Our loft – the high ceiling extends across the living room – very bright and spacious!
A big plus of our apartment is the loft, but it also poses a challenge. When my son started crawling, climbing and walking, we needed to figure out a way to childproof our loft. A baby gate at the top and bottom of the stairs prevented him from going up and down on his own and (potentially) falling down the stairs, however the half wall was still a major issue to address.
Looking down over the loft wall – scary!
We searched and searched, but found nothing on the market to address the problem. So, we wandered around Home Depot looking for a hack. Metal gating is expensive, so we thought we’d use wooden shutter doors, but they aren’t sturdy enough and we couldn’t figure out a good way to mount them. After walking down just about every aisle in the store, we came across a really long wire shelf.
Safe, easy and clean mounting hardware.
It seemed a bit flimsy, but when stood on its side, it actually held up well. It came with mounting hardware and was cheap (even if it didn’t work out, it wouldn’t cost much to try). We bought it and had it up within an hour of getting it home.
This hacked “railing” is sturdy enough to hold up a stack of cardboard moving boxes.
While we always watch Arlo in the loft (it’s just a small room anyway) and teach him the dangers of heights, this hack gave us extra peace of mind that he wouldn’t accidentally tumble over the loft wall.
Here’s one last shot, with it looking nice and without a big mess around.