Fireplace Gates

we made our own gate. "Picture frame" style for the 3 pieces (across the front of the hearth & 2 sides), which are attached together with hinges. We filled the frames with lattice. Been using the gate....really it's a fence!....for the past 8 years for my inhome daycare.

The ends of it are not attached to the wall. Instead we use furniture to keep it in place. This simple wooden style works well with our home filled with vintage & antique pieces.

I had my husband make one. it looked like a picket fence minus the pointy tops! our house is really old (100 in 2012) and has these crazy scrap hardwood floors, so we just nailed it right to the floor. you will probably want to anchor it to the walls. it was just your basic long in the front shorter on the sides build.

I had one. It was AWESOME! It is very durable. It has other uses. You can put it around a grill. I used it as a gate to divide a large room when we moved. It folds up when it is not in you use too. I would love another one. I don't need it yet but I am tempted to buy another anyway. LOL

Whatever you do, get something!

My hubby was burning one of those "flame logs" you can buy in the grocery store (while I was at work) and my then 2 yr old stuck his hand in and touched it! Serious burn! I had to take him to the Dr. Like 5 times so they could scrape it and clean it...oh, it was awful...he still has a wicked scar on his 2 first fingers...scary stuff!

Since yours is flush to the ground, Imagine if she were running and fell into the fireplace....oh, makes me shiver just thinking about it!

I just put a regular old baby gate up to keep our kiddos out of the fireplace when we aren't using it. When it's burning you watch them like a hawk anyway...I just needed to keep them out of it while it wasn't in use. I was sick of cleaning up lava rocks.