Building the barn

December is Barn Month, and no one has a more impressive barn than Australian hobbyist, Amy Williams. I recently discovered her Instagram and Facebook accounts, and I have fallen in love with every single picture she posts. This barn building tutorial was originally written for her website. Thank you, Amy, for allowing me to repost it here.

Building the Barn

by Amy Williams

I didn't originally plan to write up the whole process, however lots of people have since been inspired by the project and I wanted to make it as accessible as possible. I did take lots of pictures of the process at least!

The Plans

I drew my plans out on 5mm (approx. 0.2") grid paper.

I originally planned to use a steel mesh instead of bars/wooden dowels, but for ease of instillation and worries about weight, I went with wooden dowels in the end. I also didn't stick exactly to my door design, and I made the windows larger as well.

Materials

• 9mm (0.35") plywood - we bought 2 1900mmx800mm (74.8"x31.5") sheets and had a little left over.
• 12m (39.4') of 4mm (0.15") wooden dowel - we used significantly less, closer to 10m.
• 15mm (0.6") square dowel - my granddad had scrap oak that he cut to size for me.
• Flat head screws
• Nails
• Normal? screws
• Wood glue
• An amazingly patient and talented granddad (optional)
• Access to said granddad's slew of power tools and workshop

A Few Tips Before You Start

I used house paint - my local hardware store sold sample pots for about $7 each, and also had a shelf of unwanted/premixed sample pots and full sized tins available significantly marked down - I got most of my sample pots for $3 from that shelf. I am pretty sure this would work out cheaper than using craft paint, and the coverage was great with two coats.

For the love of all things holy, paint the dowels BEFORE you install them - even better, before you cut them. Same with the lines in the wood/panelling detail - use a router and get them in before installing, or you will spend several hours with an awl and a ruler carving them in. Ask me how I know.

Construction

Day 1 I drew out the floor plan of the barn directly onto the ply that was my floor, including the thickness of the plywood itself, the columns and leaving the gaps for the door. This made it easy to visualize and make any changes in the meantime. I also drew out the outside walls, internal walls and external walls. From there, everything was cut to size.

​The columns were cut, glued and nailed in first. The rails holding the dowels were drilled using a drill press and a 4mm (0.15") drill bit, then the dowels installed and the top railing slotting on top of the dowels (this was a colossal headache but made for a great strong fit). The sliding doors were made by cutting a channel in a piece of scrap wood (leftovers from the columns would work fine) and a channel routed into the floor. The door top and bottom then had the reverse - they have a lip to slot into the channel. 

It's important to note when painting, avoid painting these channels & lip, as the fit is quite tight and adding paint can stop your doors from sliding, or even fitting at all! From there, it is mostly assembling the pieces together.

Painting

Paint as much as you can before installing. Take your time with masking and give your layers plenty of time to dry. I used white for the interior walls, and the same white paint wiped off before drying to lighten the wood panels. The columns, bars and window frames were painted with black enamel paint. The bottom half of the interior walls was painted dark grey to mimic rubber lining. The floor was painted pale grey in preparation for weathering to appear as concrete.

Decoration and Weathering

I added blanket bars using spare dowels and scrap metal cut into small L shapes and screwed into the door. I used jewelry sizes eye screws to add cross tie, stall guard and tie/haynet points.

After painting, I used Prismacolor pencils, cheap chalk pastels and acrylic washes to weather and dirty the barn. Horses are dirty creatures! I followed Christine Sutcliffe's concrete tutorial to create amazingly gross concrete floors. 

From there, I added decoration and clutter, which has been an ongoing project. There are a wonderful variety of tutorials and printables to help with adding clutter and decoration!

Good luck building and please share your barns with me. I would love to see what you make!