Wrought iron garden gates

There's no reason why functional items like gates should be boring. Use them as a focal point to your garden, to create a welcoming entrance, or to entice someone through into your special place.

It's been a while since I've blogged here as we started a Wordpress blog on our website at www.farmweld.com/blog and my little blogspot site got pushed to the backburner. That having been said I've been reluctant to close down this blog as it has it's own merits. Much has changed since the last post with the addition of a new blacksmith forge purchased from Adelaide. The blacksmithing equipment opens up the range of wrought iron we can now make in our Adelaide Hills workshop. Andrew has been very excited and passionate about his work and the additional equipment has spurred him on even more.

Iron works so well in the garden, it blends and complements stone and timber beautifully. Here are a couple smaller wrought iron gates that were made for customers:

The above wrought iron gate was for a chicken coop, and really dressed up what would otherwise have been a uninteresting corner of the garden.  The gate is now the main feature and focal point from the house.

The gate below was commissioned by a customer in Queensland and was entirely hand forged to match a piece of ironwork that was brought back from a trip to New Orleans.

Use your imagination, don't just see a gate as being something functional, but rather ask yourself how you can use it to create a focal point or an invitation into your special place.

Wrought Iron Garden Gazebo - for the wedding ...

Well the dust has settled.  Our daughter's wedding is over and I must admit it took a couple of weeks where we didn't really know what to do with ourselves. Months had been spent organising things, but the highlight was being able to design something unique for the day ... the wedding gazebo for the garden ceremony. 

It's been made up from separate panels and is very heavy with all the solid steel in it. We ran out of time and didn't get it powder coated, however we all decided that the olde world rusty finish worked well. 

Once it rusted up we sealed it with Penetrol. This is an oil product that dries like a varnish. It penetrates right into the steel so that it won't rust any further. It's given the gazebo a lovely natural brown finish and I'd strongly recommend this product to any of our customers who want a 'rusty' gate, garden arch or ornament.

We initially toyed with the idea of hiring the gazebo out for weddings but now that the wedding's over maybe I'll find a more permanent place for it ... just for me!

Wrought iron pool fence

It's amazing how much gets done when the pressure's on!  The night before Andrew went in for a hip replacement our daughter announced that she wanted to get married, the bombshell dropped when we found out she was giving us only 9 months notice - they wanted an autumn wedding.  Miss Independent was only 19, so our reaction after the initial shock, was "how the heck are we paying for this?", followed by "Oh, you want it here at home ... looks like we're going to have to do a major tidy up". Now, we live on 75 acres, work from the property and have been here 6 years. The property was run down to start with and there was still alot to fix up.  But most importantly the swimming pool didn't have a child proof pool fence - or more practically from our personal perspective a barrier to stop the wildlife and curious calves testing the solar pool blanket - but that's another story. 

I've never particularly liked standard tube pool fencing, and I figured that it was my turn to have Andrew make me something really lovely from wrought iron.  I'm glad my man likes a challenge, he on the other hand was far more practical ... "you want it, you give me a drawing and I'll make it".  The challenge was on!  After a couple of knockbacks from the 'welder extraordinaire', along the line of "that won't work", or "have you any idea how much that's going to cost?", a compromise was reached. [Sidenote: it's not only our customers that have to work with mercenary husbands]. 

 The pool fence is made, each panel from solid steel and wrought iron so it's quite heavy, and it came up beautifully.  It would have been nice to have had more wrought iron in the design, but unfortunately South Australian swimming pool regulations are such that there must be a minimum 1.2m clearance from top to bottom between where a child can get a foot hold.  I think the gold caps, which incidentally started out as a joke really set it off.

On a final note, I really enjoy watching Andrew beam with pride when people admire his wrought iron pool fence.

Custom wrought iron design, coffee table legs

A while ago I posted a photo of a custom  designed wrought iron door panel which we made for a lovely customer who was building a house at Nairne, SA. This customer was so happy with what we created for her, she asked if we could possibly design something to support a table top that she and her husband had, and wanted to make into a coffee table. Here's what we came up with:

The design brief was that it should not only structurally support a very thick and heavy slab of timber which I believe is about 6cm thick, but that it should also complement the piece of timber. I think the design of the legs will work quite well with the heavy look of the table top. Another one I can't wait to see finished.

I have suggested that a matching chandelier might be worth looking at ... nothing like value adding.

