If you are a cheap-loving mama like me, and you've got a baby around the house, this project will save you some substantial cash compared to buying a baby-proofing kit from the toy store. You need a few simple supplies and only half an hour or so.
Supplies:
Plumbing foam pipe insulation (hardware store), preferably the self-sealing variety, but if not that's OK too.
Scissors
Duct Tape (I didn't need it, but it could come in handy.)
Supplies:
Plumbing foam pipe insulation (hardware store), preferably the self-sealing variety, but if not that's OK too.
Scissors
Duct Tape (I didn't need it, but it could come in handy.)
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Signing UpStep 1: Cut the foam pipe insulation
Here, you can see that the foam pipe insulation has a split down the length of the 6 foot long pieces that I purchased from the hardware store for about $2 a piece. Behind the yellow peel-away backing the foam is already sticky, which is handy for this project. It is meant to go around a pipe and stick to itself, so be careful to peel only one side at a time as you work.
First:
Figure out how long you want to cut your pipe. I wanted to make protective corners and then added pieces to go between the corners to cover the length of my coffee table. Suit yourself, it is pretty simple.
Next cut a V shape out of the middle of each corner, one on either side of the pipe. Be careful to leave space between these Vs to wrap around the corner. In other words, don't wind up cutting your pipe in half by mistake.
First:
Figure out how long you want to cut your pipe. I wanted to make protective corners and then added pieces to go between the corners to cover the length of my coffee table. Suit yourself, it is pretty simple.
Next cut a V shape out of the middle of each corner, one on either side of the pipe. Be careful to leave space between these Vs to wrap around the corner. In other words, don't wind up cutting your pipe in half by mistake.
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A couple of things you'll discover, if you haven't already: the closed-foam pipe insulation is very attractive as a teething toy. It's pretty inert, so I suspect that any that gets ingested will go right though to the other end :-/ However, you're like to have some divots missing over the course of a few months.
The other one is that the adhesive seems to be stronger in tension than the foam itself. When my daughter started pulling herself up along side the table, there were several places where the foam pulled away along the adhesive strip. I ended up running a strip of the vinyl tape (see above) along most of the upper piece to protect it.