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Industrial Home Office Organization

We’re sharing our favorite industrial home office organization pieces that not only help control clutter but look cool too!

I don’t know about you but our home office was the room in our home that seemed to collect the most clutter. Whether you spend long days working in a home office like I do or it just gets occasional use during the nights and weekends, controlling all the paper and supplies that stack up in and around the office can be an overwhelming task. I mean, where does all that stuff come from? Am I right?

A few months ago we had to move our office from a room with doors to the front room in our home without doors and I went into a bit of a panic mode. How in the world was I going to keep all my office supplies (and boy do I LOVE office supplies), paperwork and incoming and outgoing mail neat and organized so I wouldn’t be completely embarrassed if someone stopped by unexpectedly to visit?

When I first started planning our home office I knew I needed to incorporate a few essential home office organization pieces to help get the job done. My favorite pieces came from World Market because not only were they practical and functional but also looked like cool vintage industrial decor pieces as well which fit the style of the room perfectly.

Now that our home office makeover is complete I am thrilled with how nicely everything is organized. It is always so much easier to keep things straightened when things have a specific spot to go back to and when everyone in the house knows exactly where things need to go. Plus, since all the organization pieces we picked out pretty much double as decor pieces we killed two birds with one stone and didn’t have to spend a lot extra to decorate the room. Win!

HOME OFFICE VIDEO TOUR

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7 Industrial Home Office Organization Ideas

#1 Two-Level Tray

You can get a lot of milage out of a tray that sits on your countertop by using it to sort important papers that need attention such as being mailed back out or signed and returned.

A multi level tray works well to distinguish between the different types of paperwork so that paper so paperwork that requires one person’s attention can be in one tray and paperwork that another family member need to return and sign can be in another one.

I use it to keep client folders grouped into projects that need to be started and projects that are currently in progress.

I personally love the industrial style of this tray; not only is it functional, but it looks like a piece of decor sitting out on the counter.

Unfortunately, this exact product is no longer available but this tired tray is cool too.

#2 Rolling Printer Stand

The printer is a necessary in a home office but it doesn’t look cute when it is out in the open and they are usually too big and oddly shaped to hide.

A fun solution we came up with is to set your printed on an end table with two shelves that can roll out from under your desk.

The printer can be placed on the bottom shelf and extra paper on the top of the rolling table.

The end table could also roll out to provide extra work space. This is a nice solution that allows the printer to be easily accessible while also keeping it out of plain sight when it is not being used.

Unfortunately, this exact product is no longer available but you could add casters to this end table.

#3 Industrial Lazy Susan

In keeping with the industrial vibe, a hardware bin lazy susan makes for a really fun, easy, and clean solution to store your most used and best-looking office supplies. From twine to washi tape, everything will have a designated spot and supplies are always organized and easy to grab.

Shop the Hardware Bin Lazy Susan

#4 Industrial Mail Holder

A stylish mail holder placed in a location in your home where you walk by often is a great place to store time-sensitive mail, bills that need to be paid or outgoing mail.

We have one sitting on the front of the desk in our home office so that we never lose a bill in the mound of mail we get and can easily grab the mail that needs to go out as we walk out the door.

Shop the St. Laurent Mail Holder

#5 Industrial Pencil Cup

Why is it that pens are always laying around the house, but when the time comes that you actually need to use one, you can’t find one anywhere?

A pencil holder on our desk easily solves this problem. Note: not all pencil holders are created equal. I love the size and vintage-industrial appearance of this pencil cup; as you can see, it’s large enough to hold my extensive colored marker and Sharpie collection.

Shop the St. Laurent Pencil Cup

#6 Wire Baskets for Sorting Mail

Mail clutter was a huge problem in the past in my home. Even when we request to go paperless, we still mail thanking us for going paperless!

With busy daily schedules it is hard to stay on top of sorting the mail, but fortunately, wire baskets make for an easy organization system.

Labeling each wire basket (“file”, “shred” and “recycle”) allows you to easily and quickly assign the paper to its appropriate basket.

Tip: Using smaller baskets forces you to clear them out on a regular basis and keeps clutter at bay.

Charlotte Lined Wire Baskets

#7 Metal Trash Can

A trash can in a home office is a must but it doesn’t have to be plain and boring.

This oversized metal trash can looks more like an industrial decor piece rather than a can for storing garbage.

