Creating a gate for your home can be super simple! I love to think of custom pieces and then ask my dad to help me make it 🙂 He loves it too… most of the time! Our metal baby gate wouldn’t fit in the space we needed, so we decided to make one ourselves. This project took about 1.5 hours. We had the tools, so we purchased the materials we needed for about $60.

** The use of this gate for safety is strictly at your own discretion. You should most certainly decide what is safe for you and your family. Please know that while this gate is made with durable lumber and heavy duty gate latches, it is not child proof.**

Materials we used:

• Five primed 1×4 8ft pine boards
• Two gate hinges
• 1 gate latch
• Drill
• Countersink drill bit
• Hand sander or sand paper
• Compound miter saw
• Small paint roller
• Paint brush
• White paint
• Screws

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1. First, measure the width and height of your opening. You will need two horizontal boards for the top and bottom of the gate. The amount of vertical boards needed depends on the width. After we measured the height, we subtracted the height of the baseboard because we mounted the gate above the baseboard. When determining height and spacing between boards, please consider safety and what works best for your situation.

2. Cut the boards. We used a compound miter saw to cut two horizontal boards and seven vertical boards for a total of nine boards.

3. Use a countersink drill bit on the boards to create pilot holes for the screws. Then screw the gate together.

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Countersink drill bit | Drill

4. Lightly sand the gate and paint. Since we used primed boards, it only took one coat. I used the same paint that was used on our baseboards. I highly recommend using a small roller brush. It creates a nice texture and is time efficient. You will still need a paint brush for some of the small spaces, but most of it can be done with the roller brush.

Roller Brush | Paint Brush |Sand paper or hand sander

5. Attach the hinges and gate latch. Make sure you are drilling the hinges and gate latch into a stud or use a molly to make it secure.

Gate hinges | Gate latch

Enjoy your gate!

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