In this episode, I build a rustic-style barn door for my client’s Denver home. I used authentic barnwood reclaimed from a 100-year-old barn. The client loves the gray-weathered look. To create the door, I made a welded steel frame to hold the barn wood.  This was a great way to create a custom door.

Brian discussed his process of creating a reclaimed wood door. He sourced the wood from a salvage business.  He started the build by cutting it to rough length. To avoid pencil marks on the beautiful weathered barnwood, he used blue tape to mark the locations of the dominoes. He glued the wood pieces together in smaller sub-assemblies before assembling them into a complete door. To prevent bowing, he used an F-style clamp. He then cut steel to length and mitered the corners, grinding a bevel along the miter for a seamless finish. He welded flanges on the back to hold the wood in the frame and marked bolt locations using a drill bit. He performed a test fit of each bolt to ensure smooth operation of the door.

There’s something special about working with reclaimed materials—each piece carries its own history, texture, and character. For this project, I sourced most of the wood from a salvage business down the highway. The owner has an incredible collection of materials, and after picking out the perfect boards, I headed back to the shop to begin crafting a unique, distressed wood and steel door.

The first step was cutting the boards to roughly the right size. Since the wood had been part of batten boards (used to protect it during storage and weathering), there was a brown strip left behind. To ensure clean edges, I jointed one side straight, allowing me to safely rip off the weathered strip.

Because I wanted to preserve the wood’s natural distressed look, I avoided sanding it. Instead of marking measurements directly on the wood (which could leave permanent pencil marks), I used blue tape to indicate where the domino joints would go.

I aligned the dominoes toward the back of the door so any minor unevenness would appear on the show side, adding to the rustic aesthetic. Since excess glue could ruin the unfinished look, I applied just enough to hold everything together without squeeze-out.

Given the number of pieces involved, I broke the assembly into smaller sub-sections, gluing them first before combining everything into the full door. To prevent clamp marks or black staining (a common issue when metal clamps meet glued wood), I used cauls as buffers.

The door’s length exceeded my longest clamps, so I improvised a reverse clamping system. By securing one end of the door to the workbench, I could push the final board into place while maintaining even pressure. A style clamp helped prevent bowing during the glue-up.

Once assembled, I trimmed the door to its final dimensions using my track saw.

With the wood portion complete, I shifted focus to the steel frame. After clearing the workbench, I cut the steel to length and mitered the corners for a clean fit. To ensure strong welds, I added a slight bevel along the miters, allowing the weld to penetrate fully. Later, I ground these welds flush so the frame would appear seamless once painted.

One of my favorite parts of welding miters? If there’s a gap, you can just fill it with molten steel—problem solved!

I welded flanges onto the back of the frame to secure the wood panel. Even though the wood was already distressed, I took precautions to protect it from sparks and heat, including using a welding blanket to prevent scorching or accidental fires.

For the header above the door, I marked bolt locations by spinning a drill bit backward in the hole to create an indent. For precision, I drilled pilot holes using a drill press instead of a handheld drill. A slight misalignment could cause the door to hang crooked or roll unevenly on its track, so I test-fitted each bolt with a wooden block to keep them straight during installation.

This project was a great reminder of how reclaimed materials can be transformed into something functional and beautiful. The natural wear of the wood, combined with the industrial steel frame, gives the door a rugged yet refined look, perfect for a workshop, barn, or modern rustic home.