Also, if you are think outside the trash can, it could make for a cool base to hold a large faux plant.

Shop the Embossed Metal St. Laurent Trash Can

There you have it! These are my favorite industrial home office organization pieces!

Having a home office be the first room guests see when they walk in the door seemed a little intimidating to us at first, but we are happy with how easy it has been to keep our office organized just by incorporating these industrial-style storage pieces.

No matter where your work space is, you can have the organized office of your dreams and easily control the clutter with just a few must-have storage pieces.

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Wood and Metal 2-Level Tray (No longer available but this one is cool!
Hardware Bin Lazy Susan
Wood and Metal Aiden End Table (No longer available but you could add casters to this end table!
Charlotte Lined Wire Baskets
Embossed Metal St. Laurent Trash Can
St. Laurent Pencil Cup
Mail Holder

FYI: This post contains a few affiliate links to products we used to make this project. Gray House Studio does receive commissions for sales from these links but at no extra cost to you. We appreciate you supporting this site. Read our privacy and disclosure policy. You can also easily shop our recommended products here.

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Two-Level Desk DIY

Furniture, House Courtney & Brent

Check out to build a wood two-level desk for your home office. This is s great solution if you need a large workspace for multiple monitors. There are woodworking plans available project.

We are finally finished with our home office and are wrapping up our home office posts by sharing one more DIY furniture project and the focal point of the room, our two-level desk. This desk design is great if you need a desk with a lot of workspace and one that floats in the middle of the room because it includes a front panel for cord management.

I liked that the top level would hide most of what I had on my desk on the lower level. So we snapped a picture for inspiration and Brent drew up some plans of a modified version to use to build our desk.

How To Build a Two-Level Wood Desk

SUPPLIES

Shop the products we used for this project in one place.

PROJECT PLANS

Get our Wood Two-Level Desk Plans

When you purchase our DIY wood two-level desk plans you get a 10 page PDF with a detailed materials list, a cut list, exact dimensions for each piece, building instructions – we appreciate you supporting Gray House Studio!

TUTORIAL VIDEO

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STEP BY STEP GUIDE

1. To make the four 2″x12″s easier to work with and transport, we had the boards cut down at the home improvement store first.

We had them cut so there was a little extra room on each side from our desk measurements since more than likely the panel saw they use wouldn’t cut the boards exactly square.

We had to make the precise cuts on our miter saw back at home but because the boards are 2”x12”s and our miter saw only cuts about eight inches, we had to cut one half of the board and then flip the board over and cut the other half.

We used a framing square to mark the cut so we could make sure the cut on the miter saw was straight and square.

2. Each side of the desk is made up of three boards that we connected together with pocket hole screws. We used our Kreg Pocket Hole Jig and https://amzn.to/2Hg0SNh”>drill to drill pocket hole screws in the top of the legs to attach the top boards to the sides in a later step.

3. Before screwing the boards together, we used clamps to hold the boards to our workspace to make sure they stayed flush and didn’t move around. We connected the boards using pocket hole screws and wood glue.

4. After both sides (legs) were assembled, we stood them up and attached clamps to the base to prevent them from falling over.

Then we started attaching the top of the desk with pocket hole screws using the pocket hole jig and wood glue.

The top of the lower part of the desk is made up of multiple 2”x12”s so before we attached them to the side of the desk we needed to attach the boards together with pocket hole screws and wood glue like we did with the sides of the desk.

5. We used pocket holes screws to attach the top level of the desk to the sides.

6. Next, we needed to add a back panel on the top of the desk for the plywood panel front to attach to that sits between the two taller side pieces.

We had to cut the 2”x12” down using the table saw to fit in that slot.

To make the board easier to screw in, we attached a small block of wood on the inside of each of the sides of the desk at the same level as the lower leg brace.

We used a framing square and a straight edge to make the mark to make sure the block was perfectly aligned.

Then we glued and nailed the blocks in place so we could set the 2″x12” on them to attach it to the desk.

7. We attached our back panel board using wood glue and pocket hole screwed it into the existing top of the desk and the side braces.

8. To give us something to attach the front panel piece to at the bottom of the desk we added a 2”x4” to the bottom of the desk that we pocket hole screwed into both sides of the legs.

9. To give the front panel something to attach to in the middle we added a 2″x4″ even with the 2″x12″ installed previously and under the top level of the desk.

