Copycat Dog Gate/Barrier

One of my new favorite blogs is Sew Many Ways.   Karen is so clever.  I don't quilt, but I do so love her Tool Time Tuesday posts.   She is always coming up with incredibly clever home ec/home dec uses for home improvement store products.  Seriously.  I spent a good hour reading her old Tool Time Tuesday posts when I first discovered Karen.  Now I just get her blog in my reader.  I'm hooked.   Anyway, a few weeks ago, she did a post featuring a clever solution she came up with to keep her elderly dog from going up and down the stairs and a light-bulb went off in my head!  I don't have elderly dogs, but I was struggling to come up with a way to keep my dogs off the deck when we're eating and her clever idea worked perfectly.  I hope Karen is of the mind that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, because I can't be more sincere than wanting to copy something someone else did and place it in my home.

Like Karen, I just fashioned a frame from PVC and covered it with fabric.  In my case, I used some of the fabric I have for the new seat cushions.  (Target clearance-priced outdoor tablecloths from last fall as they cleared out their summer stuff...best way ever to get yardage inexpensively.  See how faded my seat cushions are?)  And, viola, 15 minutes from start to finish and I have a cute way to keep Daisy and Lucy off the deck.

It is easy to slide in place and easy to move if you want to get by.  As you might imagine, the dogs aren't nearly as thrilled with Karen's idea as we are, but they'll live.