Master Bedroom Makeover with Sliding Barn Door

The steps below follow the order of the work for this makeovers project.

I’m excited to have a guest blogger here today to share an impressive master bedroom remodel. This master suite didn’t even start out as a bedroom–it was a garage! The new space is definitely not one where you’d expect to find a car parked! Instead, it’s a tranquil getaway.     The couple that built this new master bedroom added some really great touches to the room, like a barn door separating the bedroom from the master bathroom. Instead of purchasing pricey hardware, they were able to make do with what they had. Barn doors are a go-to of ours here at Bekob. look at some of the tutorials for DIYing barn doors that we have in our files. Build your own Dutch Barn Door and Baby/Pet Gate Bekob   Interior Barn Door Style Window shutters walkthrough featured on Bekob    Barn Door walkthrough for Engineers Grand Design Co.    Sliding Barn Door TV Cover Capturing Joy   Barn Door Kitchen Table option | Featured on Bekob   Update your Garage doors, Carriage Door walkthrough Bekob    Detailed Barn Door Track walkthrough Baby Rabies    Mini Barn Doors for Bookcase Four Generations One Roof | featured on Bekob       Barn Door from Old Fence Posts House Tweaking     Aren’t those great? Watch for tips on another way to achieve the barn door look when you are reading about our guest blogger’s new master bedroom.  

Submitted by:  Maple Leaves & Sycamore Trees

  I’m an average housewife married to my bff (Mitch) with three striking boys, (Ryder, Bryce, and Finn) living in my dream of a house (3 bedroom rancher.) We started our married life here more than 5 years ago and we’ve been changing it ever since. I love decorating. Ever since my Strawberry Shortcake-themed room from when I was about 7, I’ve loved adding my touch to a room.   A little over three years ago, Mitch and I had to decide if we were going to move or stay and renovate to make our house larger. At the time, our house was a tiny two bed/one bath rancher and we had two children. Things were getting tight. Now we have a three bed/two bath rancher and three boys:) This reno took a while, obviously, but I can honestly say–the hard work has paid off. With help from friends, we did all the work ourselves, and other than borrowing a little bit from a family member for our kitchen renovation, we’ve done the whole thing debt-free. It feels great and now we have a master bedroom that feels like “us.” Okay enough talk. Let me show you where we started. Remember, this space used to be our garage.   These were the early days. At this point, Mitch pretty much had no option what he was doing. “I’ll take this here screwdriver and chip away at this hole in the wall…” is probably what he’s thinking:) We literally started from scratch and have learned SO MUCH along the way. Shoot, Mitch even learned how to do electrical and plumbing work. I’m so proud of him. Seriously. So proud.

This is the stairwell going into our finished basement. It’s now closed in.

And this angle-shot is now where our new master bedroom is located.

And this is what we turned it into: a calming relaxing space all our own! (we hadn’t had a bedroom to ourselves ever since Bryce was born…he was always in our room in the crib…actually now that I think about it, we STILL don’t have the room to ourselves! Finn is still in there sleeping in his bassinet every night. One of these days…)

The walls are Ben Moore Revere Pewter (eggshell finish). The trim, wardrobes, and barn door are Ben Moore Dragon’s Breath (semi-gloss). The ceiling is painted Ben Moore Titanium (flat finish). That’s the same color as our living room. I wanted all the colors of our house to flow. And I’m all about calming, serene colors these days:) The ceiling is the lightest shade of blue/gray. It’s nice and subtle.

I get lots of questions about the barn door. That’s definitely one of my go-to features of the room. For those who are new, I found this door for sale alongside the road. When I saw it, I literally made a U-turn right then and there and pulled into this guy’s driveway. The house from which it came, was being torn down and the owners were selling random things, among them, this door. 

You can see what the door used to look like here. I was asked what hardware we used. Well, this door actually used to function in between the wall as a pocket door (in its former house). Back in the day, when you wanted to close off your parlor, you’d simply pull the door shut from inside the wall. And when you wanted one big open space, you slid the door back, and it fit snugly into the wall. The track it hangs from was covered up I suppose by the ceiling originally, but of course we wanted our “barn door” to be a focal point in the room thus we hung it on the wall as opposed to inside the wall. The track came with the door and after discussing with our neighbor (thanks, Jim!) how we were going to hang it, he suggested we simply bolt the track right into the studs. straightforward enough! (well straightforward for me to say–that door is solid wood and HEAVY and it was just Mitch and his Dad who installed it.) Mitch actually screwed a board into the studs (it’s painted the same color as the wall) then bolted the track through the board into the studs. He used 5″ bolts. That puppy ain’t goin’ nowhere! I just left the original hardware (pretty sure the handle isn’t original) on it since I loved the patina of it. The lock part doesn’t work, but originally, you could lock the pocket door shut when you closed it. 

Next up: our wardrobes. This was a design decision that was made pretty early on. You wouldn’t believe how many people tried to convince me to build a walk-in closet. Okay, it was like three people, but still. I knew we couldn’t make a walk-in. The layout of the room would not accommodate one. Plus, unless it’s a WALK IN (you know what I mean…like an entire room), I really didn’t care to have one. We had seen some wardrobes at Ikea that we liked. At least until we saw them in person. So then we decided to call our cabinetmaker, and have him build some for us. I think it was a great decision. We love how they look and function. 

The space in between the wardrobes was totally based on this little dresser that I found at an antique store. I loved it the second I saw it. Mitch went back and bought it for me. I think it was a Christmas present (that I didn’t know about!) one year. So I knew I wanted that little guy in between the wardrobes to break up the cabinetry. We found the electric fireplace on line one day (it was on one of these one-day sale websites) and it was the well fitted size. Love the modern touch it brings to the room.

The bedding is made up of mostly second-hand finds. The greenish blue blanket on top is Ralph Lauren that I got from GW, the comforter at the foot of the bed is from Pottery Barn that I got at a yard sale. You can read about the Ralph Lauren blanket here. And the Euro shams I picked up at the PB Outlet.

 What do you think? We love the way it turned out!  

Kathleen, I think it turned out beautifully! You and your husband did an memorable job on this. Thanks so much for sharing it with our readers! Here is a link to her bedroom post if you wanna look at more.

We’ve featured a few more rooms with barn doors at Bekob. look at the links below for even more inspiration.

Barn Door Baby Gate Sliding Barn Cabinetry Doors Carriage House Garage Door Makeover