Celebrating Handmade | Etsy Seller Makes Hard-to-Find Oversized Barn Doors

This post officially kicks off a new series on my blog celebrating the makers and all things handmade. Not only do I love handcrafted jewelry (because that’s what I do) but I appreciate and have a passion for all things handcrafted and I’d like to celebrate the makers in this series.

Too Many Doors

I’m in a relatively new house and when we built it, we made a big mistake. In our basement, we have an exercise room where the builder installed French doors so that we’d be able to easily move equipment in and out while also concealing the equipment when we didn’t want it seen. That worked fine…for awhile.

The problem arose because the French doors opened in. While one was held in a stationery position 99% of the time, the other one swung into the room and blocked access to another door in the exercise room. This second door led to our utility room. The utility room not only holds the furnace and water heater, etc., it also houses two dog kennels and a refrigerator. Undeniably, it’s a busy place. I also feed my dogs there so there’a a lot of commotion trying to get into that room when I call, “Time for lunch!”

Originally, the French doors into our exercise room worked. One stayed stationery while the other one opened in.

At mealtime, me and my dogs walk into the exercise room and make a sharp turn to the right, while maneuvering around the opened French door to get into the utility room. Really, sometimes it feels like we’re all trying to get into or out of a clown car.

Because the French door opened in, it blocks access to the utility room door, creating a cluster of doors that hampered access rather than making it easy.

Pocket Door or Barn Door?

As I saw it, there were two solutions to this problem: 1) have a pocket door installed or 2) choose a barn door.

The first solution was ruled out almost immediately. If we were going to install a pocket door, we really should have done it from the get-go during construction. At this late date, it would be a messy proposition that would take forever and require a lot of extra repair to the walls and other modifications. The second option, to install a barn door, was really the best all-around option.

However, while it seemed simple at first, it proved to be extremely difficult. The opening was so wide that we had problems finding a door that would fit. Certainly a stock door was out of the question. Custom door manufacturers were unresponsive. Either they had too much business or were just poor at customer service. My contractor gave up. He said he couldn’t get anyone to response to his request for a quote and blamed it on Covid.

Solution | DoorsbyDeborahAnne on Etsy

I took the job on and I could not find anyone else near or far to make an oversized barn door for my basement, I found DoorsbyDeborahAnne on Etsy. She quickly gave me a quote. I placed my order January 21 of this year with expected delivery in late March.

The door actually arrived just little bit later–about April 13–but all the while, Deborah was in contact with me. The shipping was exceptional for such a large-sized item and went very smoothly. My contractor installed it and had the job completed by April 26.

The door arrived painted. The hardware, which we requested be low profile due to the small gap between the top of the door opening and the ceiling, was top quality and arrived scratch-free.