Wednesday, November 5, 2014

WARNING: NOT A JEWELRY POST. THIS IS A BABY RELATED HOME IMPROVEMENT POST

When we found out we were having surprise twins almost two years ago we decided to go with the Ikea Sniglar cribs because of the reasonable price (two of everything!) and because of the nice clean look.  I felt that two cribs in the same room was overwhelming enough so I wanted something that was super plain.

Fast forward two years and one baby climbed up and then fell headfirst into the other crib (they were pushed together in an L shape).  I guess we were lucky she didn't climb out over the side that faced the floor!  Seeing that our days of easy bedtimes were at an end, we felt like we had to prevent further dangerous escape attempts by giving them a safe exit route.


The Sniglar has an option to take off one side, but there is no rail to keep a sleeping baby from rolling out.  After finding my daughter sleeping with her head on the crib mattress and the rest of her curled up on the floor.


So we decided to create a toddler style bed by creating a climb through side.  We bought a piece of wood (I believe it was a 1x12) and used a router saw to create  little curved openings.  (By the way, a router saw is an amazing device and not expensive!  I'm not sure why it took us this long to get one.) I sanded everything to make soft edges everywhere, slapped some white paint on it, and screwed it in to the crib sides. I love the way it looks and it works great to keep them from falling out.  But it doesn't do much to help them fall asleep easily, alas.



3 comments:

Honey Badger said...

The struggle is real, be it one midget, or 10. Lilli, now 11, climbed out of her crib and onto the floor once. That's how I knew she could bounce. I, too, took the side of her crib off, and even though it had a side rail attached, I often found her asleep UNDER the crib. Ha!

Emma Peel said...

Hi Justine, I've loved your blog for years. I'm also a jeweler and I've just appreciated your sharing the trials and tribulations of your work. The crib project is great. You are so clever!
Robin Schechtel

Barbara said...

The side panels are so clever. You could totally market them! They are so much nicer than the cheapo plastic things that pretend to be bed rails.