NEW - heritage style country gate design ... the Estate Gate & Chicken Coop Gate

We're pleased to announce the latest design in our gate range, the 'Estate' gate. We've had a number of customers with wider entrance ways who have liked the simplicity of the Railway gate, but also loved the older flat bar heritage style of the Eleanor - which unfortunately is not as stable in longer lengths. The double gates below have been sandblasted so that they will rust up evenly, as the customer wanted a set of old looking gates.

We've created a country gate with a stronger RHS frame, flat horizontal bars and a softly curved handle at either end. The diagonal supports are decorated with a ring in the centre. In future Eleanor gates over 12' or 3.6m will also be made with an RHS frame to give the gate more support and rigidity. Pricing of the new Estate gate will be the same as the Eleanor.

A few days ago I mentioned a chicken coop gate that we were making. Our customer wanted something a little 'different' and whimsical in design. Here's a photo of the gate ready to go to it's new home:

These are going to be very lucky chickens!

Wrought iron door panel and new gate topper ...

Our latest custom design ... a custom made wrought iron door panel was required by a client who is nearing completion of her new home. This design would also lend itself quite nicely to a decorative wall panel. We can't wait to see the photos of the completed door in situ.

One of our distributors sent us a samples of a couple of new wrought iron gate toppers. I got to doing some photography today so here's a section of one of them, as well as a section of another ornate wrought iron panel that we've used in some of our courtyard gates.  Both toppers that were sent to us are lovely and my initial reaction to the more ornate gate topper was that it would look lovely over a bed head.  More detailed info about these two items are in our wrought iron flyer. Please contact us via our website if you'd like more information.

Garden Arches & Rose Arbours ... whimsical wrought iron gates

We've been intending to come up with an easily transportable design for nearly a year but spare workshop time had been limited as demand for our gates grew. We recently had a customer order a garden arch so it gave us the opportunity to create what will be a standard design in our range. This rose arbour comes apart ito two halves but like all our products, is still very sturdy when bolted together.  

We're finding that over the last few months the workshop has been putting through more bespoke or custom designed pieces. I'll showcase these as we make them. But two pieces we made a few months ago for the Newman's Nursery at Tea Tree Gully in Adelaide have really taken some people's breath away. Situated by their Topiary Cafe the short wrought iron ballustrade, and large and small sets of wrought iron gates have got customers asking who made them! We're currently making up a small single version for a chicken run - lucky chooks!

There's another two new gates designs coming soon.

2009 Gate designs update

It's been while since we've posted anything to this blog, however this isn't really a reason for concern as the reason has been that we've been run off our feet with work. The last 12 months has seen a fantastic growth in demand for our heritage style gates, and the introduction of wrought iron has widened the scope immensely. We're continually adding more steel gate designs to the range in both country styles and wrought iron garden gate designs.

The Eleanor (above), one of our first larger wrought iron gates introduced a year ago, has been extremely popular both in large and small versions, as has the more provincial style garden gate, the 'Florence' which was also introduced last year.

By the middle of the year we found that it was necessary to employ the services of another welder to assist Andrew in the workshop, freeing him up to do more designing and quoting of custom orders and also give him time to recover from a hip replacement. Graham Jonathan has been a welcome addition to our Farmweld team.

The warmer weather has brought out the gardeners all around Australia, over the last couple of months and again the workshop is busier than ever. Some designs which started out as custom gate designs for particular customers are being added to our standard gate range. A couple of the designs are shown here. We are getting more customers asking about unique custom designs for both gates and other items incorporating wrought iron. These include matching garden ornaments such as arches and trellises, which are the next items to be added to the website.

The website has been much neglected due to our overwhelming workload, but this is slowly to be rectified. If you like what you see here please tell your friends about us and leave a comment.

Heritage style wrought iron entrance gate

Farmweld has been busy creating more gates, this one however is not just suitable as a country gate but would also look lovely with an older heritage home.

The 'Eleanor' is made mainly of flat steel and features wrought iron ends and a centrepiece with spear. As with the previously released 'Florence' garden gate, this gate can be left raw and allowed to rust to give it that truly aged look or be powder coated to your choice of colour. The design is to be added to the Farmweld website shortly and more information is available by contacting Farmweld direct.

The gate is so new to the range that only a drawing is available at this stage and pricing is still being costed for sizes ranging from small garden gates through to the larger entrance gates. If you'd like a gate like this to grace your home, cottage garden or country property then contact Farmweld for more information ... just follow the link to our website at http://www.farmweld.com.au/

Wrought Iron Garden Gates - new release

Farmweld have added a new wrought iron garden gate to their existing range of heritage style country gates. This new gate design is the first in a series of wrought iron garden gates. The 'Florence' is a heritage style gate reminiscent of the turn of the century, heritage wrought iron gates and a design that even the famous garden designer Edna Walling would have loved. The frame of this wrought iron gate is made of flat steel with hand turned scroll work and solid steel vertical bars. The wrought iron 'C' scrolls have decorative hammered ends giving this gate a more formal look than Farmweld's other heritage style country gates.

