On the spectrum of intensity with which a family could baby-proof their house, we lean heavily on the less is more end of things. You could say we go with the adage to house-proof your baby (like, teach them not to touch certain things) rather than baby-proof your house. While you will not see much of any of those little plastic products around our home, having a baby gate to corral my growing boy was seeming more and more valuable in life post-apartment with more square footage.
The living room, where we play most of the time, has a pocket door connecting to the kitchen. One baby gate to the entryway and I would have myself a nice, quarantined play area.
The catch is, I aesthetically and functionally hate dealing with the typical wood or plastic baby gate. They can really junk up a house visually. Plus, they are cumbersome to store or hide.
I created a fabric option that requires very little sewing ability.
This project is simple, so if you are like me in this way, I think you could do it!
- Trim piece of quilted material to desired size for your door. I did mine 34″ high and it has held my very-skilled-at-climbing baby.
- Sew bias tape around perimeter.
- Create loops on corners and sides with bias tape. I did six in total and it has been secure.
- Measure and screw mug hooks into wall.
- Hang baby gate!
The above photo is after a few months of use and it has held together very well despite our little lad getting quite rough. He certainly bounces on it and pulls down on the top, but we have had no escapes to date.
Being able to conveniently hook it to one side when I want open access, remove and fold it up entirely for guests, or release just a corner to easily step over (even with my pregnant-ness) is excellent.
I have not implemented this yet, but the other perk is I could put more hooks in other doorways and easily move it around to partition off different areas. The final product gets a 10/10 (and my sewing skills required a 2/10.)
