DIY Crib Protector Review

As I was strolling Pinterest one day I came across this pin:

At first I thought, "Oh what a cute way to decorate a crib!" As a new mom I was/am still quite stupid naive to all the wonderful and not so wonderful things you discover your children will do. This projects purpose is to help eliminate a teething baby from leaving this:

This is not my son's crib, just an example.

When I first saw this pin, Canden wasn't teething too seriously yet, so there were no battle marks on his crib yet. I kept my eye on his crib because this won't just be Canden's crib, it will belong to future babes too. Not only that, I like to sell just about everything we don't use anymore, so I know that years down the line, I will hope to resell this crib. 

Sure enough, I spotted one morning a couple small gouges along the railing of his crib. I immediately thought of the above pin and was determined to fashion my own guard against the teeth. 

Now, I did some research as well. I know that you can buy some similar, pre-made cloth protector that range in price from anywhere between $25 to upwards of $100. The problem that I saw however is that it cost $25 for a protector to just cover the front (for example). I needed to cover at least three sides of the crib. I could buy 2 pack protectors for the sides as well, but, why bother when I can make my own for all three sides under $20. Regardless, there is another kind of protector out there as well. It is a hard plastic cover that (here) fits on top of the rail. The price isn't too shabby either - only $12.99. After reading some reviews of that product and similar ones, I saw that a common complaint was that they have a strong chemical, plastic-y smell. Besides, they don't look as pretty as the pin above.

So, it was settled then. I was doing this project.

All in all it was pretty darn easy to do. I measured the length of all the sides I would be covering and added 2 inches to allow for any unexpected bumps along the way. As far as measuring the width, I used the most scientific way I knew how to measure: I "wung" it. Ok, so really I did SORT of measure. I measured from the top of the rail down to wear the fabric would have a tie, then added 2 inches to allow for enough fabric to tie with.

With a little help from my husband who is far better with a pair of scissors than I am, we cut the pieces of fabric into the length of strips we needed for each rail. Then, we laid the fabric on top of the rail and again, we "wung" it. Sooooo helpful of me to fully explain, I know. But really, it's not complicated. I cut two strips, tied it off at the end of one of the rails, then cut and tied as I went until I reached the end of the rail. I tucked the loose pieces underneath last. This is the final result --

I think it turned out quite well! Since we used fleece, after we did all the cutting and tying to make sure it fit okay, we ran the fabric through the drier to get rid of any fuzzy shreads that came off in the process. Then we retied it to the crib and it's been there ever since. I think that the fabric adds a nice, warm and cozy feeling to the crib as opposed to that hard plastic alternative.

So far, it seems we haven't had any more issues with teething on the crib. I would definitely recommend to other mommies to take the time to do this little project. You can customize the look anyway you want to by going and picking out your fabric (fleece is what was recommended for this) and matching it to the overall theme of your nursery.

Please make sure to follow me on Pinterest to see all the things I am loving and trying! Have a great Monday!