Adventures in babyproofing
Houston, we have a climber.
That’s Liv, practicing her latest tricks before settling in for a nap. It’s like the transition from sitting up, scooting/crawling, to pulling up and standing happened so quickly, and makes me very glad we decided to get babyproofing finished early.
Babyproofing is something I thought about a lot while pregnant (thank you for all of your awesome tips!) and while it would have been nice to do it before she was born, there’s really a good amount of time to take care of it. Our main concern was the entryway and formal living room- it’s basically glass and pointy corner central.
So, we decided to block off that area, so that when Liv was more mobile (like now!) she would only have access to the den and kitchen area. I didn’t want to redecorate our entire house for baby protection purposes and decided to wait until she understands not to touch certain things, and is more stable on her feet when she walks. If she fell and hit her head on one of the glass tables, it would be awful. We were also worried about the staircase… out of sight, out of mind, so by blocking this area we hoped that she wouldn’t want to be climbing up and down all day.
When we started to research baby gates, we wanted something study and did the job, without being an eyesore.
We found these decorative Summer gates- exactly what we were looking for.
One for next to the fridge
and the other (a much longer one) for the main entry into the den area.
Here’s what it looks like when you walk in from the front door:
An obvious baby gate, but doesn’t look so bad. The metal matches nicely with our decor and feels more study than the plastic varieties.
In the den, cord-stravaganza was our concern. Behind our TV was a plethora of dangerous cords, without any rhyme or reason to them.
Tom got rid of the things we didn’t need, mounted the TV to the wall, and at first we though he’d put a hole with all the cords through the wall. Apparently that’s an extremely bad move for safety and a code violation, so he just picked up a cord-hider-thing (scientific terms) and painted it to match the wall.
He did an AMAZING job- one cord sticking out from the side of the TV stand,
and a TV mounted beautifully.
He liked the way it looked so much that he did the same thing to the flat screen in one of the guest rooms- it looks fantastic.
The previous owners of our house had kids (4 kids!), so we lucked out with the fact that they installed outlet protectors on all of the outlets. You have to slide it (using an actual plug) for it to move:
Tom also put locks on all of the cabinets so no chemicals can be accessed and no little fingers can be pinched:
It makes me really happy to have an area that Liv can explore freely without hurting herself. We watch her all the time, but I don’t want to constantly be following her around, trying to tell her “uh-uh, let’s not touch that” or worried that she’ll hit her head or knock down something.
We keep these areas pretty free of clutter, which is important to us for aesthetic and safety reasons. While it’s definitely ok to see that a baby lives in this house, too, we don’t want the stuff to take over, and just pick up all of the books and toys when we’re done playing with them for the day. With less things around, it’s easier for me to keep everything sanitized since she’s moving around so much. The Shark steam mop is my friend 😉
The kitchen is pretty empty, too, but I think I’ll need to install a shield from the stove knobs when she can walk.
I hope this post was helpful for those of you who might be babyproofing in the near future! Just some little things that helped us, and I definitely recommend consulting with a professional in your area who will come into your home and let you know which hazards exist and the steps to take.
Or, you can do what we did: our 2-year-old cousin stayed with us for 12 days.. she let us know if we were missing anything 😉
xoxo
G
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Great job! Those gates looks really nice. I hate fumbling with the temporary plastic and wood ones – it’s a lot to juggle if you’re carrying a baby and/or anything else in your hands! And I like those plugs – much better and easier to use than sticking the plastic things into the outlets.
I love the hidden cords! Everything looks fantastic. And those gates are so much more attractive than the plastic ones. I need to borrow some of your tips for our pets, lol.
Your house is beyond gorgeous!
thank you, lovely!
Love your cuchina sign. Where did you find it?
thank you! world market
We have the same gates for our dog. They coordinate well with the decor of the house and keep him contained to his areas. Looks so much better than those white plastic eye soars. Good choice.
i am confused. ALL those wires were put in one of those cord covers? I hate all the wires under my very open desk. I love the gates. they look awesome in your house.
The transition does happen very quick. My girl was pulling up exactly one week after crawling, eek.
Love those gates!! Where did you get them? Our style is very similar to yours and I have been dreading the plastic gates. Our little girl is 2 1/2 months so we have some time but I feel like its coming quickly!
Aww… in the photo looking in from the door Bella’s looking out like “Hheeeyyyyy… What the…?!” from the other room! Too cute =)
You have such an eye for decorating! Maybe it’s just because we don’t have a little one yet, but there are so many baby-proofing things I’ve never thought of… like a knob guard for stoves!
Looks great, Gina! I found a baby gate on Amazon with great reviews and was unfinished so we could stain it to match the woodwork/trim in our house. When we were looking at houses, I REALLY wanted an open floor plan. Then I started babyproofing and I was thankful that we ended up with a Foursquare! Though we did the same as you to our kitchen cabinets, I left one undone for her. It has her plates/cups/forks in it as well as a couple empty cookie tins and my plastic mixing bowls. She can bang around in that cabinet as much as she wants and all is well. And her having easy access to her things makes her excited to help momma set the table because she can pick out her own place settings and put them in her spot.
