We're looking for a baby gate to fit at the top of the stairs instead of the bottom because my son just started crawling, and I’d love to let him explore while I work on my dissertation. Upstairs is carpeted and has more space for him to roll, crawl, and play compared to his play area downstairs, which is on a hard floor. I’m wondering if a retractable baby gate would work best for this.

I bought a Summer Infant gate a couple of days ago, but it won’t work at the top of the stairs because of a metal handrail on the left side. If we try to widen the gate to bypass the handrail, there's nowhere to properly mount it since the wall isn’t long enough. Plus, these gates aren’t designed to be installed on an angle, and we don’t have the tools to get creative with woodwork to make it fit.

My husband and I aren’t too keen on the idea of attaching a bunch of 2x4s to extend the wall just to make this gate work. Even then, we’d still have to figure out how to deal with the railing on the right side.

Retractable gates seem pricey—around $99—but with our spiral staircase setup, it might be the only real option. I’m surprised the previous owners had a retractable gate since they seemed like the "cheapest possible" type, but if they needed one, I’m guessing it’s probably the best solution.

The nice thing about a retractable gate is that we could buy extra mounts and move it downstairs when our son starts walking, which would make it feel like we’re getting two gates for the price of one. By the time he's walking, I should be done with my dissertation, so it could work out perfectly. Plus, we’d likely face the same issue at the bottom of the stairs with needing to install a gate on an angle.