I love it when things “just work out.” I rarely purchase magazines but last week I knew I would be spending time at the hospital with my husband, so I picked up the most interesting magazine I would find after only about 20 seconds of looking. I usually take more care, but I was in a hurry. I forgot how much magazines cost.
Back at the hospital, I started flipping through the magazine without really reading it. I paid a lot for it so I thought I should at least spend some time with it. I stopped on a page with an antique door hung as a sliding door. What a perfect solution for the bathroom door! I had considered installing a pocket door, but the idea of ripping out the wall was not appealing. I liked the fact that I could save the space that a swinging door took up but the cost in effort was just too much. What I saw on the magazine page was perfect. Mount an old door on barn sliding door hardware. It becomes a piece of art.
If you have no idea what I am talking about, just Google “barn sliding door.” You’ll see plenty of images. A quick Google search to find the hardware dampened my excitement (costs are from $300 to several thousand dollars) but Dave thinks he can fabricate what we need for a fraction of the cost. I’ll let you know how we do that as soon as we figure it out.
But where do you find a door like that? We had no time for shopping antique stores and we are far from being ready for it anyway. I put the idea on the back burner until I visited my neighbor’s garage sale. They are moving into a smaller house in town and she was selling off a lot of stuff. Tucked into the back corner of the garage were a few doors. We need to replace the wooden screen door on our house on Main St. so we looked closer at the doors. The treasure was this old exterior door with the missing glass.
The door has an awesome finish. It is a dull gray green on one side and a dark dull red on the other. Perfect! My favorite color palette. I could not wait to get the door to the new house and to lean it up against the wall were it will be installed one day. After I add frosted glass it will be perfect!
I love your new (old) door! And I love your plans for it. I, too, wanted to install a door like that in our cottage on the lake. Was thinking of disassembling a block and tackle for the wheels. I look forward to hearing how you install it!
My husband has a few ideas to avoid the $500+ cost for the hardware. We haven’t had time to experiment and we have a lot to do until we are ready for final touches such as doors. I’ll do a new post as soon as we have some results (good or bad).
Perfect, indeed! Oh yeah, you can make a track… it will come together. That is going to be beautiful! Love the idea of frosted glass.