How to Create Your Own Baby Play Gym - Becca Curates: Simplifying life with practical, minimal, and beautiful items.

This is a super easy DIY to create your own baby play gym! Whether you can’t find the perfect match or want to do something a little more creative, this is an easy way to make your own version. I am definitely not a DIYer naturally; I can see it in my head, but my execution is almost always terrible! If I can do it, you can do it. 🙂

There are so many baby play gyms in the world! You can get a cheap one at your local IKEA, buy a used one on Facebook Marketplace, or purchase one online. In particular, I think Etsy has the most options if you decide it’s too much effort to DIY a baby play gym. (Let’s face it: Pregnancy alone is a lot! Do you really want to add another DIY to the list?) If you do want to make your own baby gym, however, then read on. 🙂

First, I should explain why I wanted to even make my own baby play gym. I think deciding on your nursery theme or knowing your personal interests is important. Otherwise, the baby play gym — and overall theme — will feel all over the place. The last thing you want is your baby room to feel chaotic! Babies are already a handful and absorb 99% of your brain power.

What colors did I want for the baby play gym?

My theme for the nursery is French themed. The reason? Well, I’ve always loved France, so it was an easy choice for our baby girl. In addition — and maybe the actual reason for choosing this theme — I have a ton of art with no walls for them to go on! As an interior stylist, I want art to make sense. For example, what worked in our apartment living room doesn’t really make sense or have a particular spot in our current place. I want to use the art, however, so where does it go? I’m a big fan of living in the space first, then deciding where it works best. Anyways, so I decided that the nursery should have a French theme. I also did not want it to feel super “babyish.” If you’ve looked at nurseries online, you probably know what I mean. I want her to be able to grow with the room and bigger pieces as she grows as well. Long term, it’s more sustainable and cost-effective too!

Nursery theme: done. I knew I wanted it to be classic, yet playful, which is why the colors were mainly black, white/ivory, pink, and yellow. (There is a touch of red and brown, but very, very little of this on purpose.) With this in mind, I began brainstorming …

Where do I find the items for the baby play gym?

When you do a quick Google search, it can be hard to find individual pieces. You’ll probably come across sets to purchase, which are super cute and sometimes save you more time, energy, and even money at times! So if you find the perfect set, I say go for it! If you can’t find the perfect set (like me), then finding individual items can be difficult. For instance, this was one of many baby gym toys I thought were adorable, but it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. I also liked this sweet swan set, this nordic/ocean set, this woodland toy set, this safari animal set, and this earthy desert/llama set. Nothing was really French themed or had an Eiffel Tower, which I was actually very surprised about! I didn’t just want it to be cute either. I wanted it to feel personal, I suppose, so I began to explore other options. I was looking for a gift for my boss when I came across Christmas ornaments! “Of course!” I thought to myself. This would totally work. So I began to search for Christmas ornaments.

What pieces did I want for the baby play gym?

I came across this s’more ornament, astronaut ornament, and super cute taxi with a Christmas tree on it, among tons of others. The options were suddenly endless! But I decided on the following for these reasons:

Airplane – My husband and I love to travel. At one point, he worked for the airlines and we got to go on these fun standby trips for super cheap! We plan to instill this love of travel and adventure into our kids. Also, it’s called the “Amelia’s Dream Plane,” which I kind of love because why not start instilling feminist values from day one?! Amelia Earhart was so cool!

Dog – We got a pandemic dog (ha) in the summer of 2020. We picked him up from a shelter in Fresno as a puppy and we have been smitten with him ever since! We are both huge dog people. He is family to us! Not having something to represent our love of dogs felt silly. Plus, I’ll never forget when I was in Paris and an older man and a child were playing with a dog named Fido. 🙂

Cookie – France is known for having the most amazing treats, so obviously a pastry made sense. I chose this cookie (the only one not from the same shop) because it also looks exactly like this local pie shop that makes heart shaped pies. They are AMAZING and I’m obsessed with them (and they’re delicious with a cup of coffee the next day).

This is a link to the local pie shop if you’re in the Bay Area (needs to be ordered ahead) and a link to the felt ornament.

Luggage – Like I mentioned, we love to travel and I thought this was the cutest little luggage ornament! Plus, it helps balance out the brown from the dog on the other side of the play gym. Color balance was important to me.

Eiffel Tower – If you know me, you know I love France. In particular, I’m obsessed with the Eiffel Tower. From a structural standpoint, it’s quite a feat because it took a lot of brainpower from Gustave Eiffel (civil engineer behind the Eiffel Tower) to make something tall enough to withstand the winds/weather and not tip over. (I wrote a 20 min. speech on this in high school that was supposed be 10 min. and basically said it would be impossible to trim, so yes, totally nerdy haha.) Also, did you know locals passionately hated it at first?! They thought it was hideous! Anyways, it represents a lot to me and it’s absolutely iconic. Most importantly, it went with my theme. 😉

Lastly, I picked this up from someone locally, but this is the wooden play gym that I used. There’s tons of them on Etsy though! Some even have black or white dipped painted ones on the side like this, which I think is super cute.

Now that I had all the basic pieces, now what?

Putting It Together

First, gather everything you need. I picked up this yarn in gray and these 15mm wooden beads at Michael’s.

I hung the ornaments while building the play gym because I knew I’d be cutting them off later. I only needed one set of the wooden beads, but I bought two. (They’re super inexpensive anyways.) The Eiffel Tower scissors are old Target ones, but it looks like Walmart has a super similar one!

Next, if you hung the ornaments on the play gym like me, cut them down and then cut them again to about where the scissors are in the first shot. Tie it in a knot (or triple knot it so it doesn’t undo itself in the future). You will loop a gray yarn through the ornament’s loop and then add the beading over it like the second photo. If you look at the heart photo in the middle, you can see the original ornament yarn peeking through. (Once the beads cover it, you can’t see them peeking through.) Lastly, when you like the height, tie it onto the wooden play gym and trim the excess as seen in the third photo.

Final note: the amount of beads you’d like is totally up to you. I did not do an even amount because some of the ornaments were larger than others (i.e. Eiffel Tower vs. heart). So I just did what I felt looked the most symmetrical. I kept the beading aligned rather than the ornaments as I felt it looked best as well.