My son has just recently started to crawl. We have a split level entry home and he has started to find interest in the stairs. This means it was time to put up a baby gate. I wanted to make one instead of buy one for a few reasons. 1) It is cheaper 2) It looks way better 3) I love having an excuse to make something. The gate we chose to make was extremely simple. We only needed a few pieces of lumber, screws, a couple hinges, and a latch and we were in business. The purchase details and tools I used are all below. You can check out the exactly what I did to make this gate in my video on YouTube.

Step 1: Tools and Materials

MATERIALS

(3) 1x4x8
1 1/4″ wood screws
Outdoor Gate latch 2 black door hinges
Minwax Dark Walnut stain
Spray Shellac

TOOLS

Circular Saw
Drill and impact driver
Level
Speed Square
Titebond ii wood glue

Step 2: Measure the Space and Cut the Boards

This is a simple gate that you could change and customize to work for your space. The first thing I needed to do was measure the space that the gate would be installed. I wanted it to fit a certain way. Determine how tall you want it, how wide the space is, and which way you want the gate to swing. I will say that if you have a gate at the top of a set of stairs, you may not want the gate to swing towards the steps, especially with kids. If the gate would swing open over the steps and it was a baby, it would be bad. Think through all of this and give yourself a bit of a plan to know how to make your cuts.

After you have the overall size of the gate established, you can cut all your boards. This is very easy for this project. You will just need two horizontal boards and six vertical boards. My gate was 32” wide and 29” tall. For the repeat cuts, I used one of the boards as a template so all the boards would be cut the same size and I didn't have to keep measuring each one.

Step 3: Assemble the Gate

You can now layout the gate for assembly. Depending on how wide your gate is will determine how far apart your boards need to be spaced. Mine were spaced roughly 2.5 inches apart. What i did to find the spacing is find the centerline of the horizontal board and measure out from the center each way so I knew it was even. After everything is spaced, pre drill and add screws at where the boards overlap. I screwed in from each side of the gate with 1 ¼ inch screws. Make sure when you do this you are using a square so your boards don’t start to get out of alignment.

Step 4: Sand, Stain, and Finish

Once the gate was assembled, I took it to the steps where I would be hanging it just to be sure all my measurements were correct, then I sanded the gate with a random orbital sander but to 220 grit. I then applied one coat of Dark Walnut stain from Minwax. After that dried I applied two coats of spray shellac.

One thing I did that I did not mention was I cut and finished two extra boards to hand the gate with.

Step 5: Install the Gate

I am sure each situation might be a little different when it comes to installing the gate. It depends on where, what you have to fasted to, and the size of your particular gate. For mine, I attached the two extra boards to the wall. On these boards I would attach the hinges to hang the gate. The first board I attached, I had to cut off to account for the trim. To do this I just set the board where it would be and marked what I needed to cut off.

After these boards were up, I used a straight edge to hang the hinges making sure they were level and spaced how I wanted them. I attached the hinges to the wall first. I then added a board under the gate to lift it off the ground ¾” and then attached the hinges to the gate.

Once the gate was hanging I could install the latch for the gate. I added a small piece of board to the gate where I attached part of the latch to. I did this so the gate would be in the correct position and close properly. Again, this is something you have to consider for your situation. I attached the other part of the latch to the corner post of the stair rail. After doing this the gate was complete.