With the master bedroom on the main level in the new house, the pups don’t need to go wandering upstairs anymore! We’ve had a plastic baby gate up since we moved in but last weekend, The Husband made a built in gate…
The gate folds flat against the wall when you want to open it…
Because it folds in on itself and is flat against the wall, it’s mounted a few stairs up, which works fine for us, but if you’d rather have one on the bottom step you’d need to adjust the plan.
The Husband said this project is easy if you have basic woodworking skills and a few basic tools…
Built In Folding Baby Gate
For this project you need:
*(2) 1 x 2 pine 8 foot long pieces of wood-cut to the length of the gate you want-these make the frame of the gate
*13 3/8 inch wood dowels – cut to height of the gate you want to make (we used 13 per section-each dowel makes 2 pieces)
* 4 hinges: 2 decorative/heavy hinges to hold gate to the wall & 2 smaller hinges to hold 2 sections of the gate together
*Paint
*Wood Glue
*screws
* 1×6 piece of fir about 24 inches long
Tools:
*Saw
*Drill with 3/8 inch bit
*Clamps
*Screw Driver
*stud finder
Measure the length you want your gate to be-then cut that in half to make 2 sections
Cut your 1 x 2 pieces of wood
Drill 3/8 inch holes (at least 1/4 inch deep) in the upper and lower pieces of your 1 x 2 at the desired distance for dowels
Cut dowels to the height you want**leaving 1/4 inch on top & bottom to glue into upper and lower rails
On bottom rail, fill holes with 1/8 inch of wood glue**don’t overfill**
Insert dowels -twisting tight
Put 1/8 inch wood glue in holes of upper rail
Lay everything down flat and carefully insert the dowels into upper rail
Push tight
Drill and screw 1×2 side-pieces to top and bottom in order to complete the frame
If you have a clamp, clamp tight and let dry for a few hours
***Repeat steps for second section***
Cut your fir app. 20 inches long-it may need to be cut at an angle to fit stairs
locate the stud and anchor the 1×6 to the stud
Paint the 1×6 the wall color
Use small hinges to connect the 2 sections of the gate in the center
Use the decorative hinges to one end of the completed gate section
Now mount the other side of the decorative hinges to the 1×6 on the wall
***We tried it on for size before we painted it-then took off the hinges and painted the gate – then installed it again when the paint dried!
A quick project that works great!
Have a productive day
So nifty!! Love this idea.
What a great idea! It looks so much nicer than the plastic gates too.
I guess there is nothing he can’t do!!! I have a husband like that too….THANK GOD!!! XO, Pinky
This could be so useful as a doggy- gate too- I love it. Our Crosby has figured out how to crash our baby gate and knock it over- this one in the way its mounted would prevent him from doing that-wow, thanks for the inspiration…
I loved this when you posted it last year,because I love ruffles. I have a question at the bottom of the page you had a suitcase that you modgepodged very cute. You didn’t say what material you used? I loved the colors.
DC, for the suitcase I used scrapbook/craft paper and mod podge! xo
I love this! Does it attach on the railing side to prevent it from being pushed open from the inside (the higher side of the stairs)? TIA
Ellen, it slides between the banisters…but if someone leaned on it, it wouldn’t support the weight. It would open! It’ does discourage the babies from going up the stairs and keep our pups downstairs! ox
how does the gate latch closed? if the gate doesn’t latch to the railing then this is useless
Hi Ryan…the gate doesn’t latch to the railing but I bet you could come up with something brilliant to attach it! Or maybe it’s useless to you 🙂 For us, we keep our tiny pups from going upstairs and when our granddaughters were tiny the gate discouraged them from climbing up…good luck with your gate~
Thank you so much for posting these directions!!! I was able to make one of these as a pet gate and I used a regular gate latch to keep it closed and secure. This looks so much nicer than the store bought one we had and it’s much easier to use too.