Tips For Creating a Child Friendly Living Space

Having a child changes your life in every way imaginable, one being changes to your home.  I don’t know about you, but our house is full of Baby’s things.  While we may long for a less cluttered and more sophisticated room to relax in during the evenings, it is still her home too and I think should still reflect her (to a degree!).

Safety is also another important factor when designing a child friendly living space.

• Frame their artwork – Baby has only been at pre school since May, but we already have a pile of masterpieces!  I think framing some of the better pieces is a lovely idea, you can easily swap them around as new favourites are brought home.  Another idea is to peg the artworks onto a string hung on a wall, this makes it quicker and easier to rotate them.

• Open the space – We have always had an open plan living/dining space, but we laid the furniture out to divide the room a little and make two distinct spaces.  As soon as Baby started walking it was evident that we needed to give her a larger piece of free floor space, so we swapped our living and dining areas and the resulting floor space is much more child friendly.

• Change to wooden flooring –  Carpets may be warm and cosy, but an option such as this walnut flooring is a much more sensible decision when you have children. Harder wearing and much easier to clean.  When I think of all the food that’s hit our wooden floor, I am so grateful we haven’t got a carpet.

• Durable fabrics – Think in terms of durable, hard-wearing fabrics and you will be much better served than with lighter weight fabrics, which won’t stand up as well to the hard life children will give them.  Denims and woven fabrics are a good place to start.

• Washable wall coverings – Decorating is not high on my list of things I love to do.  So when we do it, we want to know it will endure the test of time and last a fair while.  Nothing puts pay to this like toddler handprints… using washable paint or wallpaper makes rectifying these little slip ups much easier.

• Kid friendly bookshelves – Even if you have another space for your children, such as a play room, it is lovely to have some of their books in the living room.  How about giving them the bottom shelf of the adult bookcase.  That way they can help themselves and learn to put their books back too!

• Toy storage – There is such a wide offering of storage options that work perfectly for children’s toys.  Whether you prefer an ottomen and keep everything out of sight, or traditional open-topped storage baskets, they will help you to remove some of the toy craziness when the children have gone to bed.

• Round furniture – If you are due to upgrade some of your furniture, you could think about round coffee tables, to reduce the number of corners and consequently the potential for accidents.

• Avoid glass accessories – I think that with children in the house you should work on the assumption that if it is valuable it needs to be put on a high shelf, at least until your children as less inquisitive!  I would move/avoid glass accessories, just to be in the safe side!

Is your living space child friendly or have you still got work to do?

 Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.