Design Dilemma Solved With A Barn Door

Two years ago I purchased my current home.  It is an 1890 colonial.  The house appears to have been built in stages over the years.  The front third is 2 1/2 stories with high ceilings on both levels and a walk-up attic space.  The mid and rear sections are more of a 1 1/2 story.

The master bedroom is situated on the second floor of the mid section.  It is a very large room with sloped ceilings.  To enter from the hallway you need to step down.  When I purchased the house there was no door to this room making it more appropriate for use as a family room.  In order to convert the room for use as a bedroom adding a door was a must.

Herein is where the problems became apparent.  First of all being sunken a regular hinged door would have just hung in mid air along the wall.  With the door swinging into the room it either blocked the heat register on one wall or wouldn't swing all the way open because of the sloped ceiling.  A pocket door wouldn't have worked for the same reason.  Swinging the door out into the hallway would block the stairway or impede on the entrance to the other bedroom.  So what was a person to do.  I didn't want bi-fold doors which would have made it look like the entrance to a closet.  I needed something special.

I decided a sliding barn door was the only answer.  Looking into it further I found the standard barn door hardware to be relatively expensive.  For a lower priced option I came up with hanging a sliding closet door track on the outside of the bedroom wall.  I purchased a standard door slab at Lowes along with the closet door track and hardware.  In order to secure the track to the wall at the right height I secured a two by four painted the color of the wall first.  I then screwed the track into that and added the wheels to the top of the door.  It is functional and I think it added some industrial interest without compromising anything.  Wouldn't you agree?