Little Barn Door for Home Security

text by Vicki     Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter! 

In the news lately there have been reports of people putting cameras on the outside of peepholes to see into your house/apartment/hotel room. I (Steph) started thinking about the peephole in my front door and possible ways of covering it when not in use. 

After much thought, I came up with a DIY solution that is cute, functional, removable, and adds a little more security to my home. Mom helped bring the idea into reality and had most of the materials we used in her craft stash! Watch the video above to see it come together.

Materials:

• (9) Large popsicle sticks
• ​Craft Glue 
• ​Thick Metal Hanger
• Duct tape
• Scissors
• Rubber door stop
• Sugru Moldable Glue (pick a color that would compliment your door)
• Wood stain
• Gloves (when staining or handling sugru)
• (2) Lego gray half pin with stud
• (2) Lego black tile 1x4
• (2) Lego black wheel spoked small (these are apparently retired pieces now but you can still find them online for sale or just use a different wheel)​
• Optional: Two thin magnets (if you need to secure it to the door more, two magnets taped or glued to the back will keep it in place)

We started with five large popsicle sticks. We made a guide to hold the sticks while we duct taped them together.

We measured and cut the sticks to cover the bottom and top.

We easily cut through the sticks with scissors.

We sanded the edges a little bit and glued the sticks in place.

To make the X pattern on the door, we measured and cut the sticks again.

It took a few tries to get the right cut on the sticks, but we had plenty of extra sticks to practice with.

The handle is the rubber end of a door stop. This was something that we had available but get creative with this.

I dipped the door stop in the same stain we used for the door so it would look cohesive.

Before we glued the X in place, we stained the door and X-pattern. We used a dark stain we already had from another project.

After the stain dried, we glued the X in place.

Next we headed to the front door to figure out the placement of everything. We use tin snips to cut a straight piece of metal from an old coat hanger.

To make the barn door move, we used six Lego pieces. I have a large Lego collection so this came from my personal stash. If you're not into Legos, you can probably do this with small wheels from the hardware store.

We added a half pin to a wheel, and attached a 1 x4 tile to that. The wheel rolls very smoothly.

We have been wanting to try out Sugru. It's a product that is designed to stick and mold to many things and can be removed. We thought it would be great for this project.

We used it to attach the handle in place. We used a toothpick to remove the excess Sugru.

We also used it to attach the wheels to the barn door.

We headed back to the front door and use the Sugru to attach the metal bar to the door.

Sugru takes 24 hours to cure so I placed a piece of duct tape on the metal bar to keep it in place.

And here it is...a little barn door for my front door peephole! 

I don't use my front door that much and I don't have kids so I decided just having it hang by the wheels was secure enough for my needs. But with different doors/lots of slamming you might need to secure yours in a different way. Adding a few magnets (for metal front doors) might do the trick!

What other ideas do you have for peephole safety? Leave ideas in the comments below!

Please note: We are not sponsored by any of the companies/products that we used. These products were picked and bought by us.

FYI: We are not professionals, and we don’t claim to be. This is what we found worked for our project. Yours may need a little different approach. Safety first!

FYI: Amazon affiliate links are being used on this page.

---

Related Projects

Smart Camera Bird House Slipcover

PVC Pipe Privacy Screen

How to Install a Smart Doorbell