Baby proof your fireplace or tables for under $4!

Our baby is on the move. 

You turn your back and she's gone. 

You put her down in one place, and the next moment she is trying to scale my stairs. 

She is a pint-size crawling explorer with no limits and no fear. So Sophia-proofing our house has officially begun.

And the scariest place that we decided to start with was none other than our fireplace. 

Remember our fireplace that we spruced up and transformed a while back? Well, it's all pretty and nice to look at now, but it scares the heck out of me when it comes to babies. Those sharp, rough brick edges and my sweet baby's little face and head?...ya, gives me nightmares. 

So I started searching for solutions. Solutions that would cover those sharp edges and save my sweet baby from certain harm. 

BUT--I had no idea that what I would find would cost me over $40 and essentially be some not-so-soft foam that is wrapped around those sharp edges, sold in pretty packages, found at places like Babies R' Us. 

So I went on a hunt for something different. Something cheaper. Something softer. 

And...and I found it. 

For all of $2 each, you can head on over to your local hardware store (like Lowes or Home Depot) and pick up two of those insulated foam pipes with the adhesive already on it, and you've got yourself some cushy, soft, baby-proofing done on the cheap. 

The great thing about these foam pipes is that they already come with adhesive on them, so you can easily stick them to whatever you want and they'll actually stay put. Have a coffee table with sharp edges? These would work too. Have side tables with sharp edges? This will do the trick. (*just be sure to do a test patch first on your furniture to make sure the adhesive comes off without doing any damage).

The other great thing that I love about these foam pipes is that they spread out way more than the expensive fireplace foam from Babies R Us, so more of the sharp edges are actually protected. And the bonus? They come in grey--so it coordinates with the rest of my living room colours (which is what I tell myself every time that I look at it and cringe at how ugly baby-proofing my house actually looks)...but clearly, completely necessary and absolutely worth it. Safety first of course.

So, to get started, all you do then is peel off a bit of the plastic (in order to reveal the adhesive), spread out the foam across the edge of your fireplace and then push it down and hold it for a few seconds--so that it stays put. Then continue, little by little (peeling and then sticking it down) across the entire edge.

Then when you get to the corner, carefully curve the foam around the corner and hold it in place until the adhesive sticks securely and continue on.

And once your first foam pipe runs out, grab your second pipe, cut it to size, and continue placing it on the rest of the fireplace.

Then, voila!

You've got yourself a much safer fireplace, for less than $4 (technically--since you're not even using 2 full pipes).

And not that it actually LOOKS nice--but hey, I'll sacrifice style at this point to save my baby's head.

And those pretty glass lanterns? Well, baby proofing means that they've made their way to storage too--for now. Because little hands would just love to grab those without a second thought. 

 So our sweet crawling master is now a wee bit safer and I can sleep a wee bit better.

Because just this week she has learned how to stand up.

And so it begins.

Good night everyone,

Erica xo