Baby Gates for Difficult Stairs

Pinterest Hidden Image

So I’m not joking when I say that we spent a small fortune trying to find the right baby gates for our stairs. I bought almost every trial gate online, which then meant we had to return it via UPS or FedEx and eat the shipping cost. Nothing at Target, Buy Buy Baby, or anywhere else was quite working for our new (beautiful but difficult) staircase. I hope this post about baby gates for difficult stairs helps you solve your baby safety problems!

We didn’t want to drill any holes into our walls, so we used all spring-loaded gates for both the up and downstairs.

baby gates for stairs

To protect the walls from damage, we bought these guys: Baby Gate Guru Pressure Mounted Wall Protector.

baby gates for stairs

We have this gate for the downstairs portion of the stairs. It’s auto-locking, extremely secure, and easy to install and adjust. Many a kid has hung onto this bad boy, and he hasn’t budged a bit!

baby gates for stairs
Dreambaby Chelsea Extra Wide Auto Close Security Gate

The auto-lock feature is wonderful when you’ve got your hands full coming up or going down the stairs!

baby gates for stairs

On one side, we have an uneven surface because of the “baseboard” and the wall. On the other side, we have a tapered pillar surrounded by wrought iron. It was almost the end of my sanity trying to make this work. In the end, we found the things listed below that worked for us!

baby gates for stairs

In order to use the spring-loaded gate on the banister, we had to order these little accessories. This is how we were able to safely secure the gate without ruining the banister.

baby gates for stairs

We didn’t use the wooden pieces pictured, but the plastic pieces have done the job just fine!

baby gates for stairs
baby gates for stairs

You can adjust them based on the width of your banister, which for us, was thinner at the top and wider at the bottom.

baby gates for stairs
baby gates for stairs

We also needed to extend the gate to get it past the wrought iron, so we bought this extension.

baby gates for stairs

We wanted to be able to have a solid place to put our foot on the bottom step, so we had to angle the gate in order to get this space. It doesn’t look the best, but it works just fine and dandy, thank you.

baby gates for stairs

We went with this little number for our upstairs gate. You can adjust the springs to fit so it worked with our baseboards and our pillar. Jon adjusted the springs perfectly (I tried to do it myself, and that didn’t work out so well), so I don’t worry at all when Corey goes and shakes on the gate like a monkey in a cage. It’s super secure! It is NOT auto-closing like our downstairs gate, however, so you do have to make sure you lock it in.

baby gates for stairs

We’ve had to remove this gate a few times for construction or moving purposes, and it goes back on perfectly. There’s been no damage to our walls or baseboard either!

baby-gates-for-difficult-stairs-banister
baby gates for stairs

I hope all of our struggles help you with your baby gates for difficult stairs! These products have worked well for us for a long time now (over 4 years)!

Home | parenthood | Baby Gates for Difficult Stairs

4 thoughts on “Baby Gates for Difficult Stairs”

  1. What a great solution for getting the gate at the bottom of your stairs to “attach” to the banister! You were not only creative and forward-thinking, but those are such attachments for the banister. It all really looks so nice!

    Reply
  2. Banisters are always the trickiest to handle.. We had these stairs in our old house and it was a nightmare putting a baby gate over there. Really liked the way you came up with the zip tie idea…and most of all it didn’t affect the look and feel at all.

    Reply

Leave a Comment