I have always loved the idea of a secret garden. You know, when you get just a glimpse of a beautiful, tranquil spot and it makes you want to see the whole thing. I have 2 gates that lead to my backyard that I've been dreaming of adding some kind of window to, to allow a peek into my garden. I found some wrought iron pieces that I decided would be great inserts.
There are 3 of them and they are the same design, but the years have left them a bit rusted and bent. Just my style. The gate that I decided to rework looked like this before I started;
The first thing I did was to remove the diagonal 2x4 from the top section of the door. Then I held the piece of wrought iron in position and traced around it with a pencil.
Using my jigsaw, I cut out the pattern I had traced.
The last step was to put the wrought iron in the cut out and secure it. My original idea was to nail a few wood strips on either side to hold it in place, but I didn't like the way that looked. I ended up using liquid nails. That is just really strong construction glue that you apply with a caulk gun. It worked! I'm thrilled with the end result.
FYI: I was able to do this because this gate still has plenty of support with just the bottom diagonal in place, because it was divided into 2 sections. My other gate is built differently and would fall apart if I removed the diagonal because there is just 1 diagonal that runs the full height of the gate. That will be another project... Make sure your gate will still be structurally sound before you cut a hole in it.
This project surprised me by how easy it was to completely change the look of my gate. I took me 1 hour and 10 minutes from beginning to end. Really!
I'll keep you posted...
Lynn
