Baby-Proofing The Fireplace

November 14, 2018 /

When we moved into our new place we had an amazing fireplace in our playroom. While we thought this was a great feature for the long term as our kids are so little now we didn’t want it to be a place where they crawled into and got all covered in soot. So we knew right away we wanted to cover it up at least temporarily. We thought about a simple baby gate but decided that would just invite a lot of throwing toys in and climbing over it as they reached toddlerhood. What we ended up doing was an awesome kid friendly centerpiece with a chalkboard and magnets! It was so easy to do ourselves and really turned out great – the kids have loved the functionality of something they can actually use and we don’t have to constantly say “no” whenever they head toward the fireplace. Soon we’ll be completing it with a little cushy reading corner spot as we currently have no where to sit down in the playroom and the adults in their lives need something better than the floor!

 

To make things easier I’ve included links to some of the supplies we’ve used. While not endorsed by these companies I may receive a payment if you make a qualifying purchase through my affiliate links. These help me keep the blog up and running at no extra cost to you.

 

How To Create the Perfect Childproofed Fireplace Cover

  • First things first you have to measure the fireplace opening or area you want to cover – be as accurate as possible as this will make your life easier in the long run! (Never forget the old saying measure twice, cut once)
  • We then bought and cut a cheap piece of plywood so that it perfectly fit to cover up the fireplace. Just make sure the surface is smooth enough for baby as the roughness varies greatly. I also quickly sanded the cut edges with some medium grit sandpaper as there were a few little splinters from the saw. We used a table saw we had from previous laundry room project to cut the wood but some places will do basic cuts like this for you if you don’t have one – it never hurts to ask when you buy the wood.
  • I painted this with a few coats of magnetic & chalkboard paint which turned it into a fun little centerpiece for the kids. I also primed the chalkboard by rubbing it completely with chalk and wiping off (this keeps the chalkboard from showing the old faded drawings once they’ve been erased) but did make it less of a beautiful black finish. Whether you do this step or not depends on if you want functionality or looks here.
  • We decided on strong double sided Velcro to keep it in place in case we ever needed to get in (animals, cleaning, repairs etc) or wanted to use it. As you can see this came in handy when we had to take it down to insulate after we noticed cold air blowing through as the weather gets colder!
  • We did keep the chalkboard fitting tight enough that there’s no way the kids can get it out though. If you don’t ever plan to want access to the fireplace there are plenty of more permanent options just do a quick google search, but I’d seriously recommend preparing for the worst case scenario.
  • Once the paint was dry and the board was secured in place it was ready for the kids! Such a quick and easy project -even with three babies to worry about it was done in one weekend (most of the time spent waiting for the paint to dry or  the babies to all be asleep so we could work on it together).

 

The Final Results

The kids love being able to draw with their chalk and were gifted an awesome magnetic animal set & letter set which has been way more useful fun here than we used to have inevitably trying to fish the magnets out from under our fridge! Plus I can use it to set up fun little themes for them whenever I want!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Babies & Snow Days
Corn Three Ways

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