From Bi-Fold to Barn Doors - Max's Closet!

I showed you Max's nursery way back HERE -- and I mentioned then there was one last project I was hoping to complete in the room.
Well, it's finally done!
The barn doors on the closet . . .

This is what Max's closet doors looked like before:

Boring ol' bi-fold doors.
Because of the vintage farm theme in his room, I knew from the get-go I wanted barn doors on the closet -- but we had a couple of obstacles.
First, the sliding track and hardware for a "barn door" is EXPENSIVE.
And second, even if we were prepared to fork over the money for it, there wasn't room to slide the doors completely open because of the placement of the closet (very close to the door!).

So . . . my next suggestion was to make barn doors that would swing open (into the room).  But doors swinging into the room wasn't the best idea, either, as that would take up a lot of space (and the room isn't THAT big to begin with).

Finally, we decided on building bi-fold doors that - when closed - would look like barn doors!
Not my first choice . . . not my second choice . . . but the only choice that would actually WORK well in the room.
Gotta go with what works, peeps.  

I'm very fortunate to have a carpenter for an uncle -- and after a quick explanation of what I wanted, he was able to bring my vision to reality.  :-)

Here are the finished doors . . .

You can see, he added the thinner boards on top of the 2x4s to add the frame and X details . . .

We stained the doors with "Vintage Walnut" by Minwax . . .

Here is the end result:

(Because the doors are bi-fold, we had to place the handles closer to the middle than you would on a "regular" barn door.)

We just used the hinges from the old bi-fold doors . . . and yes, in a perfect world, I would have thought ahead and spray painted them black before attaching them. : )~

Oh well!  You can only see the WHITE hinges when the doors are open . . . and I highly doubt Max will care, anyway! :-)

I think the barn doors just add a little more character to the room and helped to complete the overall farm theme!

I added the barn pics into the initial nursery reveal post, also . . . if you missed it and want to see the rest of his room, click HERE!

Bottom line:  this is a very simple and affordable way to get the barn door look on a closet with existing bi-fold doors.  (Simple, if you have some basic carpentry skills -- or a carpenter in the family, that is! :)~

I love Max's room!  And I'm glad it's finally complete!
(Until I dream up another project . . . )
:-)