I recently shared the baby “gate” we use at the bottom of our stairs. Today I am going to show you the baby gate we use at the top of the stairs. Since I didn’t want to drill into the banister, we installed the baby gate using some heavy duty zip ties and a piece of wood.
I knew what I wanted to do at the bottom of the stairs, but it was more difficult to make a decision about what to do about the top of the stairs. For awhile, we just made sure to keep the doors closed when our daughter was in any room upstairs. We eventually decided it was time to get a gate when she became much faster.
This is the view going up the stairs.
As you can see above, there is a handrail on the left side and a banister on the right side. This made it more difficult to install a baby gate.
I also wanted to avoid drilling into the banister if possible.
Deciding what type of gate to use was the hardest part. I didn’t want to get one that had a bar at the bottom that I had to step over. Since I can be clumsy at times (well, most of the time actually), I figured I would end up tripping down the stairs while holding Julia. I also didn’t want to get a gate that only opened in the center because I wanted as much space as possible to walk through.
I finally found a baby gate that I liked from Babies R Us. There isn’t a bar at the bottom to trip over, it swings all the way open, and it looks nice. It met all of my requirements, so I bought it.
After some research on how to install it, my husband and I decided to attach a 2 x 4 to the banister using zip ties. That way, we could drill into the 2 x 4 instead of directly into the banister.
After cutting the 2 x 4 to size, I stained the board with some leftover stain I had at home.
When it was completely dry, my husband attached the 2 x 4 to the banister using heavy duty zip ties. He made sure to pull them as tight as possible.
From there, we followed the directions that came with the baby gate to finish installing it.
I feel much better having a gate at the top of the stairs.
In case you missed it, you can check out what we did at the bottom of the stairs.
What kind of baby gate do you have at the top of your stairs?
Have a great day!
♥Jena♥