8 Tips for Having a Child-Safe Yet Stylish Home
Filed under: home decor, kids, organization and storage
Do you ever look through the magazines with envy? How do those houses look so nice? Where do they have all the detritus of life stored? Where are all the fingerprints? And WHERE are the toys?
Well, it turns out that you do not have to sacrifice style just considering you have children. Your house does not have to look like a toy store showroom threw up everywhere.
First and foremost, consider how you live– how you really live, not the way you wish you lived. that means whether you live in a house with messy public who spill things (and really doesn’t that describe most children?), you will want to step away from the white silk furniture. whether you have young children you are going to have different needs than whether you have teenagers. Having both, I will tell you that I am not certain who is harder on furniture.
Washable paint is your friend. Paint comes in several different sheens. Flat, eggshell, semi-gloss and high gloss are examples; each paint manufacturer may have slightly different names for the type of paint. They like to confuse us like that. No matter how much you love flat paint, don’t use it. It will be a mistake.
Children touch walls. They will walk down the hall and drag their dirty little hands on the wall. They will rub their bodies against the wall. There will come a date when you will see dirty footprints on your wall five feet in the air. Don’t even bother asking, just rest comfortably in the knowledge that you can wash the wall without damaging the paint.
Create an area just for your children within the room. Children like to be with you. Young children don’t like to be off all alone in a separate playroom somewhere. They will drag their toys from the playroom to be where you are. Embrace it. Look for ways to store the toys attractively.
Do you have a corner of the room where you can put down a small area rug to delineate their space? Place a child- sized table there for them to work on games or color. A low bookcase can be turned into a comfortable window seat by adding a cushion to the top. Some floor pillows next to the bookcase can form a perfect place for relaxing and reading books.
The same floor pillows work well for teenagers to lounge on the floor while watching TV or playing video games. Teenagers travel in packs. Have suitable places for all of them to sit. prepare them comfortable so that they will want to hang out at your house.
Containerize. A place for everything and everything in its place. produce it easy for your children to take care of their own things. Containers do not have to be ugly, primary colored, plastic eyesores. Wicker baskets are functional AND appealing. They additionally hide the toys when the children aren’t actively playing, creating a clean and uniform look to your shelving. Get rid of the the plastic DVD cases and store your DVDs in appealing binders.
Choose multi-functional furniture. that could be something as simple as a coffee table that opens for storage inside. Upholstered ottomans that open for storage can do double duty as additional seating spaces. Once you have teenagers, there are never suitable places for all of their friends to sit. Cabinets with doors in which to hide board games, legos, art supplies are additionally perfect choices.
Think durable. Children are rough of furniture. Choose upholstery that can resist abuse and hide spills. Thinking of buying new furniture, you might want to check out the color of the stains on your current furniture before choosing a color. Alternately, you can buy washable slipcovers. They are easy to wash and replace should they get stained. So you can’t have that white sofa, you can have bright and cheery throw pillows.
Find a large coffee table that can resist dings and bangs. We have one that is already “aged” so that the inevitable marks are relatively unnoticed. It is the perfect place for sitting around to play board games or for holding snacks during movies. Teenagers love their snacks. I have a friend who had plexi-glass cut to fit the top of her coffee table. Now she no longer worries about scratches or spills.
Don’t forget about safety. For a house with small children look out for sharp corners on furniture. prepare certain that there is ample room around the furniture for running around. Bolt bookcases and other heavy furniture to the walls. Your children will try to scale the furniture to get something out of their reach no matter how many times you tell them not to do it. Glass tabletops are a thing of the past.
Continue to decorate with things you love. No need to put all of your pretty decorations away. Of course whether you have anything extremely valuable or irreplaceable, you don’t want to have it sitting out in the line of fire. But vases, picture frames, and other breakables need not be relegated to gated off rooms. Children learn to appreciate beauty by living with it. Yes, things will occasionally get broken. Having pretty things to look at will compose you happy while you try to miss the stained furniture, the dings on your coffee table, and the fingerprinted walls.
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Original post by Chris Jordan