These boards allowed us to nail our large sheet of plywood into the top, middle and bottom of the desk, making sure it was nice and secure.

10. Next, we cut our plywood piece down to the size we needed (40-1/2” x 61“) on the table saw.

11. We didn’t install the front panel just yet, but did do a test fit to make sure it fit perfectly in the inset of the desk before taking the desk inside the house.

12. Because the lower level of the desk is made of multiple boards, we needed to create a smooth surface.

To do this we filled in all the joints between the boards with wood filler and then after it dried went over the entire top of the desk with an orbital sander to give it a consistent and even surface.

Before bringing it in the house, I stained the entire surface of the desk with our favorite stain while Brent painted the front panel of the desk gray (SW Dovetail) to match our home office cabinets we built.

13. Next, we brought the desk in the house to do the final few steps.

Thankfully, Brent’s dad was in town visiting during this part because the desk is pretty heavy duty and there was no way I was going to be able to even lift it let alone carry it from the garage to the front of the house.

The final step before we permanently attached the front plywood panel was to cut a hole in the the back of the top of the lower level of the desk for our computer cords to run through.

We did this by drilling two holes in the desk and cutting sections of the wood away using a jigsaw.

The two holes allowed the jigsaw to rotate at the corners of the cut. We also attached a thin piece of wood by use clamps to attach it to the top and bottom of the lower level of the desk to prevent the wood from splintering during the cut.

Since the jigsaw can make a bit of a mess, while Brent was making the cut, I followed close behind with a shop vacuum to minimize the mess.

14. To hide the cords running from the desk to the outlet, we cut a small hole in the rug under the desk and ran the cords under the rug making them completely invisible and out of the way when looking at the desk.

15. Finally, once all the cables and cords were run out from under the desk, we attached the front panel to the desk using a nail gun and finishing nails to hold it in place.

After the desk was complete, I added a few decor and organization pieces to finish off the industrial/rustic look we are going for in our home office.

Check out the post below on all the organization pieces I used in our home office.

We are really happy with the design of the desk and how well it works in this space. Jake the cat loves to lay on the top level of the desk while I work which I love because it keeps him off my keyboard.

We have plenty of surface space for both our computers and lots of room for me to spread out with all of my planners, binders and notebooks that I use on a daily basis. My two favorite aspects of this desk is obviously the cord management solution as well as it is tall enough to store a printer stand on casters underneath keeping the less attractive aspects of a home office out of sight.

Be sure to check out our home office makeover to see all of our home office projects and take a video tour!

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Life Without a Smart Home Security System

Reviews, Uncategorized Courtney & Brent

As we are anxiously awaiting to have our new Security by Reliant smart home security system installed, we took some time to reflect on how life without a smart home security system made us act a bit ridiculous. This post is sponsored by Reliant but as always all opinions and content are 100% our own.

4 Ridiculous Things You Do When You Don’t Have a Smart Home Security System

These days we are pulled in a million different directions which means we are often scatter brained when it comes to making sure our home is locked up and protected. Sometimes just the simplest of tasks can be stressful due to not feeling safe or being inconvenient. Here is what life has looked like in the past for Brent and I without a smart home security system. At times it can make us act a bit ridiculous.

What We Do Now…

1. When a Pesky Solicitor Rings the Doorbell

“Maybe he can’t see me … or maybe I look crazy enough to make him leave.”

2. When We Try to Close the Garage Door Without a Remote

Before every bike ride Brent works in a garage door sprint workout.

3. When We Hear a Noise in the Backyard at Night

Be afraid, be very afraid of Brent and his Nerf gun.

4. When We Can’t Remember if We Shut the Garage Door

“I’m like 80%, maybe 40% sure we shut the…Brent, do you remember if we shut the garage door?”

Watch what our life was like without a smart security system:

The scenarios in this video are reenactments based on real life events.

To see new DIY videos on Thursdays, be sure to subscribe to our channel ⇾

Out With the Old Security System

When we bought our home it had a “this house is protected by…” sign in our front flower bed and some really intimidating stickers plastered on all the windows around the house warning intruders to beware because we have a security system. But the truth is the security system in our home was the one that was originally installed when the house was built making it around 15 years old.

