How to Build Wooden Gates & Picket Fences

A wooden fence can mark a boundary and still contribute real character to a home. In How to Build Wooden Gates & Picket Fences, Kevin Geist brings practical construction together with a wide range of traditional and decorative design ideas, guiding readers from early planning through posts, fence sections, and gates.

Plan the fence before the first cut

The book begins with the decisions that shape a successful project: why the fence is needed, which style suits the setting, where posts and gates belong, and what permissions may be required. It then turns to tools, materials, foundations, framing, and the structural choices that support strength and longevity.

Build the parts to work together

Geist explains the elements that make up a fence, including post placement, frame-to-post attachment, and mounted or inset infill. Separate guidance addresses strong gate posts and frames, as well as making and attaching gates—useful context for planning an entrance that functions as well as it looks.

Shape a design with character

For readers looking beyond a basic picket line, the book explores ways to vary the details: shaped sawn pickets, finials, molding, paint effects, lattice, cloverleaf and zigzag patterns, and combinations of contrasting elements. These examples show how small changes to pattern and finish can give a fence a distinct visual identity.

Explore a range of fence styles

Design sections cover simple picket, board, sawn-picket, balustrade, grid-and-panel, and pale fences. The patterns and examples offer starting points for comparing styles and adapting a design to a particular home or outdoor space. The second edition includes 130 designs and a foldout of full-size pickets, according to the publisher.

For hands-on builders and design-minded readers

This guide is relevant to homeowners, DIY builders, and woodworkers who want to understand both the construction and appearance of wooden gates and fences. Its combination of planning advice, structural topics, and decorative options makes it useful for readers who want to build from a pattern or develop a look of their own.

Explore wooden fence and gate construction with a guide that treats good design and solid building as parts of the same project.