Reeded vs. Fluted vs. Slatted Custom Barn Door Designs

Getting Familiar with These Three Different Styles from Our Kansas City Door Company

In the world of barn doors, you need to keep up with the trends and create products that appeal to a wide variety of customers. This means coming up with a wide array of barn door designs that can be incorporated into any home or office. As the leading door company in Kansas City, we pride ourselves on offering a great mix of barn door styles with several different paint or stain options and hardware.

By offering a lot of product variety, it means our customers aren’t likely to see their custom barn door in another home or office “in the wild.” Your barn door design should be as distinct and unique as the rest of your home.

One of the ways that we accomplish this is by creating custom barn doors that have a textured look and feel to them. The three main examples of this are reeded, fluted, and slatted. Let’s dive into what makes each one distinct.

Reeded Custom Barn Doors

Reeded doors are defined by their rounded convex carving of the wood, meaning that the surface of the door pops outward in a vertical rippled pattern. For our painted reeded door, the design is double-sided and can be used as a barn door, pocket door, or hinge door.

Fluted Custom Barn Doors

Fluted doors are defined by their rounded concave carving of the wood, meaning that the surface of the door curves inward in a vertical ribbed pattern. For our painted fluted door, this design is also double-sided and can be used as a barn door, pocket door, or hinge door. Some customers prefer the fluted design because it has more grip to it, making it easier to slide open and closed.

Slatted Custom Barn Doors

With slatted barn doors, there’s neither convexity or concavity to them. They can either be entirely flush on the surface or with vertical grooves/spacing throughout the door, which gives the door some grip, similar to the fluted design. Our modern slat door design is double-sided and fully customizable.

Custom Options for Barn Doors

Whether you get the reeded, fluted, or slatted barn door, you’ll have numerous customization options to choose from to further make it your own. These options include:

• Choosing between single door, double door, or bypass doors
• Selecting your door width (range: 20 – 48 inches)
• Selecting your door height (range: 72 – 96 inches)
• Selecting your wood species (ex: rustic alder, birch, white oak)
• Selecting your wood finish (ex: clearcoat, driftwood, dark walnut)
• Selecting your track length
• Selecting hardware style and finish
• Selecting door style guide
• Selecting handle style and position
• Upgrade to a soft close

As you can see, we have plenty of customization options to choose from, which means we very rarely make two exact versions of the same barn door. If having the most unique barn door possible is important to you, just know it’s important to us, too. We want every custom barn door design we create to have a one-of-a-kind feel.

How to Get Started on Your Custom Barn Door Design

Now that you know the difference between reeded, fluted, and slatted custom barn doors, the next step is to contact us so we can get started on your project. Walston Architectural Products in Kansas City handcrafts a large variety of custom barn doors that are made to suit any style, home aesthetic, and budget. The best way to get started is checking out our online shop of barn doors.

While browsing our custom barn doors, you'll notice that we offer a few shipping options. If you live within 25 miles of our shop in Kansas City, we will be more than happy to bring your barn door to your home and install it. However, we also can ship barn doors anywhere in the country with easy-to-follow installation instructions.

Visit Our Showroom

Are you interested in seeing our custom barn doors in person before making your purchase? Set up a one-on-one consultation with us at our shop. This gives us the first-hand opportunity to show you what differentiates our barn doors from our competitors’. When you see the emphasis we put on craftsmanship, you’ll know why Walston Architectural Products is one of the leading custom barn door makers in the country.

Have more questions about custom barn doors or the installation process? Contact us directly via our contact form, or call us at (816) 726-3841.