Let’s face it, it was a dinosaur by today’s technology standards. It could technically do it’s job by putting off an ear piercing alarm and contacting the police in an emergency but I believe it is the equivalent of still using a Motorola Razr cell phone over a smartphone today. Sure, it works but you are seriously missing out on all the awesome and convenient technology that some genius worked hard to develop. And once you get a taste of all the cool features you wonder how you ever lived without it.

The Death of Our Old Security System

Oh, but when I say that our alarm could technically still do its job, I lied. We never used the alarm because the previous owner never gave us the code to disarm it and we didn’t feel like investing in getting it re-programed because it was so ancient. So we just ignored it.

That is until one night (I’m not pointing fingers, but…) Brent was messing around with the keypad and somehow pushed the instant button which meant that if any door opened, the alarm would immediately go off. A few hours later, Brent opened the back door and suddenly we both dropped to the ground at the deafening and unexpected sound of the panic alarm.

We tried everything to turn it off. Even just pounding on the keypad hoping aggression would scare it off. The cat was freaking out running around in circles. I was pretty much ready to just run out the door and let the security system win. It was not hooked up to call the police but it was so loud that we knew potentially the neighbors might call the cops if we left it going long enough. Finally, in a moment of desperation Brent cut the wire to the speaker. Then, unplugged it in the closet and the attic putting the final nail in the coffin of our antiquated security system.

In With a New Smart Home Security System

In all seriousness, as DIYers we invest not only our money but also time and energy into our home. It is our haven and our canvas so we knew we didn’t want to go too long without having a way to protect and monitor it. Plus, with a baby coming in September I really wanted the comfort of knowing our house is safe along with the convenience of controlling areas of our home with the push of a button so I can focus on the important things.

What We Are Looking for in a Home Security System Solution

When looking for a smart home security system solution we are looking for one that provides protection, peace of mind and convenience. We hope to also integrate a doorbell camera, smart bulbs, and additional cameras. To be really picky and take it a step further, we are looking for an easy solution to control everything with just one app rather than having a lot of different devices running independently.

When the Security by Reliant team reached out to us about partnering together to implement a unique smart home security solution in our home we were ecstatic and jumped at the chance when we learned that they offer a variety of options such as a smart home security system, a doorbell with a camera, wireless door locks, smart plugs, indoor and outdoor cameras and garage door openers. Plus, you can access all your connected devices from anywhere with the Reliant Connect app. Just one app, now that is what we are talking about!

Security by Reliant offered everything on our detailed wish list and then a few extra features that we didn’t even know existed but are excited to implement in our home like geofencing. The best part is they offer different packages based on your budget and needs.

Because this is 2016, we are looking for more than just protection when it comes to monitoring our home. Being able to set up our home to run according to our unique schedule is a dream come true for us tech nerds. And no more scratching our heads over if we locked the door or not sounds AMAZING! We are pumped to get our Security by Reliant products installed and bring our house into the 21st century. We will be back to share more details about installation day soon and what life is like with a smart home security system, so stay tuned!

Tell Us: What is the most ridiculous thing you have done or has happened to you when it comes to your home?

If you like this video and can relate to any of our crazy antics, we would love for you to pin and share!
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Planning a Boy Nursery

Uncategorized Courtney & Brent

We are ready to start planning a boy nursery! Today we are sharing our ideas for a modern outdoor nursery.

The time has come to start thinking about designing our baby boy’s nursery! Just the process of cleaning out the room that will be our nursery involved a lot of projects but I got my awesome industrial office out of it so I am not complaining. Although, empty rooms in our home have a habit of collecting items that don’t belong in them so I am guarding this room and making a conscious effort that only items intended for the nursery make their way into that room.

With around 13 weeks to go, it’s probably about time we start shifting our focus to the nursery since we have quite a few DIY projects planned for this room. Brent and I were already on the same page when it came to how we envisioned the design of the room and we are really excited to start actually working on it now.

Before we knew the gender we knew we wanted to work in outdoor elements. When we found out we are having a boy, we both wanted to do a camping style nursery. After a lot of browsing on Pinterest I realized there are a lot of outdoor, camping, adventure styled nurseries out there. But in staying true to our Gray House Studio style, we want to keep it pretty simple. We already have the walls painted Dovetail Gray and really like the color so we wanted to keep it. So my challenge was how to put together an outdoor room with grays.

