When life hands you lemons,

 

...use them to make a sliding door.

What? Never heard that one before?

So, what had happened wuz, I painstakingly stripped yellow, then blue, then black paint off my front door and storm door. I stripped, and sanded. Stripped and sanded, then stained and sealed. When the it was time to replace the storm door, I realized I got a little crazy with the palm sander and scratched the glass. A lot. ?? How did that happen? I cleaned and cleaned and hoping the swirly marks all over was residue from the polyurethane. No such luck. The glass was ruined. Lemons folks. Tart, bitter lemons.

Or was it?

I've had a bit of a fascination with sliding barn doors lately and I'm not alone. Search Pinterest for sliding doors and see how many you'll find.

(House*Tweaking)

I think this is the door that began my fascination. Lovely, right? I love everything about this picture, and the door is just the cherry on top.

Do you see some sliding door lemonade coming?

Yep, I just had to convince Mitch the perfect use for this otherwise ruined door would be to frost the glass and use it as a sliding door in the dining room. It wasn't an easy argument, but in the end I brought him over to my way of thinking. Next, I had to convince him how we would go about accomplishing this task.

I studied lots and lots of sliding doors. Most used barn door hardware, which can be pricey. When I am trying to convince Mitch that we need to do something, one of the first arguing points needs to be that we can do it on the cheap. Pricey barn door hardware would not get me lemonade, I mean a sliding door. I need cheap and relatively easy.

This proved to be exactly what I needed.

My door is very similar to this, without the dividers.

This is the only before picture I could find. This door is in the dining room and leads to the stairway to the attic room. It had not been painted yet in this pic. Just a plain, boring interior door.

And now...

I still need to frost the glass. I have some frosted window film ordered. It will be easier and less messy than doing the spray on stuff.

For the hardware, I bought  72" sliding closet door hardware from Lowe's. It was around $15.00. In the tutorial I linked to, she said the hardware they used was double and her husband split it and just used half. The track I purchased was also a double track, but made in one solid piece. I forgot to get a pic, but here's one from the Lowe's site.

Mitch cut off one of the tracks using an angle grinder.

We painted the track flat black and attached it to the underside of a stained 2x6 board.

He mounted L brackets along with the track at either end to keep the door from sliding right off the track.

The bolt you see in the 2x6 is just decorative. The board is mounted into wall studs with 3" wood screws. Mitch counter-sunk the screws and put the bolts in the hole covering the screw head. Purely decorative to add to the industrial look. To make it look a little more like the barn door sliders, we purchased a $2.00 fence hinge and Mitch split it and mounted it on the door just beneath the sliding mechanism. Again, completely decorative and non functioning. It was also spray painted flat black.

Mitch removed the trim from around the door frame, the door stop trim. No idea what it's called, but you know, the piece that keeps the door from being a swinging door. Anyway, he removed that and put 1x6 pine in the frame to give it a finished look, and once I prime and paint it will. 

To keep the door from swinging out away from the wall, he drilled an L bracket into the floor.

I made a little sock out of felt to go over the L bracket so that the door would slide smoothly. All Mitch's idea. Once I showed him what I wanted, he was the project leader and made sliding door lemonade  from my scratched up lemon of a storm door.

 

 

Comments

[Michele]

Very cool! And I like those succulents on the table.

[Mary]

You and Mitch are extremely inventive and talented. Looks great.

[Thimbleanna]

Wow -- that's awesome Autum! I've been seeing your pinned sliding doors and admiring them -- now you have a cool one of your own!

[Carol]

I love that idea! maybe I can do that for the living room double door problem I have!!!!

[Mary Claire]

This looks so good. Like it has been there all along! Congrats to you both on a great job!

[Bridgette]

Well now, that was just the sweetest glass of lemonade I've had in a long time! I like the way you think!

[Kim Fleming]

What a creative idea! I've never seen one with glass & it looks great!

[Rob Anderson]

Angle grinder is very helpful in doing home improvement. I use mine for cutting and grinding materials. It is really nice that I have bought it from an angle grinder shop. It's so useful to me.

[Johny Presto]

Correct. It will be easier and more effective to install frosted glass Aurora CO than doing the spray thing. I have used it also in decorating my room.

[Chara Michele]

Love this, it looks great! I have to say I haven't gotten into the barn door fade, that is until I saw your version! Now I want to do one like it in my house :)

[Linda Southworth]

Hi, I found you through HOMETALK. I love your innovative lemon door plan. It has turned out very well. I am sure you will show once you have painted trim and frosted glass. Thank you for the inspiration. I have mentioned the barn door look to my husband a few times. So far not a hit. But we do have several projects going right now. So Iunderstand. I am just always looking a few steps ahead!

[Silver Hayes]

i like the idea of a sliding door! I would definitely have one installed in our home.

[Plumber in Seattle]

I'm now in love with the idea of sliding doors. Thanks to this post. We'll be installing doors like these in our home.

[Allyson Sunde]

I like the two samples of a sliding door, but I must admit, your sliding door is much better! With a glass door, your dining room looks more modern and trendier. Frosted window film would be a nice addition to the sliding glass door to keep two rooms separate.

[Elaine]

I love the sliding door!!!
My neighbor had pocket doors in her house and I thought those were so neat!!!

[Priscilla S.]

I love the way your door came out. I am looking to do the same in my den. What I wanted to know is how necessary is it to cute the double track? Is it ok to leave it as is even though I won't be using the second track? Thanks for your help!

[Ryan]

A very creative ways of designing a sliding door. Planning to have this kind of house someday.