Hello!

I’m currently planning to refresh our main bedroom at the lakehouse. I want to create a warm, cozy sleeping space and address a couple of things that have annoyed me about the room since we bought the house. The worst of the offenders is the 90’s open concept- lack of a door to the bathroom. Who wants to look from the bathtub to the yard? So we decided now was the perfect time to DIY a wood block sliding door.

Here is where we started.

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I am designing this space as part of the One Room Challenge, and this is week 7. This is my last project, and I cannot wait to show the reveal next week. Check my Instagram to see all of the updates so far!

The materials are pretty straightforward, and I would like to thank Emtek for gifting the Sliding Door Hardware for this project.

Materials and Tools needed

Here are the materials and tools you’ll need to build your own sliding door:

• Plywood
• 1×6 wood boards-cut into 4 x 6 blocks
• Door track and rollers– We have the 6′ x 6″ version
• Door handle- We made ours from plumbing pipe and flanges.
• Paint or stain (optional). 🙂 See below.

Instructions for assembling the door

Step one was to cut the plywood to size. Our door opening is 36″, and our door measures 40 x 96 (allowing 2 inches on both sides for the overhang).

We then primed both sides.

We then cut the wood boards into 4 x 6 pieces and sanded the edges.

Once the blocks were sanded, I decided to stain them a walnut color.

I felt they were a little too brown here, so I mixed it up and stained some grey. I truly loved the mix of the two stain colors (but stay tuned).

Once all the blocks were laid out, I used wood glue to attach them to the plywood. I placed books on the blocks to ensure they adhered properly and let the glue dry overnight.

Next, my husband measured and attached the rollers to the door.

Because our doorway is open, we needed to attach a headerboard for the sliding door track. The board is attached to several studs with very heavy screws. We made sure it would hold about 300 lbs. We (by we, I mean Dave) then installed the track according to the directions from Emtek.

That only left putting the door onto the track.

I adore how the wood blocks look (they remind me of the headboard we made a few years ago), and I love the mix of colored stains, but PLOT TWIST!

I don’t love it with the grasscloth accent wall. It was screaming too much. Sigh.

So, I tried to whitewash the blocks to tone them down a bit. Then, I made a handle from plumbing parts.

Hmmmm, pretty, but not quite enough.

I then decided to go ahead and paint them. I went with SW Agreeable Beige.

And we have a winner! I love that the blocks show a tiny bit of knots and grain and that it is not stealing the show. And oh my gosh, to have an actual DOOR! What do you think? Would you DIY a wood block sliding door?

Once again, a huge thanks to Emtek for gifting the Sliding Door Hardware. See the room reveal here!

And be sure to check out what the other One Room Challenge designers are up to.

Until next time,

Libbie

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