We finally nailed down our ideas which include a chalkboard wall, replacing the floors, a huge DIY shelving display with a seat and much more. I am so excited to start working on this room now that I have a clear direction, a modern outdoor boy nursery. It should be really fun! Below are some of the items that we would like to incorporate or we are using as inspiration for our nursery design.

CHAIR | Baxton Studio Rocking Chair from Wayfair
I was not aware of just how expensive nursery rocking chairs can be. Yikes! I have my mind set on a chair with an actual rocking base but I guess my taste far exceeds our actual budget so it took a lot of searching to find one that we like the design, is comfortable (which is probably the most important) and fits in our budget. Ultimately, we decided on this wingback rocking chair and I can’t wait to see it in the room.

RUG | Jungle Sheep Skin White Rug from Overstock
We are saying “see ya later” to the carpet in this room and replacing it with either wood or laminate flooring. A big, soft, fluffy rug is on my wish list for this space. I want a comfy spot to spread out and play or let’s be real, a great backdrop for a billion photo opportunities.

PILLOW | Adventure Awaits Throw Pillow Cover from Society6
I love this pillow cover! It is simple, yet fits the vision of the room perfectly.

ART | Woodland Nursery Animals Art from Etsy
The positive thing about woodland themed nurseries being popular is there are a lot of options to choose from when it comes to decor. This woodland art is my favorite. I like the neutral background and the animals are so dang cute.

CRIB | Babyletto Hudson Convertible Crib from Target
The crib was the first piece we decided on for the nursery. We like the modern appearance and the gray and white combination.

TABLE | Natural Tree Stump Side Table from West Elm
This stump table, this is one of those pieces I keep telling Brent that I HAVE TO HAVE. Like, it is not up for debate. I will have a tree stump side table and that is that. Due to the price tag being higher than we would like to spend, for this one we are going DIY over buy.

NIGHT LIGHT | Campsite Night Light from The Land of Nod
I’m a fan of this cute little nightlight.

STUFFED ANIMAL | Corduroy Fox from The Land of Nod
How cute is this little fox? I love that he is made of corduroy. We will incorporate woodland creatures here and there throughout the room and I like how the fox decor bring a pop of bright color to the room.

SHELF | Teepee Shelf from Etsy
We have built several shelving projects in the past so I am adding teepee shelf to our to build list. I would love to make a few of these to hang around the room to display a few odds and ends.

There you have it, our plans for a modern outdoor boy nursery. The ideas are flowing now and I can’t stop thinking about working on this space. It is especially hard to concentrate because as I sit in my office and work I directly face the empty nursery and I swear it is calling to me to come decorate. The force is strong due to the combination of me always getting excited to start a new room design and that nesting instinct kicking in.

Stay tuned for lots of boy nursery projects coming your way soon!

*To see more of our boy nursery ideas, follow along on our Nursery Board on Pinterest.

Home Office Makeover

House, Room Design, Uncategorized Courtney & Brent

Take a tour of our home office makeover.

For the past three months now we have been working on moving our home office out of one room and into another all the while giving it a total revamp to fit with our industrial/vintage style. You can take a look back at our plans for our home office that we posted in March.

It is not a large room but some of the DIY projects we were working on for this space turned out to be large in scale (I’m looking at you cabinets) so it took us awhile to finish all the projects and get it exactly how we wanted it.

It has been a long time coming so today I am excited to finally be able to share our completed home office makeover and take you on a little tour of our newly refreshed and organized office. Since the room is a little small, we thought a video tour might make a little more sense so be sure to check that out below.

Side Note: If you haven’t already, we would love for you to subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow along to see our latest DIY videos. We have some fun ones in the works that you won’t want to miss! You can subscribe by clicking the red button under the video in the box below. Thanks!

Home Office Makeover Tour

In this video I will take you on a tour of our newly made over home office! For our home office we continued with the rustic/industrial/vintage vibe we have going throughout the rest of the house. I also share a few tips and storage solutions for keeping a home office organized.

To see a new DIY tutorial video every Thursday, subscribe to our channel ⇾

Above is what the room looked like before. Well, way before. It is the front room in our home, probably intended to be the formal living room. We have used it to store Brent’s musical equipment and more recently our work table.

Here is what the office looked like in our spare room. We had to move it to make room for a nursery but I was excited for the opportunity to give it a refresh that matched our style and had a cohesive appearance and create more storage space.

