Elmer Jacobi
These DIY bifold barn doors are beautiful and affordable! This post contains affiliate links, as a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to amazon.com and affiliated sites at no cost to you.
Learn how I made these DIY bifold barn doors with this easy tutorial.
You can build this right over your existing bifold doors which makes this a very easy and affordable project.
If you hired a company to custom make these for you it would be hundreds of dollars! We live in a home from the 80s with the lovely shutter style dark wood bifold closet doors.
Adding these DIY barn doors made it look so much better and updated the house instantly! Tips For Adding Bifold Barn doors To Your Home We used thin underlayment plywood 4 foot by 8-foot sheets.
(Number of sheets depends on the size of your doors) 4′ by 8′ plywood at 1/5″ thickness Circular saw: for cutting pieces to different lengths. – We bought a battery-operated nail gun and use it all the time. Wood filler (This is optional, I didn’t mind my nail holes and just embraced the rustic look)
You can purchase through the links above or from your local hardware store like Lowes and Home Depot. Always layout your cut pieces on top of the existing door first to make sure everything fits and looks good before you glue anything down.
Once you have all the pieces cut and have verified they all fit and look nice, it is time to start assembling the door. The next step, apply wood glue to the back of the strips and adhere them to the door. You can use a clamp to apply pressure and hold them in place. Start with your bottom pieces that go directly onto the existing bifold closet doors and work your way up.
Once the two strips going down the door are in place, you will put on the sides, and then the top, bottom, and middle pieces. Have your cute assistant or aka your hubby hold up the different designs until you decide which one you want 🙂 Step Five: Stain And Paint Your Bifold Barn Doors
When I work with stain, I use a rubber glove and an inside out sock over my hand. It works beautifully and it is a great way to use up some of those socks that have lost their mates. Then, I came back with sandpaper and distressed the doors allowing the black stain to show through in certain areas.
Once cut down, we stained them, painted them, and distressed them following the same process as the doors. Finally, we attached them to the wall using a brad nail gun. This was an easy, cheap way to make our dated and boring bifold doors come to life! Some people were concerned about the original track and hardware not being able to hold the added weight of the door. We didn’t run into this issue since the thin underlayment really does not add a lot of weight. The thin underlayment wood will add some width to the door.
I have not tried this but I was wondering if just liquid nailing the wood to the metal doors would work. Find More Farmhouse Inspired DIY Projects here:
