I Can Find The Time

How many of you love the barn door look? I know, me too!

I have a "real deal" sliding door track in my master bathroom

and I LOVE IT!

But what about adding sliding doors to pieces of furniture? I love the look and wanted to do just that...on two media consoles in my living room. That's 4 doors on two tracks. I had to figure out the best and cheapest way to get the look I love.

First of all...I followed this tutorial at That's My Letter for adding these sliding doors to a piece of furniture. The piece Jamie built is amazing and the hardware is the real deal. Seriously...go check it out. I did all the same steps and got pretty much the same look so I'm not going to recreate her tutorial in this post. I'm simply going to tell you how I got the same effect for much less money.

(Side note: I built my media consoles using this plan from Ana White and Nikki Grandy: Grandy Sliding Door Media Console. My unit is 66"x36"x19" and made of 2x4's for the frame and cedar fence pickets for the trim/siding/doors.)

While I was getting ready to start this project I did some pricing for the materials I'd need for the sliding door hardware that Jamie at That's My Letter used and here's what it cost at my local Big Orange:

SLIDING HARDWARE (Metal track)

1 - 1" L shape angle bar x 1/8" thick x 72"l (bottom track) $13.00 ea

1 – 1.25" flat bar x 1/8" thick x 72"l (horizontal track) $10.97

4 = 1” x 36” black flat bars for door details (door braces)$6.48 ea.

4 - 1 1/2" awning pulleys $2.36 ea

3 - #12 x 2 1/2" metal screws $1.50/box

3 - 1" steel spacers $0.97 ea.

24 - 1/4" washers $1.18/pack

7 - 1/4" hex nuts $1.18/pack – need 2

4 - #12 x 1 1/2" metal screws $0.47ea

8 - #12 x 3/4" metal screws $0.40 ea.

I did choose to add 4 metal bar pieces to the list because I really wanted the black metal pieces on the door to extend all the way down. But this shopping list ads up to...

$65.31

What? And I am going to build two of the pieces...

$130.62

Yikes! That's quite a chunk of change for the hardware on

a piece of furniture.

So what was I going to do?!?!

...I roamed the halls at Big Orange quite a few times and tested ideas with random items from about every department before I came up with the simplest solution:

>>>Same Design...cheaper materials<<<

What I mean by that is I don't need to come up with a crazy new way to do sliding doors...I need to find cheaper materials that
LOOK THE SAME and FUNCTION THE SAME as look I want.

So back to Big Orange for this ~~Cheaper~~

New and Improved shopping list:

SLIDING HARDWARE (wood track)

2 = 72” lattice boards for rail $0.80 ea.

1 = 72” lattice board for bottom rail guide $0.80 ea.

2 = .5” spacers for top rail used pipe sections...see below

4 = 1” spacers for bottom rail guide used pipe sections

4 = 32” lattice strips for door details 2 lattice boards: $0.80 ea.

4 = .5” spacers for "wheels" used pipe sections

4 = 1.25” hex bolts $0.47 ea.

4 = 0.25” steel cap nuts $1.18/pack.

4 = ~8” black lattice strips for back of door FREE-scraps

4 - .25" washers $1.18/pack

4 = 3” long screws to mount both rails already had

So for anyone keeping track the grand total is...

$8.24

What?!?! Heck yes!...$8.24 per media console for the same look!

Here's the two main changes I made that saved me big:

1. Replace all the metal flat bars for Lattice Wood. This cut down on the cost tremendously and with a few coats of Hammered Metal spray paint ($7) they look great. I did glue two pieces together for the top track for extra stability. (saved me $45.92)

2. Replaced the metal spacers and wheels with cut up pieces of an $0.80 black PVC pipe (red circles in picture below). You can find something like this in the plumbing section. It's 1/2" in diameter and 18" long. It only costs $0.80 and one will be more than enough for both of my media consoles. Jackpot! (Saved me: $11.55)

I've had the three kiddos 'testing' the doors all day and everything is working great! I'm glad I added the lower track to hold the doors back because the kids seem to want to pull out as they slide them back and forth.

So I got my sliding door console just like I wanted and didn't have to spend a small mint on the hardware!

UPDATE: I've had a few questions about how sturdy this sliding door hardware is...and while I can say it's working great for me (my kids have already filled the console up with all sorts of treasures) I would have to recommend you don't use the wood sliding door hardware with a very heavy door.

Now I just have to Find The Time to build #2!

I AM LINKING TO AS MANY OF THESE PARTIES AS POSSIBLE: