Marble Fence

Note: Happy New Year! I thought this was the perfect post to start off 2013! It’s bright and cheerful and made by my mama and brother! 

My mom saw this pin on Pinterest a few months back, and then about one month later maniaced (perfect verb for my mama!) a marble fence. My mom is a doer. She makes things happen! She convinced my brother, who has a fence company to help her make a marble fence. (Zach’s fence company is called Aggieland Fence for anyone who needs any kind of fence or fence repair in the BCS.) If you’re new here, check out the first post about my parents backyard and how my mom made a bottle tree. You can see the bottle tree behind the marble fence in the pic below. See…

Zach and my mom were the creators of the fence, and since I was not around to take good before or process pictures I’m resorting to the family archives. Just for fun, Steve (top pic) is my youngest brother, and Kelley (bottom pic) is my only sister. This was a long time ago. Steven is now 16 and Kelley is 25. Here’s the wrought iron fence before it became a marble beauty:

The fence debacle started because my parents wanted to be able to get a riding lawn mower and other big pieces of equipment into our backyard. The wrought iron gate wasn’t doing the trick. So, check it out:

My parents decided to get rid of the gate all together and actually make the left side of the fence a removable fence panel. If you check out the before pics, both sides used to have an 18 in. brick footing.  Now, only the right side has a brick footing. So, here is how it all went down. My mom told Zach what she wanted and Zack made it happen. This is Zach’s first marble fence, pretty impressive, huh? The 3 things that make this fence stand out are:

1. Marbles in the fence
2. The concave swoop
3. The left side of the fence is removable

 I’m going to spill the beans about 1 and 2. If you want details about making a removable fence panel, you can email me and I’ll ask Zach and my mom.

How to add marbles to your fence

My mom bought marbles online. Just make sure your marbles will let light shine through. You also need a rubber mallet  and a drill. Use a practice board to find the perfect size drill bit for your marbles. My mom used different sized marbles, and had to have different sized drill bits. It’s pretty simple, just drill a hole in your fence, and use the rubber mallet to pound in the marble. You want the marble to be snug as a bug.

Here’s the marble back side of the removable marble fence panel:

Here is the backside of both sides:

Another fun thing about the marble  fence is that it’s look changes depending on the sunlight and angle. I like this angle…

Here’s a close up of the different sized marbles…

Here is one more front view. See the bottle tree peeking over the brick pillar?

How to make a concave swoop in a fence

Zach’s secret to making a perfect concave fence swoop is 1″ PVC sprinkler pipe (or any flexible, long material). Just lay it over the top of the fence, and adjust the swoop to your liking. Note: This is a 2 person job! When you’ve decided on the perfect swoop, trace the pipe line, and then use a sawzaw to cut along the line. Bam. Zach is a pretty handy with a Sawzall (here’s a link to the one he has)… If this is your 1st rodeo, I suggest doing a few practice cuts.