Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner. Except When Baby Holds Magazines. Then It’s Okay

I recently migrated my blog and some of the pictures didn’t make the move. So imagine pictures where captions are.

When my girls were babies, they slept in cribs.
~~Scratch that.~~
When Ellie was a baby, she slept in a crib.
Annie slept in her crib for a total of maybe five hours.
Then she slept with me on the floor of her room, next to her crib.
Until we inched all the way to the couch, back and into my bed.

Her crib was rarely used.
Oh, wait, yes it was!
It was used for trampoline jumping contests during playdates with her little toddler friends.
But for sleeping?
No.

When I was pregnant with Ellie, my friend and neighbor and her family were being transferred to Virginia with the military so they gave us their crib and dressers for free.
Which made me so happy since I thought I would be going through the same “no baby sleep in crib” scenario with my next child.
I had grand plans but I am weak when it comes to a baby crying.
Ellie slept in that crib from week two until she was four-years-old, bless her heart.
I stood strong.
And yes, I know, she was in there a little longer than most kids but I wasn’t ready for her to give up the crib.

Maybe because this was the last baby for me, maybe because she never once crawled out of that crib, maybe it was the security for her and she just loved her crib so much.
Anyway, we finally got her into a big girl bed and I said to the hubs, “don’t throw the crib to the curb, I am not ready yet”.
Not ready yet meaning not ready to say goodbye to the crib.
I mean, I was totally done with the whole baby-making thing.
Because baby crying.

So the crib sat in our basement storage room from March of 2012 until a few weeks ago.

I have seen lots of ideas to salvage cribs and crib rails on Pinterest into benches, jewelry holders even craft room organizers.
Cool ideas, really all while preserving the environment.
But nothing spoke to me.
Until I was thinking about my love of ladders one day.Not aluminum ladders but those old wooden ladders.
I have always wanted one or two in my home to hold blankets or magazines.
But didn’t want to go through the execution of placing one in my home until the past two years for fear my then-toddler would climb the said ladder.
And she would have climbed the crap out of that ladder.

This has a point.
I promise.

So while thinking about my love of ladders, I had a brainstorming moment.
An A- HAAAAAA moment, if you will.
I have a “ladder”!!!!
It has been sitting in my basement for two years!!!

A HAAAAAA. HAAAAA.

Totally said like Chandler Bing.
My internal voice is Chandler Bing, F Y I.

Here is the “ladder” aka “crib rail”:

Doesn’t everyone have a giant sombrero in their basement?

Yes, but do they proudly hang it on a door??
There is an amazing story that goes along with it.
Not enough of a story to write a whole blog post.
Let’s just say that there are three other people on this planet who have this same exact sombrero.
And we may have ALL worn them at the exact same time.
In front of 1000s of strangers.
That’s all I will say.

And here is the wonderful after:

I spray painted it off-white… Valspar Hotel Vanilla to be exact and gave it two coats.
Then I took sandpaper to it because I wanted it to look like an old wooden ladder.

Then propped it up in my favorite reading corner.

And put some reading material on the rungs.

Yes.
Baby is indeed in a corner.

Oh yes.
I went there.

I love this so much.
I look at this and remember that this was once used to hold my youngest when she was a baby.
And now it holds Chicago’s 20 best restaurants and Rachel Ray’s favorite recipes.

Baby likes being in a corner, by the way.
It’s a lot better gig than holding a screaming child with a dirty diaper.

10 thoughts on “Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner. Except When Baby Holds Magazines. Then It’s Okay”

You included both Friends and Dirty Dancing in this post. I think you deserve a medal.Also, my internal voice is more of a Joey.Oh, yeah. I like your magazine holder, too.

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Kari at A Grace Full Life says:

April 7, 2014 at 2:28 pm

HOW YOU DOIN??

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Kari, you are the awesomest! I am going to be an auntie again, but my very first crib has gone through 5 babies and is shaky as a loose tooth, so DH wants to buy a new crib for my SIL. But here I was thinking, but all that nice wood! It's such a waste to toss, but not safe enough to use (hardware fail). This is BRILLIANT. Now I'm going to snatch back my crib that I am NOT going to toss because I.Just.Can't. Magazine rack FTW! (Or even a kid's art display rack!)

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Kari at A Grace Full Life says:

April 7, 2014 at 2:29 pm

Ooh I love the kids art display idea!

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Oh wow Kari! I have been looking for the same wooden ladder…..with no success. You, my dear friend, are amazing! Guess what I'm (my husband) pulling out of the garage tomorrow m……

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Kari at A Grace Full Life says:

April 9, 2014 at 3:32 pm

Tell your husband I am sorry….

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Such a cool and clever idea! Thanks for sharing with our Merry Monday party!

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Kari says:

January 23, 2017 at 7:18 am

Thank you for visiting!

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You’re so fancy with your trendy decor! I’m still balls-deep in toddlerville so I know without a doubt that I could never have a decor ladder – my kids would be climbing that thing every single second. One day though … one day I’ll have ALL THE LADDERS. xx

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