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My farmhouse wall in the master bedroom is my favorite area in the house. This is something that we brainstormed to solve one problem and it ended up solving more and looks great.
Go back to the 1990s and all of the houses that were being built had niches everywhere. The top of a wall didn’t go all of the way up or there were cutouts in the middle somewhere. I still like niches they’re like built-in furniture. Places to put decor. But they do need a little updating to fit into today’s lifestyle.
The one design element that I haven’t been able to figure out is the doorless master bathroom. Are you all with me on that one?
Whoever thought “Hey let’s put a bathroom in the master bedroom without a door.” Talk about no privacy my goodness. That is one place I want a door.
This is where my favorite farmhouse wall comes in.
You guessed it we had a big opening in the wall that led into the master bathroom. Sitting on our bed looked straight at the toilet.
No, Thank you!
No hiding in there. Not to mention, if you had to get up in the middle of the night. Whoever else is in the room woke up because of the light shining in their eyes.
Something had to be done.
Problem Solved
What we came up with is a sliding barn door. The doorway is an archway that is over 8 feet tall. There was no way to put a regular door in this area without some major construction that we didn’t want to do.
In our last house, our bathroom was open also but the opening was just the perfect size for a regular doorjamb and door. It was an easy fix.
We probably could have made our barn door if we wanted to but we really didn’t want to put the time or money into it. Here is a great DIY from Beneath My Heart if you want to build your own. We found ours on Offer up for just $100.00 and figured that was the way to go for us. We did shop around for the door hardware to hang it. What we found was this set. It was the most economical and looked and worked great. We also decided to put the handle and the bottom door guide for easier access. Click on the green highlighted words above to see what worked the best for us.
This barn sliding door definitely solved the privacy issues we were having.
One problem was solved now another one became apparent.
Fixing another issue and adding to our Farmhouse wall.
If you notice in the picture that there is an opening above where we put the sliding door. Well, we didn’t think it would be much of a problem.
Boy were we ever wrong!
The light found its way right into the master bedroom lighting it up like the door wasn’t even there.
The solution was to fill in that hole.
Deciding that it would be a great area to display or store items we decided to block it just on one side. I chose to block it on the bathroom side. Either side would have worked great. Even in the middle would have been great to add display areas on both sides.
As you see in the picture we cut 1×2’s. Stained them to the color we wanted and secured them with a brad nailer to the sides of the wall. The wood to go between the 1×2’s are pieces cut from 1×3’s. You can use whatever size you want. It depends on the look you are looking for. These fit perfectly for our area.
Make sure to measure for each board. Like most houses, our area wasn’t squared perfectly.
Adding this detail to the wall didn’t just cut down on the light it added storage and farmhouse style to our room.
Couldn’t stop there
This wall is huge. Not only having the master bathroom door on it it has 5 niches and the entryway into the bedroom.
In the above paragraph, I mentioned closing in the area with wood making it a storage or display area.
What’s left is the five niches. Three are stacked on top of each other. Leaving large hole-like areas. They were no use really for anything.
That is until we made them into shelves.
Adding more 1×2’s along the outer edges with screws and anchors this time. Making sure they will hold weight. Also, make sure your 1×2’s don’t go past your shelf depth. This is mainly for looks. The shelving material we used was the laminated 12″ depth from a big box hardware store. No painting was involved in the actual shelf. the 1×2’s are painted white matching both the walls and shelf material.
I just love all of the added display areas for my Precious Moment collection and the extra storage area. Just by adding these containers a lot of items are stashed away but easily accessible.
Eventually, we will add trim around the edge making it look more like a built-in bookshelf.
Adding more shelves
Notice the niche to the left of the door. Not much could go here. Except for? You guessed it more shelves. We decided to make these a little more farmhouse style to go with the door.
Making them like the previous niche shelves except for using wood that we stained to match the barn door. I added some baskets for more storage and love it.
The other niche area has an air conditioning vent in it. That area is still to be determined. I will make sure I post more about them with any more additions.
Hopefully, this gave you solutions to your doorless bathroom or even big empty niches.
There are numerous niches in our house so stay tuned for more ideas.
The materials we used are highlighted in green in the post. Just click on them if you would like the same look or they will help you find more ideas or colors you are looking for.
Make sure you check out my clutter-free posts.
