I love adding farmhouse flare to my home. It is a style that I am drawn to because of the simplicity and clean look. One of my favorite farmhouse touches is the sliding barn door like this one. Although I can’t replace any doors in my house, I did have a need to put up a gate. I found this inspirational picture on Pinterest and decided to make my own farmhouse-inspired barn door gate.
We have a little recessed space next to our fireplace that has glass shelves for audio and video components. The space is perfect for housing a cable box , a dvd player, diaper caddy and the kids’ dvds. It is just not very kid-friendly. All of those components have cords and they are all plugged into the wall just below the shelves. We also have a gas fireplace and the turn-on for the gas is also in that recessed space. Since we have two toddlers that we need to keep out of this area, we had our coffee table angled in front of the space so the boys wouldn’t go back there. As all toddlers do, they began climbing over the coffee table. This is when I came up with the idea to add a farmhouse-inspired barn door gate!
How To Make A Farmhouse Barn Door Gate
I used reclaimed wood to build the gate. I measured the space and then rummaged through all of my father-in-law’s scrap wood to find a few pieces that would work. Next, I used my circular saw to make my cuts (after measuring carefully) and sanded the rough edges. Instead of using nails or screws to hold the pieces together, I used DAP Rapid Fuse Wood Adhesive. This stuff is amazing. It is clear and doesn’t puff up when it dries, unlike other fusing adhesives. Once I had all my pieces where I wanted them, I used the DAP wood adhesive and clamped the pieces in place while it dried. I painted the entire barn door gate white, although my husband wanted it red like a real barn door! I had a half-gallon of white trim paint in my garage, so I used that since it was free!
When I placed the barn door gate in the opening, I realized that I didn’t need the gate to actually open. The space that we wanted to block off is so small and we can reach over the barn door gate to access all the cords and the gas switch. Instead, I used four of these “L” brackets to hold the barn door gate in place. If you want your barn door gate to swing open, I would suggest using hinges to give your barn door gate a true farmhouse feel.
This barn door gate has worked so well since we installed it. The boys haven’t tried climbing over it and it is visually appealing in our living room. I’m glad I was able to add a touch of farmhouse to our town home rental!
Pin It ⇓
