DIY Garden Gate - ever wonder what goes into a blog post?

I’m showcasing building plans for a gorgeous tongue-and-groove DIY garden gate over on JenWoodhouse.com, but I wanted to share with you the behind-the-scenes work that really goes into a blog post like this.

It’s more than just the build – WAAAAAAAAY more.

First, for me anyways, I need a project that I need/want to do. No point building a headboard if you already have 5 in the house right? My most recent “need” was a new garden gate.

Hubby built this gate 13 years ago and it’s done well. It still swings in fact, but you can see it’s drooping and the boards are quite spaced out. The decorative insert was a gorgeous addition – until we put in a hot tub and that decorative insert allowed more people than I would like to see my “large backyard”. (I’m referring to my butt, and not my actual backyard)

I built a GORGEOUS tongue-and-groove garden gate to replace our little old man here and it is stunning! Half the weight of the old gate, built like a piece of furniture and with much more privacy at butt-height.

The free building plans and complete tutorial are over on Jen Woodhouse today, so click over and learn how to make your own!

Done right? Old gate down, new gate built, sanded, painted, hung…

but for blogging purposes, this isn’t much of an ‘after’ photo is it? Sure, the topic is the gate, but the setting is next to a weathered old fence, weedy and dirty interlocking walkway and a garden with a few dead plants in the mix – pretend you don’t notice the air conditioner graffiti that I made when I accidentally pressure washed it a few years ago. I know a someone who also did that and she needed to get a new one from somewhere like www.nationalairwarehouse.com (note – do NOT pressure wash your air conditioner). Not the most “pinnable” image.

Blogging is about selling a feeling – whether it be laughter, entertainment, aspiration, contentment, inspiration – the project/blog post itself is only a small part of the overall scene.

Which meant I had to borrow my friend’s pressure washer (a big gas one) and pressure wash the fence. Not just this section of fence (because that would look silly after the photos were done) but all the fencing in my entire backyard.

The patio also had to be pressure washed to bring it out of it’s grunginess and then all the weeds in the cracks and the rock garden had to be pulled.

Yup, we’re still talking about a DIY garden gate here.

Winter did some damage in this garden and I was left with a few dead plants. I had extra hostas in my front garden, so I dug some up and replanted them in my rock garden to give it a more ‘full’ look.

This is just one side of the gate – the other side also needed some work before anyone would aspire to building:

Dirty, weeded walkway, items for the garbage and composting…. before posting an article on a gorgeous garden gate, all of this needed to be cleaned up. More pressure washing pearland, weeding of the walkway, a run to the dump and composting centre, lawn mowed and edged. I was talking to a friend their garden this recently, he was telling me about his new benches he got from Kedel to go around his freshly mowed lawn. Seems like I’m not the only one that is busy keeping the garden in shape!

This blog post was very specifically about a DIY garden gate – but every other tiny, little detail will/would take away from the impact of that project.

I brought in a few plants for this side of the gate to bring some colour into the image.

While I was building the DIY garden gate, my trusty old table saw kicked the bucket. This meant that, mid-build, I had to run out and buy another table saw (not cheap) to finish the build. Another little behind-the-scenes tidbit that never sees the light of day (until now).

After all the clean-up and staging was done it was time for photographs. A DIY garden gate that will take you a day to build, is really a 3-4 day project for a blogger. After photos comes editing, then writing, then SEO then social media shares. Blogging is so much more work than just building plans for the most gorgeous gate you’ve ever seen (wink).

A labour of love of course.

Play a “Where’s Waldo?” and see how many upgrades you see in the before and after photos below (remember, all I’m selling here is how much you want to build this gate)