The majority of baby gates that I've seen in use, were on staircases that did NOT have doors at either the upper level, or the bottom. If there was a door, the parents would most likely just shut the door.

I have been thinking of this same idea! We've added a dog to our family and have gotten rid of the awful gates we used to have and I'd like something that would look better since it will be needed for a much longer time. Kids gates aren't used forever, unless your name is Duggar.

I think the point is that you can install a half door where there IS no door, currently! I love the idea, much nicer looking than a plastic expanding lattice that can pinch fingers...

No babies, but we use pet gates to keep our rabbit from getting to places where there are cables and books to chew on! In this case, it's the archway to the home library and upstairs -- and the archway to the home library is about 6 feet wide. We bought a relatively expensive fence and gate combination in Cherry that spans the distance. It bends with hinges enough to stand up, so not actually "installed". When the bunny passes on, the gate can too! (It once kept the cats confined as well, but when we adopted Mike she taught Widget, who didn't previously know, that he too could leap over it as though it wasn't even there! Oh well!)

For a larger opening, you could hinge several door halves together, much like a bi-fold door works or a decorative screen.

They look great in the house??? I beg to differ. I find the half doors almost worse then the plastic baby gates. Yes, the plastic accordion gates are nothing extra but the drop and lock wooden gates (with simple slats) are more more appealing and function quite well.
My SO's dog likes to hurl himself down the stairs into the basement (we don't care whether he goes to the basement but we'are worried he will his legs since he doesn't care simply walk down the stairs).
Here is an example of the gates I am talking about: http://alturl.com/9cdho

I'm with Pelicolina, just got adopted a puppy as well and looking for something nicer than a plastic gate. Great idea!

i used this one: http://www.albeebaby.com/suinsuandsed.html and really liked it! i loved that you could just swing it open, since we used ours in a high traffic area and i'm not quite tall enough to step over it.

This is a great idea!! We installed a half-door at the bottom of our stairs and we love it:)

When I was growing up in the 80s my parents had a half-door blocking off the stairs to the basement in our ranch-style home. It came down when my brothers and I were well into grade school, but I think the hinges were still in place until I left for college...possibly they are still in place.

I have to agree with Sealbeachy on this onee....if you can put a door there, why wouldn't you just close the door?! We use baby gates in our house where there are no doors...in the hallway and kitchen. And what happens when the kids can open doors?! My son learned to open doors at about 18 months, but I still wouldn't want him going in certain places/down stairs....

A_FUNK09, if you look closely at the picture then you can clearly see that the opening is not exactly parallel and was never intended to house an actual door. I like the clever half door idea personally....especially since I rarely go into someone's home and see a whole door blocking a staircase leading up to the bedrooms/bathroom. That to me would be the most visually unappealing solution not to mention dangerous.

Thank you for posting this! It must be a sign from above because I was just telling me husband we should do this last night but thought it might be too much work (Ms. Roberts makes it sound easy!)

We have a 2 1/2 yr old who can climb her safety gates, specifically the one leading in/out of her room. Yes, she does have a door on her room but honestly, I don't trust her in the room with the door shut. She's feisty and loves to tear books, throw clothes from her dresser drawers,etc when she's mad :o/

A half door would allow us to control the height of the door to she can't climb it but still allow us to see inside her room as needed and look much, much better then the the two safety gates we have stacked on top of one another now. Not to mention we wouldn't have to literally crawl into her room to avoid taking the top gate off every time!
Can't wait to try this!

I'm not a parent but I get it. A full closed door would completely block off half the house. The half door accommodates talking to other people on other floors/areas.

@ sealbeachy and a_funk, maybe I'm stating the obvious here but the half door also allows you to monitor younger children, as opposed to a full closed door, important if you're using it on a playroom or a young child's bedroom. And a simple sliding lock on the outside can keep the door closed to prevent children from opening it when they learn how a doorknob works.

The article doesn't mention any sort of locking mechanism.

Doesn't the average toddler know how to turn a doorknob? (If you follow the link to the article, the child in question looks plenty tall enough to reach the knob.)

And, if the child is less than toddler age, he/she won't be able to reach the stairs anyway.

We installed a half-door going down to our basement from the kitchen, where there was no door previously. To Rustypatina's point, our half-door locks from the downstairs side, so that an adult can reach over the the top to the other of the door and unlock it, but a toddler couldn't. Later when we're less concerned about it we'll just leave the door unlocked all the time.

Great idea, and it looks good too.

brilliant

freakin genius!!!!!

We did something similar but used garden gate hardware and nice plywood specifically cut for the odd widths and angles of our staircase. (However I still need to paint the gates to match our trim!)

The gate hardware is perfect, because being on the inside only, our toddler can't reach over to open it the way we can.

We also customized by installing our gates just high enough off the floor for our cats to slither underneath, so they still have the run of the house. This of course adds some risk that a child could try to get their head or body underneath so it requires more supervision than a traditional baby gate, but the arrangement has been perfect at our house and our toddler only peeks underneath to giggle at the cats (escaping from him.)

What a fantastic idea! I love the idea that you can lock it from the inside (my son can reach doorknobs now)...

First: True is darling
Second: I've always loved the 'dutch' door idea. There seems to be much criticism and I think folks are over-thinking this idea.
You can always modify for your own specific needs; locks, color, hardware, etc. I still think it's a much better solution than those gates that eventually either fall apart or not strong enought. And I do agree with another that a 1/2 doors does keep the home in that 'open-airy' feeling. Bravo, well done.

Genius. I am going to file this under "Why didn't I think of this?" It looks great, you get the benefit of a gate plus the nice solid door.

I can't wait until I have a house and can change out all of the bedroom doors to Dutch doors.
Works for babies. Works for toddlers.
Helps air flow between rooms.
And taking the top half off works as a punishment when your kid gets older.

This looks great. I have a pocket door between my living room and kitchen/dining room and have always wished I could just shut half of it when my daughter is in the living room. I want to see what she's doing, but keep her out of the kitchen during certain times. This wouldn't work for this problem, but I can think of other areas where it would be very useful.

After looking at your picture I would be concerned that if baby did get on the stair side of the door with the door closed, the space between the bottom tread and the door would be a potential place to get a foot caught.