So I have a 4 year old, 3.5 year old, and 2 year old (though he's pretty advanced) who love love love to play with blocks and build things. The 12 month old loves to smash their things and take all the pieces away.

I'm thinking about purchasing one of those giant gates to separate a portion of my playroom (we have a "punch out area" as I call it, that could be separated into a different room by adding one wall) to make a big kid area. The older kids could go in when they asked but the little one wouldn't have access to those toys. I was thinking I could move all our puzzles into storage in there too so that the little ones didn't just carry them around and lose pieces. I also intend to get my son some Lego for Christmas (the duplo, not the tiny Lego pieces), so I thought if that could go in there too he'd get more use from it than if it was just an evenings and weekends thing.

Has anyone done this?
I think I've already talked myself out of this point, but would you feel bad excluding the younger ones?
Any gate/separator suggestions (I was thinking one with a mesh side would be better to keep the little pieces in)?