it's contents.
view RBOttawa's profile
Does anyone know if there's a place in DC that carries the hardware for this? Even more importantly--where do you get a barn door like these?
view karendc's profile
Yes, very timely post. We purchased a 670sq/ft house and the door to our bathroom takes up a lot of valuable real-estate in our living room so we've known since day one that a barn-door was in our future. However, finding resources for an indoor version was proving tricky. This will be very helpful.
view marymarymary's profile
I LOVE #2--does anyone know where I can find the bedding used?
view ajn0116's profile