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Barn Door Installation Without Removing Door Trim

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Today I am sharing how to install a barn door and you will be amazed at how an easy sliding barn door installation project can change the look of your room.  We are tackling a barn door installation without removing door trim and this step by step tutorial will show you how to update any doorway in your home including closet doors and bathroom doors. 

Do you have a traditional single swing door in your home that when opened, creates a traffic jam?

The sliding barn door that we are installing is perfect for any doorway in your home, especially a basement, closet or bathroom doorway. 

Modern white interior sliding barn door Installation without Removing Door Trim

How to Install a Sliding Barn Door Over Existing Trim

We have partnered with JELD-WEN Window and Doors to show you the easiest barn door installation and their amazing new Barn Door Kit.

Barn style doors have come along way over the years. You can hang just about any style door giving you a traditional, modern or farmhouse barn door.

Our barn door cost is very affordable and available in many different styles: rustic craftsman, old world, contemporary, and farmhouse.

Hanging a barn door over existing trim whether it be farmhouse door trim, standard 3″ trim or colonial is a quick way to refresh or update a doorway. 

I recently updated this post as Google is showing a handful of updated barn door models and I wanted to make sure you had plenty to pick from! 

AMAZON BARN DOORS: These are my favorite barn doors that have fast free shipping.

Check my list here on our Amazon Storefront

Sliding Barn Door Hardware

Isn’t the black sliding barn door hardware gorgeous?

The black door hardware coordinates perfectly with the black kitchen island and black stools. It is truly amazing how the barn door hardware draws your eye to the ceiling (that normally is a white blank space) and creates a cohesive look throughout the kitchen.

My door is out of stock but this white modern barn door is similar from Amazon.  

If you are considering installing a barn door, I highly recommend getting a door that is already prepped for the sliding track. Barn door hanging kits will make your life easier when it comes to installing the barn door.

Can a barn door go over molding? Yes!

Many of you have emailed asking if the barn door trim designs matter when it comes to a barn door installation and the answer is no.

So to answer your question, “should barn doors cover trim,” yes, you can install a barn door over any door trim or molding. 

Let’s get started with how to install a barn door and this easy barn door installation tutorial. 

White basement kitchen door black island Barn Door Installation without Removing Door Trim
loving how simple this barn door installation was

Barn Door Styles

Sliding barn style doors come in all sizes, shapes and designs. Barn doors can be interior or exterior, a single barn door or a double barn door.

Here are a 3 barn door styles below featuring Old World, Modern Craftsman and a rustic Farmhouse door.

The white barn door is my favorite and I think you are going to love these barn door ideas below. 

Sliding barn doors are great in tight spaces like hallways, a laundry room or bathroom.

Installing a sliding door is an easy to install simple DIY project so you should not need to hire a contractor.

If you don’t like the barn door style, why not convert a traditional door to sliding door?

Farmhouse barn door, old world barn door, modern barn door, Barn Door Installation without Removing Door Trim
installing a barn door is a great option if limited floor space

Personally, I think hanging interior barn doors (convert door to barn door) in your home is a great way to add visual interest to a plain wall and enhances the interior design of the space.

Barn style doors are perfect for a closet, basement door, bathroom door or even a built in bookcase as well as a nice alternative to a pocket door.

Be sure to check out our double interior sliding barn doors we installed to cover a bookcase that we converted to store baking dishes and small kitchen appliances.

Here is the kitchen basement door before we swapped out and installed the new sliding barn door.

White basement kitchen door Barn Door Installation without Removing Door Trim

Let’s review some common questions about how to install a barn door over trim before we get started with the installation steps.

Questions you need to ask yourself before you install a sliding barn door 

  1. Is there enough wall space for the door to slide? Make sure the space is wider than the opening.
  2. Does the style barn door you like, fit the style of your home. Be sure to pick a barn door that is similar to the style of your home. 
  3. Will the barn door when open cover any wall art or light switches that may be on the wall. 

Barn Door Installation: Complete Guide

How to Install a Barn Door 

Removing door trim can be a daunting and expensive task so this tutorial on how to install a barn door will blow your mind!

Removing door trim can be expensive as you will need to repair the sheet rock and possibly replaster the area.

Door trim when removed, typically leaves the wall underneath the trim in need of TLC. The sheetrock will need significant sanding, patching and repainting.

White basement kitchen door Barn Door Installation without Removing Door Trim
installing a sliding barn door was a great option for this kitchen

As many of you may know, we are planning a move in the near future (Update: You can see our new mediterranean house here) so I reached out to a friend to see if she was game for a kitchen door makeover.

My friend has a beautiful kitchen but unfortunately, their interior basement door (which leads to their finished basement) swings right into their kitchen island area creating a major traffic jam when the door is in use.

