Barn-style Half Door

There’s always something that needs fixing on my parents’ ranch. This time, it was replacing a door that had been ripped off its hinges during a storm a while back. My dad asked me to buy and install a new one as a half-door, but I decided to try my hand at making one, for basically just the cost of two hinges, some screws and an afternoon.

I collected several pieces of (semi)uniform scrap wood from the warehouse and took measurements.

Time to cut ’em down to size.

I then laid them out and took more measurements. The tricky thing was that I had to get a width of exactly 31.5 inches, and as I mentioned before, these scrap pieces weren’t uniform, so it took some time.

Finally I managed to get the pieces arranged to fit the required width, so now it’s time to frame. One of the scrap boards I found was painted white, so I used it to cap the top and bottom for aesthetics.

All screwed in. Added the barn-style cross brace, also for aesthetics, but I guess it provides some support.

Since it was a custom door I chiseled out two new recesses for the hinges to rest in. Used wedges and a level to get the door plumb and, well, level. Unfortunately, the door jamb is a little wonky. As a side note, the mosquitoes in this area can probably now be safely registered as blood donors, judging by how much they took out of me.

Latch installed, and all done! Surprisingly, it fits and swings evenly. Since it’s an outside door, the minor imperfections in the wood that leave the small gaps don’t matter. Who says you need to spend money on the real thing? I’ll probably end up having to paint it eventually but for now my mom and dad said they like it.

Thanks for reading!