15 DIY Barn Door Plans You Can Build Today (With Pictures)

Barn doors have an attractive, rustic appearance that many people like to use to decorate their homes. These doors are durable and not that difficult to build if you have a good saw and some extra lumber laying around. If you want to save money and improve your skills by building a barn door, you’ve come to the right place. We are going to list several plans that you can follow or take inspiration from when building a barn door for your structure. For each one, we’ll provide you with a short description and a picture, so you have a better idea about if it will be right for you.

The Top 15 DIY Barn Door Plans

1. DIY Modern Sliding Barn Door from DIY Huntress

Difficulty: Easy

The DIY Modern Sliding Barn Door is easy to build and even easier to use once you install it. The door attaches to a track to hang and slide open and closed without much effort. You can finish the door with a stain or paint to match your structure. They demonstrate each step on a YouTube video, so it is easy to follow and understand.

2. DIY Wooden Barn Door and Baby Gate from Remodelaholic

Difficulty: Moderate

The DIY Wooden Barn Door and Baby Gate from Remodelaholic is an amazing door that features a retro split design. The top and bottom of the door work independently, allowing you to keep the bottom closed but the top open so you can see into the room while keeping pets and children contained. Since your measurements need to be extremely accurate, we put this plan in the moderate difficulty pile, but it’s not bad if you have patience and measure correctly.

3. Beautiful Barn Door from Hip and Humble Style

Difficulty: Easy

The Beautiful Barn Door from Hip and Humble Style is an incredibly easy yet attractive barn door that you can build with only a few stools. You don’t need to make any angle cuts, so you can use almost any saw, and the resulting doo is durable and sturdy. It looks great painted or stained, and most people can have it finished in a single day.

4. Sliding Barn Door from The Decor Formula

Difficulty: Moderate

The Sliding Barn Door from The Decor Formula is another sliding door that is easy to use and works well in many situations, and the designer shows you how to build it for less than $100. The door hangs on a large pipe, so it’s extremely durable, and the door is thick enough to block noise, but the rail makes it easy for even a child to open it. Once you have the hardware, you should finish this project in a day or two.

5. DIY Barn Door from Gathered In The Kitchen

Difficulty: Easy

The DIY Barn Door from Gathered In The Kitchen aims to help people without a lot of woodworking experience. This barn door only requires a few cuts and results in a barn door that is surprisingly sturdy. You can finish it with stain or paint, and since it is so easy, you’ll find yourself building a few of them.

6. DIY Barn Door from Cabana State of Mind

Difficulty: Beginner

The DIY Barn Door from Cabana State of Mind is another fantastic plan for people without a lot of experience woodworking.  There are no angled cuts, so you can make it with a hand saw if that is all you need, and most of the lumber is easy to get pre-cut at your favorite home improvement store. It’s the same size as a standard door, so it is extremely versatile.

7. DIY Modern Barn Door from A Great Traveled Life

Difficulty: Beginner

The DIY Modern Barn Door from A Great Traveled Life is another plan to help beginners create a professional-looking barn door for their home. This design results in an attractive and durable door that’s suitable for any room in your home. Finishing with paint helps ensure it doesn’t distract from the rest of your home. Instructions are in video form, so they are easy to follow.

8. DIY Z Barn Door from MJC Hardware

Difficulty: Moderate

The DIY Z Barn Door from MJC Hardware is a fun-to-build project that we put on the moderately difficult pile due to the challenging angle cuts required on the center support board, but with patience and careful measurements, beginners shouldn’t have any problems. The resulting door is about the same size as many standard doors, and it looks great as a bedroom or garage entrance door.

9. Beginner Barn Door from Gathered In The Kitchen

Difficulty: Beginner

The Beginner Barn Door from Gathered in The Kitchen is the second project from these guys on our list due to the high-quality results we’ve achieved and how easy it is to follow their instructions. This door is durable, attractive, and versatile. It uses different kinds of wood for an improved appearance, and all supplies are easy to find at your favorite home improvement store.

You might also be interested in: 20 DIY Cedar Wood Projects You Can Build Today

10. DIY Barn Door from Jenny Weg

Difficulty: Easy

The DIY Barn Door from Jenny Weg shows you how to complete your project for only $50. The instructions include a full list of supplies, and the instructions are easy to follow and well written. There are no difficult angle cuts, and we finished our door in a single day.

11. Double Pantry Barn Door from Designing Vibes

Difficulty: Advanced

The Double Pantry Barn Door is one of the more complex projects on this list so far, but we are confident that most of our readers will be successful. This project provides you with a great way to close a wide area like a closet, pantry, or growing room. The doors swing open, and you operate them with large steel handles. We found a huge selection of handles at the local hardware store to customize the plan and make it even more fun to build.

12. Surprisingly Simple Barn Door from Domestic Blonde

Difficulty: Beginner

The Surprisingly Simple Barn Door from Domestic Blonde is a great project that allows you to build a barn-style replacement door using very few tools and materials. A large sheet of plywood replaces many individual boards so you can complete this project in just a few hours.

13. Pallet Wood Barn Door from Ana White

Difficulty: Beginner

The Pallet Wood Barn Door from Ana White shows you how to make your barn door from recycled pallets that you can often find for little or no cost. It’s an easy-to-build project that will only take a few hours once you locate a few pallets. We painted ours, and it looked amazing and cost almost nothing.

Related Read: 56 DIY Wood Pallet Ideas (with Pictures)

14. Rolling Barn Door from Remodelaholic

Difficulty: Beginner

The Rolling Barn Door from Remodelaholic is a fun-to-build door that improves upon the sliding door design that we’ve seen a few times on this list. This plan uses caster wheels on the bottom to make the doors more stable and even easier to open and close. Besides the wheels and track, you will only need a few supplies, and there are no difficult angle cuts.

15. Sliding Barn Door from Overlin Designs

Difficulty: Advanced

The Sliding Barn Door from Overlin Designs is one of the most attractive doors on this list, but it’s also the most expensive and difficult to build. However, the result is well worth the effort, and we think you’ll be glad you chose this one when it’s finished. You can finish it in several ways, but the stained wood helps it look more authentic.

Summary

There are several great plans on this list, and the vast majority of them are easy enough that someone without a lot of experience or tools can build them. We recommend starting with either the Beginner Barn Door from Gathered in the Kitchen or the Surprisingly Simple Barn Door Plan from Domestic Blonde for most people as a first project to test the waters. If supplies are a problem, you can find pallets behind many grocery stores, and the manager will likely sell them to you or let you take them. Once you have pallets, you can practice by building the Pallet Wood Barn Door from Ana White.

You might also be interested in: 15 DIY Pantry Cabinet Plans You Can Build Today (With Pictures)

Featured Image Credit: Pixabay