How to Build a Mexican-Style Gate

Bringing a touch of Mexico to your garden is easily done by simply creating a Mexican-style gate. Traditionally, Mexican gates are crafted out of wood by a local woodsman, with iron features added to the wooden panels. The style is influenced by Spanish architecture, which was introduced by the Europeans who colonized the region. To replicate a gate in your own garden, adapting an existing wooden gate is the ideal way to have a cost-effective and decorative entranceway for your home.

• 1

  Lie the two wooden gates or doors on a flat surface. Make sure that they fit the entranceway to your garden before you change their style. To achieve this, measure the width and height of the doors and match them with the gateway. Saw excess wood from the wooden doors if they are too big.

• 2

  Use your pen and paper to draw eight even rectangles on each side of each door. Mexican-style gates have simple shapes carved into their exterior. These lines will be the basis of this design. Make two columns of four rectangles on each door.

• 3

  Chisel a 0.75-inch trench along the edges of the rectangles marked on the gates. Place the edge of the chisel on the line, at a 45-degree angle, facing away from you. Hammer firmly from above. Repeat the process, but from the opposite side of the door to remove the wood and reveal a neat indentation along the straight lines. Continue this process for all the rectangles marked on the gates, working gradually along the length of each line.

• 4

  Attach the iron handles at the appropriate height -- about waist height -- onto the gates. You will need one handle on each side of the gate.

• 5

  Screw iron fretwork across the center of each side of the door. The gates will be seen from both sides so make sure the doors are symmetrical. Choose black iron fretwork that matches your door handles. Simple Mexican designs use strips of black metal placed horizontally at intervals across the door. If you can't find decorative fretwork, try doing this instead.

• 6

  Coat the wooden gates entirely in a dark varnish. Not only will this prolong the life of the gates, it will also give your work a professional touch.

• 7

  Hang the gates in the entranceway for which they have been built. Attach two hinges on each side of each gate and screw them into the supporting posts. Make sure the posts can take the weight of the wood and the gates meet neatly in the middle.