Ikea hack - Gulliver baby crib meets an engineer

We boughta a Ikea Gulliver baby crib and some improvements needed to be made. We wanted to have the baby on same level as our own bed and without one side. This gave easy access towards the baby during the night. However there was a warning label that prevented that configuration.

Warning label.

Reason why this configuration was not allowed was the fact that ends of the bed were not secured well enough to hold the base in place. That was easy task to solve with couple of zip ties and one nylock nut.

Securing bottom of the bed to the ends.

The bolt for the pin was long enough to fit additional nyloc nut to the end and this way it was possible to create good place for the zip tie. Instead of nyloc nut, a butterfly nut could be used. If you do not trust to zip ties and you are willing to make additional holes then a L-bracket could be used to secure the ends

Crib on the same level as our bed and without one side.

This is the outcome and this is how the bed was used couple of months before the baby learned how to roll. Then there was a risk that the baby would roll between the beds and fall to the floor. For an engineer that was just one more challange.

The solution for this problem was to secure the beds together. I did not want to fix the beds together, but also allow an access between the beds if one want to sit on the bed next to the baby.

This was possible with a cabin hooks and extended bolts to the crib. The cabin hooks were screwed under the bed so that you could just fit the hook to the baby crib bolt.

Cabin hooks were screwed under the bed.

Replaced bolt.

Tip of the hook was slightly bend inwards.

The original bolt was replaced with a threaded rod, a washer plate, a normal nut and an allen head sleeve nut. The normal nut is not really needed, but I found pre-cut threaded rods that were bit too long. I did not want to cut those shorter so I just added one nut.

The replacement bolt and the original bolt.

With this setup the crib was easy to secure to our bed, but it also gave an easy access between the beds. The other cabin hook was secured to the bolt with the rubber band, so it stayed in place when the crib was pivoted. It was just enough to open the hook from the one side.

Easy access between the bed and crib.

This is how we used the crib for first 6 months and when the baby started to crawl the bed base was lowered, but one side was still off for one month. When the baby was able to climb to our bed then we needed to attach the side and use the crib "normally".