Made entirely of untreated steel, the gate can be supplied as is and allowed to weather and rust adding to its charm. Like the other heritage style country gates from Farmweld, this wrought iron garden gate can be powder coated in any of the colours from the Interpon powder coating colour chart.

This garden gate would look beautiful displayed as a wall ornament, or more practically as a pleasing entrance or feature in your garden. This wrought iron gate would look stunning in a cottage garden or Edna Walling inspired garden.

Hinge sockets come standard and latches and hinge pins can be supplied. The pictured gate is 1250mm x 900mm, but can be made to any size as a garden gate or full sized wrought iron entrance gate.

For a short time only Farmweld is offering the pictured 900mm garden gate for only

$500 with FREE DELIVERY and ALL HARDWARE SUPPLIED.

A gate of this size will normally retail for $540 plus delivery and hardware so considerable savings are to be had.

ORDER NOW before the Christmas rush begins to avoid disappointment.

Farmweld heritage style country gates and wrought iron gates are available direct from the manufacturer and are delivered all around Australia via courier, at a reasonable rate. All gates are custom made to any size and Farmweld offer a gate design service.

Website Update

I spent some time updating our website and adding a couple of new pages including a link to this blog over the weekend. There's a 'FAQ' page listing answers to many commonly asked questions including how to go about ordering our products, as well as a 'News' page which lists any upcoming shows that we're attending, such as the Farm Day at the Mt Crawford forest on Sunday 25 May, an annual event held by the Birdwood Primary School as a major fundraiser. We'll have many of our products on display including our gates, and hopefully some new designs as well ... which leads me to the next bit of news.

An exciting day as today we got some of the lovely wrought ironwork components which we are going to incorporate into our new gate designs starting with garden gates. We ordered in a couple of gate toppers which are stunning, as well as scrollwork and a decorative fleuron. Hopefully we'll have some prototypes done within the next couple of months. I'll post photos as they become available.

Opening Statements!

Garden Gates ...

As our business grows and we talk to more customers, we've noticed that there's not only a demand for our entrance and paddock gates, but also garden or personal access gates. In times past many a farmer showed his appreciation to his wife by making her a lovingly made garden gate to display in her own domain. When times were tough these gardens were sometimes the main solace and distraction for these ladies and their families, being the only green patch on the whole property. Although these gates were usually simple it was not uncommon for the husbands to decorate the gates with beautiful scrollwork, making them quite a feature in these more often than not, cottage gardens. Although we've been making smaller versions of our bigger gates, we're now in possession of a scroll bender which has opened up the scope of what we can offer our clients. Here's an example of the top of a gate which we designed for one customer ... need I say that the resident welder loves his new toy!

Opening Statements!

As a relatively new small family business I thought it might be a good idea to add a blog our existing website. We started 'Farmweld' about 18 months ago and originally decided that our objectives would be to make quality products primarily for small property owners. Their needs are different to bigger farmers and their frustrations, as well as our own, with poorly made equipment made it obvious that there would be a demand for well made stock equipment - especially for handling small herds of sheep, alpacas or cattle as well as gaps in the equine aka horse industry for horse equipment like jump wings, float yard panels and well made and safe roundyards.
Having a bit of an artistic streak I found that it would also be nice to make something different to the norm. Farm gates seemed to only come in mesh or less commonly bar type gates and in many cases the quality was poor. These days gates only come in standard sizes, but lets face it how many old properties have 'standard' size gate openings? In the old days, most 'cocky's' would do their own fencing and gateways were made to accommodate the landscape and needs of the property owner. Many would also make their own gates, expecially the lovely garden gates with timber, or odd bits of wrought iron work or scroll work. Many people going through a sea change or tree change and needing to upgrade gates and fencing have found that replacing an odd sized gate is alot harder than originally thought and in some cases a good excuse for some retailers to charge ridiculous amounts to custom make a gate.

I guess that's where we saw that there was a need, a demand as such. Farm gates needn't be boring and more attractive gates needn't be unfunctional. That's where our range stemed from ... the desire to make something functional, strong and yet attractive. A farm gate that would keep in livestock and also be welcoming ... the birth of Farmweld's Heritage Style Country Gates.