Remodelaholic

Get creative and fake it with a regular old bypass closet door, like our reader Laura did! 2 years ago I purchased my home…complete with a very ominous colored ‘no-tell-motel’ dresser set up flanked by two small closets.

We were in desperate need of more closet space and knew the only option was doing something with that Motel 6 dresser area. For your convenience, this post contains affiliate links, which allow us to continue providing you lots of decorating and DIY ideas at no cost to you. Painting helped a bit, but still, offered no extra closet space. Then that old light bulb lit, and we were on our way to my favorite haunt, Habitat for Humanity Restore.

A half hour later and only 20 bucks lighter, we packed two hollow core sliding closet doors into G-man’s truck. We stopped at the Depot and purchased 2 packages of cedar paneling, a sliding door track kit and some construction adhesive.

I designed the barn door pattern and G-man got to work measuring, mitering and muttering. We were working with G-man’s very precise measurements with track placement to ensure the doors wouldn’t slide against the dresser fronts, yet remain flush with the outer trim.

We had to make a decision as to how we would cover the chunky header created out of 2×4’s that held the track. Since he’s a certified tin knocker, he decided to fabricate a piece of steel that would mimic the metal header above a real barn door.

I also added an under cabinet, fluorescent strip light to the backside of the closet header.