As you can see below, the door swing is completely annoying and not functional at all.

Woman sitting on stool , White basement kitchen door Barn Door Installation without Removing Door Trim
Installing a barn door and sliding track added character to the kitchen and solved the swing door issue

My friend Sophia and Gerry were thrilled when I told them about this opportunity with JELD-WEN and couldn’t wait to tackle the project.

At first when I told Sophia about us sharing how to install a barn door here on the blog, she giggled and said “what?” ha. 

The JELD-WEN Design Glide hanging barn door kit has easy to read instructions and took just a Saturday morning to install.

husband and wife kitchen island, White basement kitchen door Barn Door Installation without Removing Door Trim

Step 1: Remove The Existing Door

We removed the standard sized existing basement door as well as the door hinges. The nice thing about the JELD-WEN barn door kit is you can install the door right over your existing door trim.

You do NOT need to remove the trim! It doesn’t matter if your trim is traditional (like my friends trim above),  farmhouse door trim or colonial.  

You will need to use some spackle (we used the quick dry version) to fill the area where you remove the previous doors hinges but that is all.

It took about 15 minutes to fill the holes, sand and add touch up paint to the existing door hinge spots.

Be sure to reference JELD-WEN’s site for appropriate sizing.

men removing White basement kitchen door Barn Door Installation without Removing Door Trim

Barn Door Installation

Step 2: Install Door Header

Once the old door was removed, we installed the wood header piece above the door frame. JELD-WEN also supplied a matching white wood header but Sophia wanted the header to match the wall color so she purchased a piece of 3/4 inch pine and had it custom cut to the length we needed.

How to install barn door without header

Note: If you do not want to see the header board for design reasons, then you can remove the drywall above the door, locate the wall studs and fasten the track hardware to the studs but this is a much more lengthy process and makes a bigger mess! We painted the header the same color as the wall it blended in nicely. You barely notice the header!

She added two coats of paint (same as wall color) and we were good to go! We used the wall screws that JELD-WEN provide to attach the base/header to the wall.

You can fill the screw holes with wood putty or spackle and touch up with paint.

Men installing header for sliding door hardware White basement kitchen door Barn Door Installation without Removing Door Trim
husband and wife installing sliding barn door hardware, Barn Door Installation without Removing Door Trim

Step 3: Install Sliding Door Track

Next we attached the sliding black rail to the wall.

Black sliding barn door track , Barn Door Installation without Removing Door Trim
Black sliding barn door hardware, husband and wife, Barn Door Installation without Removing Door Trim
black sliding barn door track hardware for a white modern barn door with glass, Barn Door Installation without Removing Door Trim

Step 4: Fasten Door To Track

We then fastened to the door sliding track and soft close feature to prevent the door from slamming open or closed. The kit comes with a bottom door track as well which we opted not to use as it wasn’t necessary for our install. The Soft Close feature is by far one of the coolest features on this door.

Hanging Barn Doors – An Easy Solution For Tight Spaces

They have two kids and this door leads to their playroom in the basement so you can imagine the slamming that would take place without the Soft Close!

We installed the Soft Close on each end of the track so that if you are opening or closing, the door doesn’t slam in either direction. Hanging barn doors solve so many issues!

Modern white interior sliding barn door Installation without Removing Door Trim
Doesn’t this modern sliding barn door with glass look amazing?
White kitchen basement door, sisal chair, Barn Door Installation without Removing Door Trim

The kitchen before with a single door leading to the basement.

White basement kitchen door Barn Door, white quartz countertop, black island, Installation without Removing Door Trim

The kitchen after we installed a modern sliding barn door.

Jeldwen white modern barn door, black barn door sliding hardware, black island, black stool, flowers, Barn Door Installation without Removing Door Trim
Loving how the white sliding barn door coordinates with the black island and white quartz counter

This modern frosted glass sliding barn door from Amazon is similar! 

Barn door installation cost?

The cost to install a sliding barn door will be between $300 and $1200 depending on what style barn door and track kit you purchase. The installation cost will be minimum if you are handy and have a little bit of DIY know how.

Where should I hang a sliding barn door? 

