Halloween doesn’t have to turn into a giant shopping trip. This year, our best decorations came from chicken wire, brown paper lunch bags, red paint, cheap mini pumpkins, and a little bit of “let’s see if this works.”

I wanted a finish that felt clean, classic, and durable. Since dressers get touched often, especially around the knobs and drawer fronts, regular wall paint was not the best choice. Cabinet paint made more sense because it is meant for surfaces that need to hold up to daily use.

The first surprise was the box. I expected a full-size door to show up looking, well, like a door. Instead, the barn door arrived in a long, slim package that almost looked too narrow to hold anything useful. I joked that it was shaped like a banana, just stretched out and packed in pieces. Once I opened it, the design made sense. This modern black barn door from Wayfair came in separate panels that had to be assembled before installation. That part caught me off guard, but t