10 Easy Pieces: Picket Garden Gates

The friendliest garden gate? It has wooden pickets and is sturdy enough for a child to swing on. Extra points if it’s waist-high (36 inches) so you can gossip with passersby.

Picket gates and fences are among the simplest to construct, with evenly spaced vertical pales supported by horizontal rails. Yet picket garden gates come in a dizzying range of styles, from modern to grandma’s garden. Choose the shape of the boards (pointed, rounded, dog ear, Gothic), post sizes and designs (flat, coved, chamfered), and decorative post caps and finials (rounded, pointed, flat).

A small variation in design can make a big style statement when it comes to picket garden gates. To illustrate, we’ve rounded up 10 affordable options:

Rounded Pickets

Above: A Palisade Gate With Rounded Pales (a style also shown in the featured photo above) comes with galvanized iron hinges, a ring latch and fixings and is available in three heights (0.95 meters, 1.15 meters, and 1.75 meters). Its is one meter (about 39.3 inches) and is from £79.60 to £98.45 depending on size at Jacksons Fencing.

Cambridge-Style Pickets

Above: A Cambridge Picket Gate (shown mounted on 5-inch Classic Picket Posts) is made of clear kiln dried western red cedar and has stainless steel fasteners. Shown here in white, it can be ordered with any custom stain color or is available in natural wood. See BrattleWorks for information and pricing.

Victorian-Style Pickets

Above: A Classic Victorian Wood Picket Gate is available in heights from 3 to 8 feet and in custom widths. For more information and pricing, see Eastern Wood Fence.

Pointed Pickets

Above: A Palisade Gate With Pointed Pales has a planed finish and comes with hardware (either galvanized or stainless steel) for installation; prices range from £79.60 to £83.90 depending on size at Jacksons Fencing.

A-Frame Braces

Above: With an A-frame brace that’s a sturdy variation on the standard zig zag brace, Palisades Gates are available in custom sizes. See Chase Timber Products for information and pricing.

Dome Pickets

Above: A Grange Timber Dome Path Gate made of pressure-treated-FSC-certified sawn timber is £50 at B & Q.

Flat Top or Arched Pickets

Above: A Pine Wood Picket Gate with either a straight or rounded arch top is available seasonally in three off-the-shelf sizes for from £49.99 to £79.99 from Maxwell’s.

Cottage Pickets

Above: Made in Britain of kiln-dried softwood pressure treated for durability, a traditional Cottage Wooden Side Gate is available from stock in three widths (from 36 to 48 inches). For more information and pricing, see Charltons Timber Store.

Wide Pickets

Above: Wide-spaced pickets create an airy design. A Palisade Pointed Top Timber Gate kit comes with pickets, rails, nails, and instructions (Posts, Hinges and Latch sold separately). It is £28 from Wickes.

Flat Pickets

Above: A Flat Picket Gate has a kiln-dried frame with tenon and mortise joints and made of pressure-treated timber. It is available in several sizes at prices starting at £35 from Pennine.

Read more tips in our design guide to Gates & Fences 101 in our Hardscaping 101 sections. See more:

• 12 Old-Fashioned Hardware Store Finds That Will Save You Money
• Get the Look: The English Garden Gate, 10 Ways
• Hardscaping 101: Picket Fence