  1. Closet barn doors are very popular (see image below) especially when you do not have a large room as they save space. We have utilized several of the sliding barn door ideas below in our own home and flip houses.
  2. A pantry sliding barn door is a unique solution in kitchens large and small. See our double sliding barn door tutorial to see how we turned a built in bookshelf into a kitchen pantry using two barn door slabs that we hung with a barn door track kit.
  3. A sliding barn door for bathroom privacy is a great choice in a master bedroom that has a tight space entering the bathroom as many single doors hit the bathroom vanity or linen closet door.  Click through this post, sliding bathroom door (see image below) to see the sliding bathroom barn door we installed in a new construction home.
3 white sliding interior doors to bathroom and closet, white oak floors, blue walls

Below is a 2 panel door with black sliding barn door hardware that we installed at the split level house between the bathroom and laundry room. There wasn’t enough room for a traditional swing door so the sliding door was the best choice.

white masonite 2 panel solid core interior door on barn sliding track

I love the idea of using a regular door and hanging it with a black hardware sliding kit. Sliding barn doors do not need to look like “barn doors!”

Sliding Barn Door Kits You Will Love

Convert interior door to sliding barn door

If you already have an interior door that you love, considering purchasing a sliding barn door kit and hang the interior door! We have used this sliding barn door kit for a double bypass doors and this barn door kit for a single door. Just make sure the kit you purchase comes with the anti jump and door stop.

Amazon also has this 2 panel white barn door with hardware too.

This white classic modern door (similar alternative) comes in 1 box and everything you need is in the sliding door track kit. White doors with black hardware coordinate nicely together and give a modern clean look.

Meet Jessica

What started as a hobby, Jessica’s blog now has millions of people visit yearly and while many of the projects and posts look and sound perfect, life hasn’t always been easy. Read Jessica’s story and how overcoming death, divorce and dementia was one of her biggest life lessons to date.

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33 Comments

  1. Your friends are fortunate!! I live up the road in North Grafton….do you design on the side? Love your taste in home design. Good luck and many blessings in your new home.

  2. Looks great! In love
    Very much interested in replacing my existing door for what I call my study, catch all room which is directly left of opening my back door. 70’s rancher, open back door and the steps lead directly to basement or turn head to left step up your in our study or turn head right step up your in kitchen so not sure if it would work or how much room is needed of wall space. What do ya think?

  3. This door looks fantastic and is a great solution. Does it have a fixture at the bottom to keep it from swinging?
    Thanks!

  4. Question- when you take down the original door what do you do with area where original door hung? I have ugly holes now.

  5. Jess,
    When I saw this I thought immediately of installing a barn door! But, that is only because I’ve been following you for so long, lol! Love seeing/reading your DIY, decor and renovations. ????

  6. Is there a gap between the door frame and the door? I’m afraid that if we use one of these for our bathroom doorway which has similar trim around it that there will be a gap.

    Please let me know.

    Thank you,

    1. There is a small gap because you wouldn’t want the new door sliding and hitting your trim but unless you are right up on top of it and looking for it, it’s not very noticeable.

  7. Lovely and so practical! Do you have a handle of any kind on the other side of the door? If so, what did you use?

    My husband and I are looking to install a barn door on a bathroom (the current door hits the tub and makes it impossible for two people to share the room). We are considering an inset handle since a standard handle would obviously bump the wall and prevent the door from opening all the way.

  8. Hi what is the distance you need from the top of the door frame to the ceiling I have low ceilings.. thank you..

  9. Did you also patch the door entry trim on the opposite side of the hinges where the door knob goes into the trim to keep the door shut? Also, you left the door stop trim that stops the door when closing? I can’t tell by the pictures.

  10. Looks great, but hard to tell from all the white, you had filled the holes where the door old door hinges was, but did you leave the door stop piece. I;ve found that taking this off can be a pain, and was wondering if you just left it?

  11. Question: No one ever shows the other side, like coming up from the basement in your case, what is the door hardware on that side? Is it flat? And did you intall the floor guide piece? do you feel it is necessary? We are going to put a barn door on the laundry room because the door opens in and makes it tricky to get to the closet in the laundry room.

  12. I feel like I have looked everywhere, what is that top long Black rectangle piece that is attached to the door and to the rollers? Is this part of the “soft close” or is it just an accent attached to the door? My husband and I bought a door that was mistakenly too short so we were trying to find a way to salvage this project. I recommended having someone fabricate a kicker plate on the bottom to “close the gap.” it almost looks like the piece on your door gives you additional inches that we could benefit from.

  13. Hi, I am interested in doing same. Did you also fill, sand and paint the jam where lockkeeper was? Did you remove the small piece of trim that runs from the top of jam to the bottom to stop the swing of the previous door ( door stop)?
    I’d love to see pictures of the jam and how the repairs came out please.
    Thanks,
    Steve

  14. We recently put up a barn door on the entrance of our small bathroom in our bedroom. We didn’t remove the trim either. Our bathroom was small and when the door opened up into it, it took up what little space we had. Very glad we did it. My husband loves it. We put a handle on the outside, but didn’t need to put one on the inside, but I guess you could put a recessed one if you wanted to.

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