Home design trends these days tend toward open spaces, rather than a separate small room for each function that used to be popular. Many homes no longer have a family room, kitchen, dining room, and living room in segmented areas, all open to one another.
While this type of open-concept layout looks wonderful, it can make it difficult to protect your children when a standard-size baby gate doesn’t fit in with the area you’re trying to work on. The solution? Extra wide baby gates.
Extra-wide baby gates come in either pressure-mounted or hardware-mounted versions. You’ll need to compare each of these styles to find out which one will work best for your space based on function and safety.
Pressure-mounted extra-wide baby gates are easy to install, can be adjusted to fit comfortably in a doorway, and move easily from doorway to doorway. Rubber bumpers on the sides of the door protect the walls from holes and other damage. The use of pressure-mounted gates at the top of stairs is not recommended; there are no hardware holding the door to the wall, just pressure. If you are renting your home, your landlord may want you to use a pressure gate instead of drilling holes in the walls. Remember, however, that a pressure-mounted gate is not the safest option for stairs; you may have to negotiate with the landlord about it to make sure your baby is as safe as possible.
Hardware-mounted extra-wide baby gates aren’t as mobile (unless you have additional hardware mounted to another gate, then the gate can be shared between them). These types of doors use fittings to mount them on wall studs or handrails, which makes them very resistant and safe. Most hardware-mounted gates can be used at the top of stairs, but you should check the details of each gate to ensure full security.
Some extra wide baby gates are metal, some are plastic, and some are mesh. Again, it depends on what your requirements are. Some extra wide baby gates have gates inside the gate for easy adults to get through and some even have a pet gate so smaller dogs or cats can fit through the gate as well.
Whichever extra-wide baby gate you choose, don’t let price be a factor – let the benefits and features make your decisions. Your baby or toddler deserves the best safety equipment you can afford. You’ll spend more for a good quality extra-wide baby gate, but it will last longer than the cheap version. The safety of your little ones is worth much more than saving a few bucks.