My original office desk was the first thing Brent built for me when we got married and while the sentimental side of me was super sad to see it go (thank goodness it found a wonderful new home) we wanted to build one with a new style that has a front piece that hides the cords and storage pieces that are under my desk out of sight when you walk in the door.

We got the inspiration for our new desk from believe it or not a display piece at Restoration Hardware and based on that Brent designed and built this awesome two-level desk that I absolutely love. There is plenty of room for both of our computers and still extra space for me to spread out my calendar and client folders. Jake (the cat) loves to lay on the top level while I work which is nice for me because it keeps him close but out of the way of my keyboard.

Our first project in the room was to build cabinets on the back wall. Having a home office be the first room guests see when they walk in our door can feel a little intimidating since the office seems to be the place clutter collects the fastest, especially since my office is the room I spend the most time in working on projects. I knew lots of cabinet space for storage was a MUST and Brent really knocked it out of the park building these cabinets and the herringbone countertop.

I love the pattern on the countertop so much that I didn’t want to add too much to the top of it but a few additional key storage pieces such as a two-level tray and a lazy susan hardware bin are helpful to organize the paper and supplies I use on a daily basis.

And let’s not forget about our plant wall. I am really pleased with the wall-mounted plant shelves we built to display artificial plants that bring a little greenery and color to the otherwise neutral room.

I have tons of storage space now to keep everything not only hidden away but organized and all within arm’s reach and a chair spin. I can’t tell you how much having a place to put things back helps me keep a room clean. We didn’t have room for our filing cabinet so we added two large drawers to our cabinets that work well to hold all of our paperwork and make it easy to file it away so it doesn’t stack up on the desk or counter.

I love this rug. The gray color matches the other gray colors in our room so well. Do you know how hard it can be to match grays? I like the fun pattern. The rug also is functional because we are running a power strip cord under it to a plug, which keeps the cord out of sight and we don’t have to worry about tripping over it any cords.

Walls: Mindful Gray from Sherwin Williams
Wall Shelves: See DIY Project
Artificial Plants: Ikea
Pots: Ikea
Desk: DIY Project (tutorial + plans coming soon)
Desk Chair: Ikea
Lamp on Desk: Pottery Barn
Mail Holder: World Market
Printer Stand: World Market
Cabinets: See DIY Project
Herringbone Countertop: See DIY Project
Lamp on Cabinets: Target
2-Level Tray: World Market
Hardware Bin Lazy Susan: World Market
Rug: Target

It feels like such an accomplishment to get another room completed (minus the floors) and checked off our list. I thought a new office would be way down the road so when this opportunity came up, I of course jumped all over the chance to give my workspace a much needed refresh. I work in this space eight hours a day so to have it just the way I like it, feels awesome and I swear increases my productivity by at least 85% (it would be 100% but I am rocking pregnancy brain right now).

I would have never thought the office would be the adjacent room to our home library and would be out in the open with no doors to hide behind, but the two rooms flow together nicely and makes it feel like I am working in a room double the size. I hope you enjoyed the tour of our home office makeover! If you have any questions about any of the projects or items in this room, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

HOW TO INSTALL A BARN DOOR

Decor, House Courtney & Brent

In this DIY tutorial we will show you how to install a barn door using interior sliding door hardware. This post was sponsored by National Hardware but all opinions and content are 100% our own.

The very first DIY Gray House Studio project we completed in our house over two years ago was to build and hang a wood barn door in our master bedroom. We built the barn door from scratch as well as pieced together the track system.

It was only two years ago but looking back on our barn door project it feels like we were such newbies when it came to deciding on our design style. As we have completed more projects in our home and really nailed down the aesthetic we want our house to have, we decided we needed to revisit this barn door and give it a revamp.

The first part of our barn door refresh was to update all of the hardware and add a door handle to make sliding the door easier. While we are really proud of how we built our barn door and how we were able to create our own sliding door track system, there were a few mirror issues we had with the appearance of the track.

First, the wood spacers had to go. Because they had to be in the studs, they were off center and not spaced evenly which was a bit distracting. Secondly, we wanted to say goodbye to stainless steel hardware and hello to oil-rubbed bronze that would better suits the industrial/rustic vibe we having going on in the rest of the house.

