There are few trends that translate successfully across various design styles. For example, decorative columns look far too fancy and overdone in a mid-century modern style home where everything else is likely to be straight or spare in detail. Just as Prairie-style stained glass windows, made to replicate shafts of grain would be out of place in a curvy, highly-detailed Queen Anne Victorian.
Barn door hardware might be the exception to the rule. Farmers throughout the Midwest are puzzled because the brilliant-yet-practical use of a barn door hardware is not news to them. It’s simple and utilitarian. It opens the barn doors...it closes the barn doors. Yawn...
So, why are we still infatuated with barn door hardware? Because ANY door can be hung on barn door hardware. A curvy, carved, stained wood door... a painted white, leaded glass door... a flush birch, clear coated door...and, (that’s right)... even a rustic BARN door. The options are quite honestly, endless. All that limits the style of a barn door is the finish of the hardware and how wide the opening is, i.e. how many doors you’ll need to cover it!
In addition, a barn door can be an ideal solution when a pocket door won’t work. Let’s imagine a tricky transition between hallway and laundry room. A pocket door won’t work simply due to HVAC, plumbing or electrical in the wall and a door swinging into the hallway or into the laundry creates a foot traffic issue. A barn door would quietly hide that laundry room and the pile of dirty clothes in it, quietly and beautifully!
-Holly Bayer, ASID