Peek-a-boo gate with bottle tree view
A glimpse of garden through a gate is tantalizing, making you want to see what’s hidden on the other side. Even if an expensive custom gate is beyond your means, you can add interest to a typical suburban board gate like mine with a peek-a-boo cut-out. One good thing about a peek-a-boo opening is that you preserve your privacy from the street, as opposed to a more-open wrought-iron gate.
Just sketch a square, diamond, or circle on your gate in pencil. Make sure it’s symmetrical and not in line with supporting beams on your gate. Then get out your drill and make a large hole where the section will be cut out. A power jigsaw or a handheld saw with a narrow tip can be used to cut out the rest of the design.
I used a bolt cutter to snip a piece of galvanized cattle panel to fit in my gate’s window and attached it on the other side with galvanized staples. Then I painted everything the same color for a cohesive look.
Positioning a focal point in your garden that you can see through the window makes the effect much stronger.
In my old garden, I cut a 10-inch diamond out of a plain cedar-board gate and hung a verdigris-and-copper-bell chime in the opening. It made a charming peek-a-boo window and added soft music whenever the gate was opened. For some reason I have no picture of it, but I really liked it.
Have you come up with a similar way of adding interest to your plain-Jane gate?
All material © 2006-2009 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
I don’t have any peek-a-boo windows in my gates, but I do have a door knocker on one that is shaped like a trowel and on the other one I have door knocker shaped like a watering can. Maybe I’ll consider a cut out once the weather warms up a bit!
What a lovely idea, Pam. You’ve positioned your bottle tree perfectly so visitors will want to see more of your beautiful garden. Well done!
I like this, a lot. I’m still campaigning for a gate to our back garden, but we have some other things that need doing first. I’m hoping that come spring, a supporting wall will magically appear on the sloped part of the back garden, and hubby has promised a renovated greenhouse too. So I shan’t bug him too much. 😉
I have a plain Jane gate. It is only 4’tall. I cut a swoop in the top of it and then added red ball finials on the posts beside it to give it a little pizzaz.
What a great post. I love gates with personality. Yours is so cool with the bottle tree neatly framed in the opening, and it doesn’t seem it was terribly difficult to make, right?–Very creative. I have gates, but no peek-a-boo gates. Mine have signs on them like, “Trespassers will be composted” or a black & gold metal garden sun that says “Welcome.” But I recently purchased a small ornate wrought iron gate that I’m working on to set up in my veggie garden.–It has to be stripped and repainted, and it has thick layers of old paint on it. Maybe a project I can complete during the holiday break.
I love this. The blue just beyond the window is tantalizing.
I like this peek into your garden~~very nicely done. gail
Pam,
This is real nice and I love the bottle tree. I cut out a peek a boo window near the bottom of the fence so the dogs can stick their heads out and get a better look outside the fence.
Oh it’s wonderful, Pam! I loved seeing the gate photos from your archives as well. I have tear sheets from magazines, very old ones from pre blogging days, in hopes of doing something cool like that but never have. Our gate looks into the hot tub area so privacy is a huge concern, but something could be done. Thanks for the inspiration. A good way to dreamily sketch during the winter months.
Frances
I just saw your post of the other gates, and now I see how you created this one. Guess I can add this project to the spring to do list. I love it! I also love the idea of painting the gate a different color.
Great gate posts Pam. I really like the gray gate with the blue of your bottle tree in the background,very high tech! I also like the metal “cross-hair” that almost targets the bottle tree! I enjoyed seeing all your gate archive…quite the collection. I am so happy the Patch’s iron gate made it in there! Thanks for the mention and the link.
ESP.
You’re quite welcome, ESP. Glad you like my “techie” gate—I hadn’t thought of it that way; my DH’s job must be rubbing off on my gardening tastes. Yikes! The gate is really more of a soft green than gray, but the picture does make it look that way. —Pam
You know I love that bottle tree. I now have 3 blue bottles. Someday, I will have enough!
Keep drinkin’, MA. —Pam
Nice collection of gate photos. And the best is your gate. The blue is really strong seen through the gray. We actually have a copper sun ornament thing on our gate. It was here before us.
Gates are magical! Lovely collection of gates Pam. Thanks for the inspiration. 🙂