10 Minute DIY Baby/Pet Gate

Goodness, where is the time going these days?! I’ve been meaning to get this post out for at least a week now…Christmas festivities keep taking priority, and of course I wouldn’t have it any other way.  But, without further ado, one of the easiest projects we’ve DIY’ed in a while…a baby/pet (pet in our case!) gate.

Since our darling babies are now 6 and 4 years old, I thought we were LONG past the need for baby gates.  It was a glorious feeling to move so freely from one room of the house to another, without the hazard of stepping over a gate.  Alas, that short window of time has ended.  I had a brief period of losing my mind, and agreed to get a dog.  (In all honesty, we have the sweetest dog on the planet so I really should not complain.)  But, we are back to needing gates in our house.

Let me just say, baby gates are expensive!  At least, if you are looking for the kind that can open and close easily and look halfway decent.  We purchased two from Babies R Us…and I think on sale we probably paid around $50 each.  Yuck.

About a month or so ago, we swapped a couple rooms on the first floor of our house (former playroom became office, former wasted space room became playroom).  The new playroom was off the front entry, and had a large opening that we needed to barricade.  French doors would have been a great solution EXCEPT they are pricey, and I didn’t really want to close the room off entirely.  And to buy a gate for that width??  Forget it!  So expensive, and I really didn’t even like the smaller ones we already had.

Enter my genius hubby.  I used to tease him about not being very handy, but I have to say…he’s really coming around.  He fabricated this DIY GATE (Baby or Pet…take your choice!) and it has worked out perfectly!  Best part?  It took a matter of minutes to build.  It’s also inexpensive to build.  And it looks nice.  Triple score!

Here is what you will need to complete this project:
1×4 pineboards (number of these will be based on size of the gate you are making!)
deck screws
hinges (I used these)
latch of choice
stain or paint- I used General Finishes Gel Stain in Java

We decided that we wanted our gates to be 36 inches tall, and measured the door opening to get the widths.  We have now built 3 custom gates for three spaces in our house.

Continue Reading On Next Page (>) …

To see more: findingpurposefurniture