Custom Sliding Barn Doors Can Add Personality to a Room
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Doors are meant as entries to living spaces and it is quite often necessary to leave some space inside a room for doors to swing into so that they can be easily entered. This does need some area in front of the door to be kept empty, thus reducing the available usable space. This problem can be effectively addressed by using custom sliding barn doors for securing any opening.
Barn Doors Have Universal Use
There was a time when barn doors were considered as suitable only for barns or properties that required large openings. This has since been proved wrong, with the advent into the market of very sophisticated and good looking sliding door hardware that allows for the building of custom barn doors even for residences. They are used to create a very rustic look that can greatly add to the ambiance of the room. Interior designers use a variety of hardware to create such doors, and can come out with a variety of designs which can fit in with the dÈcor being planned. In fact many designers consider putting up barn doors as a means of putting up artwork on a wall, and give a lot of importance to the buildup of the door, its hardware and functioning, to help them give a completed look to the room.
Locating Barn Doors
Barn doors are ideal for locations where a swing door becomes impractical. This makes them the right solution for doors that are required directly over stairs or in rooms that have no place for the door to swing in. Designers have used custom sliding doors over walls, to create the idea that a room has more space, because of the closets implied behind the sliding barn doors.
Barn doors are ideal for lofts, rooms that are not frequently used, media rooms or even to hide something like a TV or a bathroom. When you require custom sliding barn doors, you must know that doors have to be slightly larger than the opening they are meant to close. The overlap on all the three sides, the top, and the two jambs, needs to be even and at least an inch and a half, so that the opening is properly sealed. Doors perforce have to remain off the floor to permit easy sliding.
Fixing Sliding Barn Doors
The track that you need for custom sliding barn doors has to be at least twice the width of the door, so that the opening is fully exposed. You can have two leaves, with each leaf sliding to one side, but this is not a very attractive solution. There has to be a continuous lintel or solid backing over the opening so that the hardware can be fixed. There also needs to be at least four inches of space over the door opening to give space to the sliding door track and the wheels that will slide on this track.
Barn door sliding hardware must be chosen to suit with the other dÈcor, and the variety of finishes that these items of hardware do come with, does allow a lot of flexibility. The hardware must be fixed to the header over the door with fasteners that are designed to take the load of both the hardware and the door. Most barn doors are of solid construction and can weigh quite a bit.
Custom sliding barn doors can become a focal point in a room. It is necessary to keep the wall on the side of this door free at least for the length of the sliding hardware.