Can we talk about baby gates?

[imimahoney]

Boring I know but it is driving me bonkers.

What gate(s) do you have and where?

We are thinking of gating everything off except the living room. Meaning the back family room, the kitchen and the bottom of the stairs. We will need large gates for the stairs and the family room. I also need something to contain our make shift entertainment center. Upstairs nothing will be gated but we might consider doing the top of the stairs but not just yet.

I want to talk advantage of the buy one get one half off sale at BRU but I am running out of time. There are so many freaking options.

[mrsjaymay]

We ended up just buying this

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002V87MJQ/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

We haven't gotten it yet, but our friends have it and love it. They use it along with their sectional couch, which is what we will do, also. We do have a gate that goes into our kitchen and down to our basement. That's mainly to keep the dog separated from the baby, though.

Now that she's crawling, we are finding that she is in to everything and we need to keep her away from the entertainment center and our laptop cords and such.

[imimahoney]

Thanks!

But I think we need something that fastens to the wall. That does look super cool though.

[ruby412]

I'm not sure the brand of the ones we have because we had them installed. But, what I like about them is that there is no base to step over. That was important to us to avoid tripping. So, if that's important to you, you may want to add that to your criteria. Also, they are aluminum rather than plastic.

However, we did use a KidCo plastic gate to close off her playroom.

[mala]

We have one cheap one on the door to her room, which we don't really use yet. We have one $$ for the bottom of the stairs. We sprung for the more expensive one because it would install without drilling into the banister. And we have another cheapo one for the kitchen doorway. We will keep the office door closed. Our entertainment center is already enclosed so I don't have to worry about it, just have to put cabinet locks on it.

[vthokie]

We just did the BOGO stuff at BRU. We needed a couple gates for doorways, and for the stairs. Plus we got the play yard thing and then got an extension kit from Amazon. Here's what we got. Everything is working well so far. Haven't gotten the play yard (baby cage) yet.
www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=10963379
www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=16483546
www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4132571
www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12818268
We also got the one that didn't have to drill into the banister. Not pretty, but it works

I have a friend with something like this for around the entertainment center and she likes it
www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2265804

[laouli]

I have a wooden gate one going into the laundry room... and I have a baby octagon that I use as a long gate when I am cooking.. or if I need to block off room due to wires.. etc...

[lauranicole91]

This is the one we got and I'm not a huge fan
www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=16483546

We have it in the hallway to block off the bathroom and back rooms and to separate baby from the dogs. I've had it rip out of the wall three times now. I'm using the biggest anchors I could find in the hardware store and I can tell its getting loose again. We are moving next month so I guess I need to find a stud to put it in at the new place.

My other complaint about it is that it's loud as hell. Opening the latch will literally wake Pey up down the hall.

Oh and it there's no way to accommodate baseboards with it. So we had to install it above the baseboard and our chihuahua kept escaping. Not to mention Pey was trying to figure out how to get under it. So we zip tied a baseboard to the bottom. Klassy.

I wish I had a good review for you. Haha.

Eta: I should add I didn't buy this in store. We didn't have the money to fork out for a new one so we just snatched this for 5 bucks at a yardsale. So I guess it's my own fault for not researching and getting the right kind for what we need it for. Haha.

[imimahoney]

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate it. And Laura- I was looking at that for our stairs, good to know.

Off to research!

[muppetinma]

We've got this one, and it works fine.
www.target.com/p/kidco-safeway/-/A-14015254#prodSlot=medium_1_15
We got the fancy banister one, but it didn't work for us. We have a very odd space to try to fit it in.

I posted this picture of him when we put it up. We ended up adding some 1x2 to the banister and the wall so we could get it nice and secure. Since we took this picture, the wood on the banister has been stained and the wood on the wall has been filled in and painted. It's really not offensive looking. We're lucky because we only needed the one gate. (Our house is open concept)

[Deleted]

We have this Summer Infant Safe and Secure (or something like that) one. It goes up to 12 feet

[Deleted]

Then we also got this play yard for free that we rigged into two Gates to keep this room enclosed. We needed something between the couches so that was hard to find.

[creamsiclechica]

We've got his one for the top of our stairs, because we live in a split level, with stairs that go down to a foyer then downstairs. It's awesomely sturdy, and matches our bannister so it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb decor wise. Pricey, but worth it we think. We also have huge, heavy dogs, so we wanted something sturdy enough to stand up to them too. Hope that helps!

www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=10963379

[monkeybabe]

We have munchkin ones from target that swing both directions. I like them and they keep her in/out of rooms.

[tuck]

I just got this one for the bottom of my stairs. www.amazon.com/The-First-Years-Stair-Slimline/dp/B00328CURI/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1357532262&sr=8-5&keywords=first+years+baby+gate

I love it because it doesn't readjust once you get it installed. It didn't fit perfectly so we had to shim it, but nothing in my house is square or level.

We have this one for the top: www.amazon.com/Evenflo-Top-Stair-Plus-Gate/dp/B002W5RT9Q/ref=sr_1_6?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1357532568&sr=1-6&keywords=top+of+stairs+baby+gate

It's very sturdy, but a pain to install.