This time around we wanted this to be a quick and easy update that didn’t take all day so we choose to use a decorative interior sliding door hardware kit from National Hardware. We were happy to discover that the hardware is high quality and having all the pieces you need packaged together makes installing a barn door a breeze.

Today we are going to walk you through how to install a barn door using interior sliding door hardware. Note: If you need to build a barn door first, be sure to check out our barn door post and free barn door plans.

How to Install a Barn Door

SUPPLIES

STEPS

1. INSTALL HEADER BOARD

1. It is advised NOT to install the track directly into the drywall so we first needed to install a header board above our door opening. The hardware kit does not come with the supplies you will need to install a header board so you will have to get the piece of wood and interior screws separately.

We had a 1×4 that was 8ft. long laying around in our garage so we decided to use that for our header board. The track is 72″ so we needed to make our header board the same length.

We used a tape measure and pencil to measure and mark 72″ on our board and then used our miter saw to cut the board down to 72″, it was as easy as that.

2. As a design preference, we wanted our header board to blend in with the wall and to not be noticeable so we painted it the same color as our wall.

3. To install the header board above the door we used a stud finder to mark where the studs were in the wall.

4. We determined where we needed to place the header board above our door frame so it would appropriately cover the door opening and then using a level, to make sure the board stayed straight, we used our drill to drill interior screws into the wall studs to securely attach our header board to the wall.

We like the fact that our header board blends seamlessly into the wall.

2. INSTALL TRACK

FOR THIS STEP YOU WILL NEED: Track, Spacers, Track Fasteners from the sliding hardware door set, Level, Drill, Wrench + Socket Set

5. We held the track up to the header board and marked in the large hole at the end of the track where we needed to drill. Then we drilled a hole and installed the fasteners and spacer.

6. Next, we marked and drilled the hole at the other end of the track. We set a level on the track to make sure the track stayed straight while we installed the next spacer and fastener.

Finally, we marked, drilled and installed the spacers and fasteners in the center holes which secured the track to the header board.

3. INSTALL HANGERS

FOR THIS STEP YOU WILL NEED: Hangers, Hanger Fasteners from the sliding hardware door set, Pin Punch, Drill, Soft Mallet

7. We used the supplied template to determine where we needed the holes in the door for the hangers.

8. Then we used a pin punch to mark the holes on both ends of the door and then drilled the holes.

9. We removed the pre-installed fasteners from the hangers. Our door is thin so we used the shorter hanger fasteners to attach the hangers to the door.

4. INSTALL BAR PULL

FOR THIS STEP YOU WILL NEED: Bar Pull, Pin Punch, Screwdriver, Soft Mallet

10. To install the handle, we lined up the bar pull where we wanted it on the door and then used a pin punch to mark where the two holes in the handle are. Then we secured the handle to the door using the screws that came with the bar pull and a screwdriver.

5. INSTALL ANTI-JUMP DISCS
FOR THIS STEP YOU WILL NEED: Anti-jump Discs from the sliding hardware door set, Screwdriver

11. To install the anti-jump discs we placed a disc on the top edge of the door on the inside edge of the hanger making sure the hole is facing the front of the door.

6. PLACE DOOR ON TRACK

12. After we installed everything on the door, we placed the door on the track and tested to make sure it slid across the track smoothly.

7. INSTALL DOOR STOPS

FOR THIS STEP YOU WILL NEED: Door Stops from the the sliding hardware door set

13. Next, we installed the door stops on each side of the track and secured them by tightening the set screws.

8. INSTALL HOLE CAPS

FOR THIS STEP YOU WILL NEED: Track Hole Caps from the sliding hardware door set

14. Since we did not need to connect multiple tracks we inserted the hole caps into the small holes at both ends of the tracks.

And that’s it! We hope you found this how to install a barn door tutorial helpful.

If you are looking for a simple and nice-looking hardware solution to hang you barn door, we are really pleased with how the oil-rubbed bronze hardware from National Hardware looks and functions.

Our master bedroom still has mostly black furniture which is why we initially stained the barn door black. Working on our master bedroom is at the bottom of our list when it comes to room makeovers but once we get around to it, I’m sure we will update our barn door to be stained Kona. For now, updating the hardware to oil-rubbed bronze has already made a huge difference.

Check out how we built our wood barn door and download free wood barn door plans to build your own.

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