“Or, you can do what we did: our 2-year-old cousin stayed with us for 12 days.. she let us know if we were missing anything: <– EXACTLY
you just dont know til you have a 2 year test things out for you 🙂 it's one of those, can't really pre-plan too far in advance tasks..never know what kind of baby you have. I didnt have a climber. I had a mess maker. Gates to the stairs not as important as gates to my kitchen cupboards. I mean, it's all important but some babies just gravitate to certain things!
Y’all did a fantastic job of babyproofing without BABYPROOFING. It looks so chic!
What an absolutely beautiful home you have! It looks like you both put a lot of thought into the baby proofing. It’s so smart to section off certain areas instead of the whole house!
I had to smile at your use of the word “plethora”… Just this morning I told my hubs, “you know what’s a word you don’t hear too often? Plethora!” We’ve been using that word all day!
Gorgeous home! Great tips! 🙂
When my sister had kids staring to run around and mess with the stove, she found that she could simply pull off the knobs so the kids wouldn’t be able to turn it on… She kept the knobs in a drawer close to the stove. Might work for you!
Wow, that’s an awesome idea!
genius! thank you!
I love those baby gates – those plastic ones you usually see are an eyesore, so those are definitely a nice change!
Your house looks great 🙂 I LOVE those contemporary baby gates. So much better than the plain beiges ones I’ve seen in houses.
Wow, you guys have a fabulous house! I love that your attitude toward baby-proofing; yeah, it’s necessary for safety but it doesn’t mean the whole house has to change to suit it! Very cool.
umm…bookmarked! haha. Perfect timing – we’ll be coming up on this adventure in a few months. Also, I need to make a trip to world market for kitchen decor, like, yesterday.
Those gates are so pretty! A great improvement over the traditional plastic things. Also, all of my cabinets are baby proofed because of our cats. Not the same thing, but you know.
I’ve never seen gates like that- they look really nice! Great baby-proofing tips. I’m sure sorting out those cords was one of those really annoying but highly rewarding jobs!
We had one of those gates for our kitchen at our last rental. We are moving again this weekend and I plan to buy a few more for our new place. Hard to climb over a 42″ tall gate with vertical slates, even our 11 year old tried and failed.
You’re house is so beautiful – I realise this wasn’t the point of the post 😉 But it really is gorgeous! I love that you’ve been able to baby proof in a way that hasn’t taken anything away from your home!! 🙂 x
I love those gates! They actually look nice. 🙂 I’m terrified about all of the things we’ll need to baby proof eventually.
I had fun playing “Where’s Bella” in these photos. 🙂
i love how she followed me around. “wait, you want a picture of me? but i’m too far away! let me just pose here” haha
I love your house, it’s so open and bright! And those baby gates are so much more attractive than the plastic ones, great idea!
In regards to “pointy corner central” – you can buy bumpers to cover the pointy edges of coffee tables. My brother & sister-in-law have a (very mobile) 13 month old, and they seem to work great! Not sure where they got them though (and we live in Canada, so it probably wouldn’t matter anyways, haha).
our house is teeny tiny so we didn’t have a TON to baby proof, here’s what we ended up doing: http://livinglikethekings.com/2011/10/babyproofing/
What we also did is divide the main living areas into two with a gate so even if she was out of sight, our little Peanut is never more than a few feet from us and the other side of the house is locked up, safely. This walking thing is tough, I tell ya 😉
Don’t laugh, you need a toilet lock also. My kids tried to flush their shoes.
Hi! Tom did a great job in putting the tv on the wall! Can you give details about that please? I really want to do the same but have no idea where to start.
The gates look beautiful!
he bought a mount on amazon and just mounted it using that. the f bomb was yelled a few times, but he did an amazing job
Your house is so lovely…great pictures!!!
I had no idea they made baby gates that cool-looking…really nice! You guys did a great job…
I love the idea of a baby being able to explore his/her home. She is going to love that…and LOL at “Houston, we have a climber.” 🙂
I bought that gate for my dog!
Never thought I’d step foot in babies r’ us and then there I was buying a gate.
They are sturdy though and the nicest looking out there. Great choice!
Now just wait until she climbs up on your coffee table to reach the TV. It will happen, and it will scare you to death haha
Reader request:
🙂
I was just reading your post on Baby Wise, and I was wondering how some of the stuff that you read and learned before you got pregnant/while you were pregnant, translated now that Olivia is almost 7 months old. Did you find something you learned particularly helpful? Have you been able to take what you learned and successfully apply it? Me and my husband have been reading Bringing up Bebe and have been talking about how easy it actually is to apply some of the things you learn pre-baby.