DIY Latch Board for toddlers: Quick how-to and little tips

A few months before Christmas, I noticed my almost-1-year-old Virginia fiddling with buckles and knobs. That of course got my gears going, and Pinterest did not fail me. I saw some inspiration for DIY latch boards like this (obviously, its Young House Love) and this, and got the itch. 🙂 If you click the Young House Love pin, check out the video of their daughter opening the present. It features her saying “Oh wow, man!” and exclaiming about “playin’ stuff” and it’s totally adorable.

I wanted to post this quick tutorial now because it would be a great quick gift for the Easter Bunny to make bring!

I snagged an old piece of scrap wood from Dad’s Lumber Yard Under the Cellar Stairs, and got it ready for use. I puttied it all up, sanded all the edges and surfaces smooth, and put one coat of paint on. I just used paint we had already from when we had our trim painted white. The piece of wood was previously a teal-blue color, and I liked how it looked showing behind the white, so I only put the one coat of paint on.

I don’t have any during photos because, well… those would have been boring. 🙂 So I’ll just skip right to it:

Ta da!

I’m so bad at screwing into wood without pilot holes. You really have to put some perfectly straight elbow grease into it, and if you don’t your screwdriver will slip and dent your wood, or your screws won’t go in nice and flush. Definitely had to putty a few holes. :X

Have no fear. Just putty up the damage. 🙂

She loves to spin this caster! See the crooked screw? That’s a perfect example of why you need to make sure you are screwing STRAIGHT down.

When I went to the local family-owned hardware store to pick out all the fixtures for the latch board, this man couldn’t resist asking me, “Are you building a house?” I think that was his nice way of saying “What could you possibly be doing with that hobglob of doodads?!” When I told him what I was doing, he was so supportive and thought it was so cool. That made my day, but it also gave me enough positive reinforcement not to drop my basket and run when I saw how much these things were going to cost. I have to warn you … it seems like this should be cheap, but it’s not. Gulp. I almost don’t want to admit how much the latches all cost me, but here goes … $60!

Here are some close ups. Captions tell you about some further lessons learned. 🙂

Maybe this is obvious to everyone else already, but if you fully screw down the screws, the hinge doesn’t open. (Hindsight, eh?) So I loosened them a little and now it works.

Whoops. The small part is crooked. This is another product of a screw going in crooked! Yikes. But it still works, and Virginia hasn’t noticed. 🙂

So Christmas came and I was SO excited to give this to Virginia. Guess who wasn’t interested in latches anymore? 🙂 We put it away and took it back out in February and she really likes it! Her favorite part is the doorstop; she pulls it all the way down and lets go and listens to it vibrate and move back and forth.

Do your kids (grandkids, nieces, nephews, whatever “your kids” means to you) like to play with latches and bolts? Show me your best!