Toddler bed question

So. Back story: my son is only 14 months old but he will not (nor has he ever) slept in a crib. Hes my odd "I'm not a baby" kinda baby. He would never drink from a bottle or eat jarred baby food either... fine with me   until now!

My dilemma is that he is no longer sleeping in our bed either. He just doesn't get a good sleep there anymore. He is waaay too active and climbs all over, refusing sleep literally all night. He has been sleeping in his pack and play (playpen) but that is no working either. It seems so hard... and small... and now he has *almost* mastered climbing out of it :/ The only thing I can think of is putting him in a toddler bed but he still seems so young, you know? At the moment we have his entire bedroom, which is right across the hall from ours, completely empty except for a few toys and a crib mattress on the floor to test out if he would climb onto it and sleep haha. We also have a baby gate we could potentially put up in the doorway. The kids pretty much use this bedroom as their play room at the moment but we REALLY want to get him using his own room to sleep at night!

So I was thinking of buying and trying him in a toddler bed but don't know if its really a better option to start all that right now or just to let him sleep in the playpen for the time being? keep him in our bed? We are going to have another baby come May so then they will be in our bed too....

Sorry if this has been all over the place. I guess to summarize, what criteria does a child have to meet to sleep safely in a toddler bed? My daughter was at least 18 months I think when we switched her to hers but she literally would not stay in a crib or playpen for the life of her by then, she could climb way too well haha.....

What would you do?? When did your child switch?

We just switched my DD who is 15 months to a toddler bed and she loves it! She never slept in a crib either

DD went into a twin bed around 15/16 months. We never bothered with a toddler bed. IMO its not worth the money.

DD went into a toddler bed at15 months because she was climbing out of her cot Dont worry about what other people think though you seem to know what your son needs so go with it x

I read about 1/2 your post but I switched my guy to his toddler bed at 13 months. He is 14 now. I line the floor with all his pillow pets incase he falls out (my original train of thought) he has never fell out. He does climb out and lays on his pillow pets... Which is ok with me. I didn't think he was ready but had to switch for his saftey I underestimated him. He does GREAT...and has from day one. In his crib he would sometime cry but he hasn't cried once at bed time. Probably cuz he doesn't feel trapped. His room I full of his toys... He doesn't generally play with them but if he does I know he will get in bed or lay on a pillow pet when he is ready to sleep.

Thanks so much for all your responses! I've just been getting huge hell from family who are saying he is "way too young" but then again I guess its not them who has to deal with it if I don't go ahead switch him and he climbs out at night and cracks his head open or something, right? lol we will be buying him his new bed later today