DYI: IKEA Sniglar Baby Crib into a side crib

When I was pregnant, the plan was to co-sleep for a couple months and then move D. into her own room. Turns out, we still co-sleep:) (she is 15 months old)

We wanted to get a crib that we could use both when we co-sleep and when D. moves to her room. Objective was to:

• Purchase a crib, which we can take out on side and attach to bed.

• Put the detached side back and turn it back into a regular crib when she moves to her own room.

IKEA Sniglar Baby Crib was the perfect cot for this purpose.

1. During the assembly of the crib, we attached only 3 sides of it.

2. If you decide to use it as a three sided crib, you need to buy an extra piece of wood and attach it to the front to make sure the crib does not collapse. We used Hejne post piece from IKEA.

3. Bed base/mattress can be placed in two different heights. One of the heights should match your bed height. Higher level was in line with our mattress.

4. We made sure, crib was attached to our bed completely. We used long, thick ropes (yellow one in the picture) and tied it into the bed’s bottom part (ropes were invisible as they were under the mattress)

p.s. Hejne post (long piece of wood below) was attached in the part marked red in the picture on the right.

p.p.s. Picture above is taken from IKEA United State website. In most of the markets, crib does not come with an extra piece of wood that is supposed to be attached in the front. So you need to buy either Hejne post or something to make sure your 3-sided crib is sturdy.

PROS about Sniglar:

• Wood completely natural (No paint, no polish, basically nothing)

• Affordable piece of furniture which is also multifunctional (how I turned Sniglar into a study desk)

• Saved us from buying a separate side crib, which we would only use for a few months

• Basically extended the size of our own bed, which made co-sleeping much more comfortable

CONS about this arrangement:

• This arrangement is good only until your baby becomes mobile. Once she starts rolling and moving forward, it is best to turn it back into a full sided crib

• We kept using it 3-sided as we did not want to stop co-sleep as yet. We placed pillows around the bed and always watched her through the camera during her sleep times

• Crib's solid and safe attachment to your bed is important. Otherwise, it might get dangerous for the baby