One door project down! Woo Hoo! I thought I would share our crazy take on a barn door project, also I will tell a story that explains why my moms’ the coolest, so sit back get a cup o’ tea, while I tell you a story! The wind is howling out there today. Fifty mile per hour winds are what we have, just another day in New Mexico, so I’m sipping on a cup o’ tea myself.
Well, speaking of wind, I had to step away for a bit, since the wind knocked the power out in our area! The powers back and I have a new pot of tea, so back to my story and the project!
This door project is the first step in dividing the house so that the kiddo has his own apartment.
I love my industrial pipe curtain rods, so I was thinking that maybe we could do something like that for the barn door system. I’ve always loved pipes for curtain rods, which I think comes from my mom, who is the coolest and a woman far ahead of her time. You see we lived here when I was a kid.
Well, actually that’s the view from the front window of our old house. It wasn’t a house when we moved there, it was a deserted feed store/ gas station in a ghost town named Slate Creek in Colorado. That little green building in the picture was the forest rangers station that they didn’t use, except occasionally when they would keep a horse or a donkey there.
Our place was surrounded by piles of metal and junk as high as the house itself. It took years of very hard work to get it all cleaned up, but one of the things my mom kept, were these cool metal pipes that were actually,… coffin rails! Once we were able to move into the house, mom thought they were perfect for curtain rods, she even made her own curtain rings for the rods since they hadn’t been invented yet. Only one person ever noticed what they were. We needed some dirt moved, so we hired a guy with a backhoe to do the work. His backhoe broke down, so he came to the house to ask to use the phone….( you know back when we had regular phones attached to a wall and no one had cell phones, yet we all survived somehow……) Well anyway, when he made a call to have his backhoe picked up, he looked up and saw my moms curtain rods. He looked a little pale when he hung up the phone, he turned to my mom and asked, “Lady,… do you know what those are?” My mom replied cheerily, “Yep, their coffin rails!” The guys eyes got really big, he didn’t even say a word, he just fled from the house. He never came back, the towing company came for his equipment and he never even sent a bill for the work he had done! And……That’s why my mom’s just the coolest! She’s the ultimate repurposer (and inventor) that there ever was! I love being able to say, yep, that’s my mom!
Ok, back to the door project. This is the doorway that leads to the kiddos apartment and to our shared laundry room,which means we still need access thru here.
I had put up those red shutters for a temporary fix, but it wasn’t what we wanted. I love old doors and I love the idea of a barn door system. My sweet hubby surprised me by finding how to use plumbing pipe and fixtures to create the barn door system that I wanted on you tube! I went to one of my favorite haunts, Restore. There I found this old door. I picked it up for $32
Then I found these handles at Hobby Lobby for $21
Then hubby attached these furniture wheels to the bottom of the door that we picked up at Home Depot. This is the key to this project. The wheels allow for the weight to be on the floor instead of the wall.
Next he attached these huge hook eyes to the top of the door, that we picked up from home depot.
Then he put the 1/2 inch plumbers galvanized pipe and the attachments on the wall. One should use a level during this step. He did!
We also used anchors to attach everything to the wall and now we have…. this fabulous door!
I love it! It’s industrial, rustic and unique. Here’s another angle. Molly had to check out the moss in the pot!
The total for this door project including all the odds and ends was $110. In my next post I’ll share how I made the arrangement molly is nosing around in. I should’ve named her Nosie Nelly! Lol! She’s too cute. I hope you enjoyed our new door project and the crazy stories of my life!