DIY Baby Gate {or my husband calls it a baby cage}

When our little miss started to crawl, we did what many parent do and started looking on Amazon for baby gates. We had a 53 inch gap to fill in and one side that we couldn't drill into. Well, we quickly learned that our gap was too large for pressure mounted gates {which I really, really didn't want}. That, coupled with the inability to drill on one side, left us pretty stuck.   

Let me warn you, this post is very long. However, its filled with pictures and instructions to help you create your own gate!

After suffering through a couple of months of chasing our little miss into the kitchen, I was fed up. So my husband got to googling and found that Alisha @ SungasaBugBaby had shared a great post on making a baby gate. My husband and I were inspired by her idea {and our desire to no longer have to keep chasing little miss all over the house} so we used it as a starting point to make a custom baby gate for under $50.

First, let's start with the supply list. Since everyone's gap is a different size {and most won't have the silly little decorative pillar to deal with}, sharing our cut list won't really help. 

Supply List:

2X2s

1/2 inch, 10 foot long PVC

Gorilla Glue

2 hinges of your choice

Lock of your choice

 Spray paint {we used three cans}

Drill and bit

The gate was essentially made using wood 2x2s as the frame and PVC as the vertical bars. We had our wood and PVC cut at Lowes, since we don't own the appropriate tools to do this on our own. They were very nice and did not charge us for any of the cutting.

If using a 1/2 inch PVC, you will need a 7/8 inch wood drill bit to drill out the holes. 

You'll start by creating the holes for the PVC pipe. We used 33 inches long PVC bars. The drill depth was 1/2 inch. Make a small indentation with the drill bit before drilling to increase accuracy. The holes need to be drilled both into the top and bottom pieces. Ours were drilled every three inches.

Next, you'll want to pre-assemble the gate to check to make sure everything fits. It will allow you to ensure that your drill depths are deep enough for everything to go together nicely.

Prep your top horizontal 2x2 pieces with screws in order to allow for more easy assembling later on. {Please don't do this on your lament floor in the house you rent!} 

Now, take the two horizontal pieces and screw them into the bottom horizontal piece {Sorry, there's no picture for this step}.

Oh, and don't forget to have a lovely assistant.

In order to assemble your gate pieces, you'll start out by adding Gorilla Glue to one of the bottom horizontal piece's holes. Then, add the PVC. Repeat this process for all of the bottom holes. Put the top piece on {without glue} and allow the bottom to dry. Putting on the top while the bottom dries allows the PVC to dry appropriately positioned. Then, glue your top piece on. After the glue dries, screw in your already prepped screws.

{A note on the glue: Apply liberally. We did not use enough and the glue has already come loose. However, everything is still holding together nicely. The bars just now spin.}

Repeat this process with all of your gate panels {we had three panels}.

Next, you'll want to add your hinges. Make sure the door {the swinging panel} is a 1/4 inch higher than the other panel so that it will glide over your carpet smoothly.

I was surprised by the color selection of the Valspar spray paints at Lowes. The paint will work for both the wood and the PVC. However, you'll have to do a few coats over the PVC. The black text is especially hard to cover up. Spray primer probably would have fixed this problem.

We spray painted the locks so that they wouldn't stand out.

Due to the stud spacing in our house, we had to build a bridge between the studs and then anchor to the bridge. If you have to do this step, attaching the bridge to your gate first will give you more control over your gate placement.

The other side of our gate was attached by drilling straight into a stud. We had to build a cut out in order to get over the decorative pillar and then add an extra piece of wood in order to make up the extra depth.

We built our gate for just about $50, including buying Gorilla glue, a saw, and the drill bit. If you already had these items, your gate cost would be considerably less. Regardless, we're trilled to have found a gate that fits our odd architecture, isn't a cheap plastic eye sore, and was affordable. 

Success!

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