Out-of-the-Box Arty Outdoor DIY

Country Bumpkins Make Good

See photo journal at the end of blog!

Well, we’re 2 months into our ‘country move’ and loving it. We (Mike and myself) started running out of our renovation fund within about 2 weeks of our move — which was, to say the least, unsettling.

We had to come up with cost-effective solutions and fast!

In an attempt to continue with our plans on the cheap, we decided to erect (and design) our own fence and gate. This was no small task as neither of us are exactly carpenters or builders. However, we both have a bit of artsy fartsy in us, so….

The Natural Look

We wanted a front fence and gate that blended in with the garden. The plan is to eventually grow something nice and smelly, like Jasmine, all over the fence. So we just needed a structure for now.

We sourced a local genius who makes 2m long fences out of branches and that looked really stunning, so we ordered enough lengths for the job (it worked out to roughly $20 per fence and we needed 10).

So, no, we didn’t make the fencing ourselves but we did erect it.

We then sunk our own wooden poles (a job I would wish upon no-one as we had to dig half a meter holes — 10 thereof — and we hit bedrock at about 10cm!). We then attached the fencing to the poles.

The property is on a slope — so that was also challenging.

We had to raise the fence slightly off the ground so it wouldn’t rot and I neatly packed slate stone at the bottom for it to rest on and because it looked nice! 😉

The Gigantic Task of a 4.6m Gate

We were, at this point, really happy with the fence but we needed a gate to finish off the look and to secure the yard for Purdy (our little tortoise-shell kitty). The budget was dim and we needed ideas fast.

I ordered some wood from the local co-op and built the frame for the 2 gates (2.3m per side) and we got to work filling it in with repurposed materials.

I used some wood from my empty stretcher frames (from my paintings that were rolled and sent went sold) and some reeds that my in-laws said we could use that were just lying about their garage. I also had some metal sheeting tucked away in my studio for a rainy day and it was storming outside! lol…

Well, instead of me going on and on about the process…let me show you how it all took shape: