What do you do when you don’t have very much room? Make every little inch count! Our favorite spa owner in Philadelphia had this tiny space that could barely accommodate a door, and a barn door is the perfect space saving solution. This barn door takes up just a couple of inches along the wall, leaving her plenty of room inside to offer luxury spa treatments inside this room. This is what you see from the hallway.

The hardware on the wall-side of a barn door is specialized and flat, to allow for the sliding back and forth.

Some people wonder if you can really close a barn door. Isn’t there a gap where the door sits against the wall? We solved this problem by building a little channel that the barn door slides into when it is closed. You might be able to see it in this photo below.

Here’s that same little channel from the inside, just made from molding. On the inside of the barn door, the hardware is a sleek long handle. We added a simple hook and eye lock for privacy.

The inside view is pure heaven.

You can see how much room we save by having a door that slides back, instead of one that swings open. Before, this small space was basically a closet. But now, with the space we saved with a simple barn door, it’s a bona fide room.

The barn door is held steady along the floor with a simple guide bracket.

The barn door came as a kit that we assembled, and the hardware coordinated. The dings and pits in the door are intentional. I love the simple, industrial look of the exposed hardware.

The exposed hardware barn door is a great retrofit option if you wish you could save space, and it’s much easier than retrofitting pocket doors. Check out a pocket door that we had installed in a closet to save space. Have you considered a barn door for your tiny spaces?