Hi friends!! I hope you had a fabulous week (or weekend) – whatever day this is for you. Today, we are going to be talking about how I got my toes wet in the DIY world, how it worked and how you, too, can build a custom baby gate for your home with ZERO prior workmanship experience. And because I know people will ask (I always want to know before I start a project, too) – we spent less than $100 on this gate. I’m not sure the exact price because we trial and error-ed it a bit but definitely less than $100. Alright. Let’s dive into this.


DIY Custom Baby Gate

Materials needed:

  1. 10 1×4 pieces cut to your specifications – 6 shorter pieces, 4 longer pieces
  2. 1 door hinge
  3. 1 gate lock
  4. Assortment of flat head screws
  5. Table saw
  6. Sander
  7. Power drill
  8. Small drill bit
  9. Custom paint color
  10. Small wheel

HOW-TO

Step one: cut 1x4s into the appropriate size

We measured our posts and cut 4 longer 1x4s to make up the length and then 6 shorter 1x4s to make up the height. We wanted enough spaces that the cats could go through to get to their litterbox but not enough space for Jack to toss himself down our basement stairs.

Step two: sand 1x4s

We took a sander and sanded all the edges of the 1x4s until everything was super smooth and uniform.

Step three: paint 1x4s

We took a paint chip from our posts and took it into Home Depot to be color matched. Our posts are actually stained a really dark brown, so it wasn’t paint we could get an exact match of BUT they did take the dark stain color and turn it into a custom paint for us. You literally can’t tell the difference when they are right next to each other. It adds an overall cohesive look to the entire space and looks like the gate was supposed to be there all along.

Step four: put gate together with power drill and screws

We assembled the gate completely in the garage. We wanted to make sure it was sturdy and we weren’t making any unnecessary messes in the house. We chose to put it together like this: 6 shorter pieces spaced about 4 inches apart with 2 longer pieces on top and 2 longer pieces on bottom. This hid any visible screws and we liked the way it looked. There are SO many ways you could put these pieces together though – find one you like!

Step five: install door hinges on frame

We drilled holes into our stair posts and then attached the hinges. We chose heavy duty door hinges in oil rubbed bronze because that is what we have all over the house. They look really nice and are super sturdy.

Step six: install lock on other side of frame

We did an oil rubbed bronze lock on the other side of our post as well. It’s actually an outdoor gate lock, but worked well for this indoor gate, too. I flipped the lock bar on the gate so that it would sit flush with the lock instead of having extra space, that way the gate was as unassuming as possible.

Step seven: attach wheel to bottom of gate

Do this BEFORE you put the gate on the posts. Learn from my mistakes. By the time I realized I wanted a wheel, everything was already assembled and I had to take it apart. Whoops. Put it on before you put the gate on the hinges and you’ll be golden. Just make sure you measure the height taking the wheel into account before you put your hinges into the posts, or your lock will be wonky.

Step eight: screw gate into hinges

You are almost done!!! Screw the gate into the hinges, taking wheel and lock height into account. You want it to swing open easily without dragging. 

Step nine: paint over any visible screws

You can totally skip this step if you want to – but I wanted to hide the silver screws we used so I painted over them with some extra paint and a tiny paintbrush. Took less than 20 minutes and made all the difference.

PIN THIS FOR LATER:


If you are brand new in the world of DIY-ing (hi, join the club) – I hope you found hope and inspiration in this post. I want to do so many things with our home but I want to be able to do them myself. I’m so excited to learn how to build things with my hands and make our home something truly beautiful.

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