Barn doors in a garage...Why not?

Ok, so this idea was all Aaron's.  Have you ever tried shimmying past a car in the garage to get something out of a cabinet?  And then you can only open the cabinet a crack because you'd hit the car?  Well, Aaron got the idea to just bypass that whole cabinet thing.  Go for something similar to closets in a bedroom.  Make some barn doors, build a cabinet around it and put some shelving inside.  Then you've got no problems sliding things in and out.

So, we were sharing our plans with Aaron's cousin, Josh, one day, when he casually mentions he's got an old barn door just hanging around.   The benefits of living in the country!  So, we walk out and check it out and it's pretty darn perfect.  A few weeks later Josh comes for dinner and brings along the door.  How cool is that?!

We decided to have three.  One to hide this rear alcove where we'll be having a lot of storage and two more along the side of the garage.  Next step was to figure out how to hang it.   After some research, we went with the most cost effective option and bought a Stanley box rail/hanger from the Tractor Supply Store.  It was about $125 for one door system.

Then Aaron and his dad went to work.

1. Cut the rail to the desired length (if needed).  Just make sure it's twice the length of your door.

2.  Instead of using the manufacturer's support brackets, Aaron measured and screwed holes through the railing (to match the measurements of the truss).  Then he placed the railing up to the truss and screwed lag bolts through the track into the bottom cord of the truss.  The lag bolt had low profile carriage bolt heads to avoid conflict with the wheels.  And create a cleaner look.  You can reinforce the truss if needed.  See next barn door blog post for instructions on that.

 

3.  Mounted the box rail hangers on the existing barn door.  In our case,  Aaron and his dad were able to pry out the old rusty bolts and use the same holes to install new hardware to slide in the track.  

 4.  Add the end cap (comes with the rail hangers) on the end so the door doesn't slide out.

 And here's the completed product!  I love it. 

Before and After!