I’ve always wanted a garden arch in this entrance space that leads from our driveway into our lawn. When we have a backyard party or family barbecue, especially in the summer, everyone comes through this part of the yard. And this opening just felt like it needed something more. So we decided to do a DIY garden arch for this space.
But Justin or I weren’t exactly sure how we were going to go about doing this. I’m someone who is very visual and I had a picture in my head of what I wanted it to look like. So I just described to Justin what I was thinking and bless his heart, he came through by building this amazing garden arch from scratch.
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Materials Needed for DIY Garden Arch
- wood of choice (cedar, redwood, or cypress would work great for outdoor projects)
- Screws and hand drill
- Chop saw
- Concrete
- Steel straight mending brackets
We were very fortunate to get some redwood from my parent’s barn that was perfect for this project. He kept the design very simple by creating basically a ladder look for each side with another strip of wood running up the center for more support.
I knew that eventually I wanted to plant a climbing vine on each side of the arch so we knew we needed it to support a plant.
Justin started by creating the frame of the arch to the width of our yard opening. Our’s measured
For the top of the arch, he created the supports but angled them so it gives it a little bit of dimension and is a decorative addition.
After the two arches were created he attached the side supports after laying down each arch. To attach the other side we stood up the frame and I held onto the arch as he lined up and screwed in the supports.
Once the side supports were attached Justin attached another support vertically to each side.
We kept the design simple and because of that, he was able to get it done in a day.
How to Install a DIY Garden Arch
Now came the part to install it in the yard. The way we did this was concrete and metal tags attached to the arch legs. At our previous home, we had bought a garden arch and this was how they set it said to set it in the ground so we decided to do the same with this one.
The top half of the metal tags were attached by screws to the arch and the rest of it hung at the bottom so that this could be set in the concrete.
Justin dug four holes with a posthole digger and then I helped him set it in the holes so that it was level. And then he mixed the concrete and poured it in. Once the concrete had set we used a shovel to knock off some of the excess on top of the ground.
