Baby Gate (self closing and latching)

This is a baby gate for my daughter who should be crawling shortly. I wanted a good solid gate rather than a store-bought pressure fitted one because this is used at the top of a dozen stairs. I used reclaimed red oak from an old table top that was badly warped. This was a good opportunity to use my new workbench to flatten the stock by hand. Joints are mortise and tenon.

I had a design failure at first. You can see some plugs in the wall in the second and third pic. Thankfully we haven’t painted here yet and will wait until there is no need for gates to do so. Origionally the gate was attached to a board here with hinges but it pulled away from the wall from stress. So then I reworked it so that it is hinged to the balistrade (not sure if that’s the right term).

Also my latch didn’t work out well which lead me to design my own. I used self closing hinges and wanted to be able to take advantage of this by having a self latching feature. I didn’t want to have to always resecure the gate. It works well. You need to pull up on the latch, which bends the thin oak, to open. I don’t think a small child will be able to do this. Tomorrow morning I will see how long it takes my 3 yr old to figure it out.

Excuse the open screw holes. I know it looks rough but I have to be able to remove it one day. Thanks for looking. Comments, critisism, and suggestions are welcome.