Screen Doggie Door!

[Mishymishy]

Necessity was definitely the mother of invention with this one. We live in an apartment with tiny  backyard area. We usually keep the sliding back door open a bit so our 2 dogs can run in and out to use the restroom. Well, with the heat lately, there have been tons of gnats and mosquitos in the backyard, so leaving the door open lets all the gross bugs in.    We looked at sliding door doggie doors and theyre way too expensive for us (over $100) so I fashioned my own cheapie one for about $15!

The tools: Some tulle, some scrap fabric or anything you want to use for a "border" (I used leftover corduroy), adhesive hooks, a wooden dowel, and adhesive velcro.



Measure the tulle to your door and add a fabric border. Use the dowel kinda like a curtain rod at the top, under the fabric. Use the adhesive hooks to hold the dowel and "curtain" up near the top of the frame. (note: in my situation, one hook went on the glass door and the other went on the door frame. I made a little fabric hoop that went on the hook). Use the velcro to stick the border to the door, so that a draft wont blow it open (use the soft part of the velcro on the curtain so the hooks wont snag it when you take it down. Leave the bottom foot or so unhemmed and unvelcro'ed so it's easy for the doggies to get in and out.

My finished product and action shots! It looks kinda crappy since I was making it up as I went along, but it works and thats what's important.




There was a gap at the top of mine, so I hung a little bit of fabric off the top of the door frame to cover it.

Comments are welcome

[dez-igns]

what a great idea!! I love the first action shot

[crappiefisher]

cool idea! I wonder if you could put some magnets on the edges to keep it from opening. They have screen door flaps with magnets for humans...so why not here?

the way that they are built is that the edges are secured/sewn in to the frame. The middle is split with magnets in the center seam. It would mean that you would have to redo the bottom part of you cool screen - so I don't know if you up to that.

But it is a good idea. We are kind of looking into a similar thing.

[Mishymishy]

Ooo the magnet thing is a GREAT idea! I will have to see if magnets will stick to the door frame, and if it does, then I can redo it. Right now, we use the velcro, which works fine, but obviously one side of the velcro stays stuck to the door when not in use, so it doesn't look pretty. I wonder how strong the magnet's need to be. Hm.

[crappiefisher]

Here's what I'm talking about:
http://www.ecobottoms.com/category/screendoors/

you could just place the magnets at the bottom for the dogs, or make a whole one like in the picture.  There are weights in the bottom of the screen to keep it straight.  We were going to build one for our little cabin yurt - but we sold it. but here's what we were going to do:

Make the screen from two pieces of screen or mosquito netting. The two pieces would be the same length and wide enough to over lap each other by 1 inch or so - plus enough for a 1.5 - 2 inch hem. The top and side hems would be sewn to a strip of material. Velcro is placed on this strip at strategic locations along the sides. the other side of the velcro would be placed on matching areas of the sides of the door frame. Hang it from a tension curtain rod...so you need to allow for that hem as well.

We were going to use the magnets from the various business cards we had. They are not that strong, but would work. We were going to cut the business cards in thirds to get a nice strip.  Magnet strips would be sewn into the hems of the screen...making sure to match up opposite sides.

Hang the screen from this frame, attaching to all sides of frame. Frame would attach to door frame with velcro.

good luck and let me know how it goes!

[katiekre40]

That is a good idea, I never thought of using tulle to create a screen door but I am gonna try it, I have three chihuahuas who like to go outside but leaving the door open all the time isn't an option but with a homemade screen door would make it so convenient,
GREAT IDEA!!!!

[sunshyn_stef]

This is why I love Craftster!  I know this thread is about a year old, but has anyone tried making this with actual screen and magnets?  I've been looking at these and it seems like it's screen and a tension rod and some magnets.  Maybe something to weight the bottom a bit.

Thanks!

[smileyyogini]

The tulle is brilliant! I have bought the commercial product in the link above and it stunk. So I tried to mimic it with screen I bought at the home improvement store and a tension rod and velcro...kiiiinda like yours, but I didnt sew edging around it. That was better than the commercial product. But, it was still so stiff that still had little edges that came away and let flies in.

It was so bad that my husband wanted to duct tape it. I was like "baby, thats not sexy".

But tulle. Tulle with some edging would be light weight enough to be pliable. Thats an awesome idea! I am going to try it. Not sure what color to use first and its gonna be hard not to buy the shimmery kind.

Thank you for sharing!!