I know this seems dumb, but I can’t even begin to tell you how much research I had to do in order to figure this out. I needed to figure out the best way to put a baby gate up in my home with our open concept craftsman style stairs. Initially chairs stacked in front of it worked, but now that my 13 month old is rivaling the strength of a he-man, something had to change.
Our craftsman stairs mean the wall didn’t match up with the main banister and the metal spindles that do happen to be across from a wall couldn’t handle the normal circle ends of a pressure mounted gate. After a lot of research and trial and error, I came up with the best system I could find and had it all delivered to my house
2 Y Spindles for Pressure Baby Gate
3 Baby Gate Wall Cup Protector
The gates can go as wide as 80 inches and fits the décor in addition to being super functional.
The Y Spindles come in a variety of sizes based on the type of rod/spoke you need it to go around, but this 8 mm version fit onto our rods perfectly with a slight pad to help protect it.
Lastly, although not 100% needed, are the wall cup protectors.
With my first child, I made the mistake of putting a pressure mounted gate at the top of our stairs. When we went to move a year later I took down the gate and also a chunk of our pain and layer of drywall…… not a good look, even if you like “rustic”. In using the wall cups, you not only protect your walls from damage, but it also adds an extra element of friction to keep the gate from slipping and sliding around due to the rubber pads underneath. I have seen some others that actually leave the name imprints on the wall, however this brand has been great so far and easy to install.
As a safety precaution, they do always recommend that you don’t use gates at the top of stairs because kids can knock them down and the pressure can give. While my smallest is still very small, I opt to use the extended dog gate to keep her away from the top of the stairs.
She still can’t climb over it and it is very hard to try and knock over even as an adult. Plus, when we have people coming over to go up and down the basement stairs for playdates and what not, it is much easier to move this all together than to take down a gate or use the old “hair tie” trick.
Please keep in mind, I am by no means a safety expert or baby extraordinaire. I have, however, been able to keep 3 kids alive with no hospital visits thus far ( knock on wood ), so that counts for a little something.
Corky Jane 