DIY Safety Table Bumper

We are baby proofing the house since little Caterpillar is on the move now. Certain stuffs you have to buy, like the outlet covers, cabinet or drawer locks, etc. But when it comes to table bumper, that's a different story. We bought some corner bumpers from Ikea recently, since they were there and price was right. As you can see from this picture, they look ok too.You know there will be a BUT. But, when I put one up, it just looked so out of space. First of all, our TV stand is this darker, espresso almost, color, this corner bumper is white! You get the idea. And second of all, the double sided tape it came with is not as strong as it should be. I think the manufacture didn't want to damage people's furniture, but compare to the furniture, my baby is way more important to me. The bumper came right off when I apply some pressure to it. We live an hour away from Ikea, there is no way I will drive all the way back there to return it. So, wasted money there.

Then I did some research online, found this one. It looks better than the Ikea one, and it also covers the edges, so more protection there. BUT it's still too industry looking to me.

So, I decided to design something that's functional and beautiful. I found some pipe insulators in the basement, and chose the one with adhesive on the edge. Cut off some triangle pieces so it can easily turn at the corners. With the adhesive, it stick to the upper and lower sides of the edges and corners. So, that provides enough protection. Here comes the pretty part. I found a piece of sample fabric that matches my home made pillows and sewed a long rectangle piece, wide enough to cover the pipe insulator, and long enough to cover at least 3 sides of the TV stand. I don't need to cover the back, since there is no way my baby girl can squeeze in there. Then stitched two long ties made of some scrap fabric to the ends. Voila! Here is my home made safety bumper. Just checked it (a week later), it still tightly sticks to the edge. Perfect! Since the cover matches my pillows, it looks like I planned everything from the beginning. Hehe!

Then I saw this one online at Linens and Things. It's also soft and kind of one size fit most. But I will have to unplug my TV to put it on, and if little Caterpillar pull on it, I know she will, it will come right off. And the color of it just so awful. My design is much better. Even if little caterpillar managed to pull the cover off, the pipe insulator will stay in place. So, I don't need to worry about her hitting her head on it, and just put the cover back on later. Now I just have to go buy more pipe insulator and find a nice piece of fabric from my stash, so I can make another one for the Big china cabinet.