How to: Make a barn door or ‘hidden door’?

Kevin saw MyFixitUpLife’s Facebook post showing a bookcase hidden door and, question: I have my DIY head wrapped around how to make a barn door. But…

I love the bookcase hidden door you guys posted! This would be for my wife’s office. Since it’s a work area, she wants to know what side would the shelves would be on. I said any side you want? Or even both sides? Depending on the depth?

Kevin—I’m seeing you noticed that your last three statements had question marks.

I love it. I also love questions that raise other question because those are the best kind of questions. Those questions get to answers. The rest is just a smoke screen.

It’s awesome you know how to make a barn door. It’s an incredible option that hardly has a downside. But, the Batman style hidden bookcase door; let’s unpack that.

Structurally, I don’t think it matters which side the shelves are on because the door thickness doesn’t change. And that is one thick door which may require—from a trim and proportion perspective—equally thick walls as shown in the photo (Source: Buzzfeed). Do you have monster walls? That bookcase shown on our Facebook page is at least a foot thick.

There’s more to think about. That’s a picture, not something you use every day. I can tell that with something like this, in order for it to work, it should be pretty hyper-precision. Like the Panama Canal lock gates (almost). Or it’ll just torque you off every time it doesn’t work quite right. #DIYReality. And the more I look at the photo I’m pretty sure this is in a super-house.

Still more: Because this is an office door—i.e. in motion, often—decor needs to be stable. Like an ash tray or Weeble or deck of cards laying flat. Or my book, just sayin’

As an option, you could do barn doors and build shelves inside the room. We did a door for our Food Network show; here’s how to build a barn door, TV style.