diy Archives - Lindsey Portugal Studios

When we moved into our new house, we knew we would need to find a solution to our backdoor glass doors. While we love the light that the doors provide, they offer no privacy at night. We decided that best way to address this was with barn doors.

After pricing out a couple options for custom barn doors, we decided to try our hand at making them. I am absolutely thrilled with how they turned out. I will say that if I ever move out of this house, I will be so sad to leave these beautiful doors!

We used the tutorial found here for the barn doors. We made some slight alterations for our custom size. We used wider boards for the top and bottom, and narrower boards for the cross board and sides.

My husband and my mother actually put the doors together and I finished and painted them. We used small head screws to screw through the back boards (so they wouldn’t be seen from the front). After assembling the boards, we used wood putty to fill all the holes, and then sanded them smooth.

Painting was probably the most complicated task of all. Staining would have been easier but I wanted a less rustic look. I used Benjamin Moore Advance Paint in Simply White. However, this paint was very difficult to work with. It is a paint that is SUPPOSED to self level and dry slowly. I found this was not the case. It dried very fast for me and did not self-level very well. I ended up having to put about three coats on each door and it was very difficult. I will say that the paint did dry VERY hard which I LOVE. However, I will say that if you decided to use this paint, DEFINITELY get a paint sprayer. You WILL see brush strokes or roller marks if you don’t.

We used this bypass bracket that we purchased on Amazon. I will be honest that the instructions weren’t GREAT but we figured it out. If you have a trim piece around your door like we do, you will have to make sure you put a board at the top. Otherwise the doors will hit your trim because the bracket hangs the doors too close to the wall. Also, having the board allows you to position the doors wherever you want without having to pay attention to stud placement. We wanted to use a bypass bracket so we could stack both doors over to the left.

So what do you think? Have you ever made barn doors? It is such a fun and relatively easy first project to start with!

Hey all! Happy Fall! Well I have been celebrating fall from the first day of September because come on, September = Fall! Anyway, I have slowly but surely been decorating my house with fall decor. It was a bit more of a struggle this year because I had to find new spots for everything since we moved into the new house. It also is exciting, because it gives me an opportunity to change things up and I definitely did! I can’t wait to share my fall decor with you (stay tuned for another blog post coming soon!). Anyway, I have been scouring instagram for some cute fall signs and have seen multiple different versions of craft paper fall scroll signs.

The problem is the signs were either too expensive, the wrong size, the wrong color, or just didn’t have everything I wanted. I decided to try to DIY this project. I am very happy with how it turned out, although I will say I definitely hit some bumps along the way! I will share them with you below.

The first thing you need for this project is some brown CRAFT PAPER. You can get this at Hobby Lobby or Michaels. Be VERY careful to not get craft WRAPPING paper. This is a new thing that has come out lately and it is wrapping paper colored to look like craft paper. It will not work the same so avoid this. (Secret:I accidentally bought this and had to go back to the store)

Then you will need to create a design on the computer. I used photoshop to create my design. I printed it out on multiple sheets of printer paper, then taped them together to create the sign. The next step is to use a tracing light to trace the design through to the paper. If you don’t have a tracing light box, you can always tape the design and the paper to a window where light shines through!

I wish I had taken photos in the process but I forgot to! I did add photos to my instagram stories though so if you want to see more progress pics you can head over there @LindseyPortugal .

Once you have the design traced onto the paper you have to decide what color you want for the writing. I went back and forth between black and white but I really liked how the white paint looked on the paper. This is my favorite white paint (Dr. Ph Martin’s Bleed Proof White) because it is very opaque and paints on smoothly. You do have to add some water to it though.

The next step is to paint the design on to the paper. BEWARE!!!! Use gloves when painting because if any of the oil from your hands sits on the paper too long it will make a mark. I learned this the hard way and had to change my design slightly to “cover” the marks.

Lastly, you will want to roll the top and bottom. I wish I had more clear guidance on how to do this. I actually punched holes and tied some twine. I wouldn’t do this again though if I could do it again. I think I would actually roll paper and glue it on as a “fake roll” but I don’t know. Do not attempt to glue the actual roll, I tried that and it didn’t turn out well. Paperclips work well so if you don’t mind seeing them peeking out through the side, use those!

To hang it, just run the twine through the top roll and tie, easy peasy. I am SUPER excited how this fall scroll came out. I might put some florals on top of it at some point, but I haven’t decided yet!

Here are the links to some of the items you will need for the project (I am an Amazon affiliate so I do receive a small amount for any purchases made through these links:

Craft paper

Dr. Martins Bleed Proof White

Tracing Box