Any question answered...

I'm about to put up one of those friction fit child gates against a light painted wall. Any suggestions on what to put between the wall and the gate pad to stop it completely knacking the paint?

You can put a bit of cardboard behind the pads but, once you've walked into it a couple of times, flown into a rage when you can't get it to open easily, your kid has a tantrum and really forces it and kicks it, it eventually comes loose and falls over; the paint gets damaged. You kind of ideally want to put a small screw in the wall like it says in the instructions, because they do eventually come loose.