Saturday, July 30, 2011

Furnishing a Kid-Friendly Home


Furnishing a Kid-Friendly Home

Want to give your home a trendy and functional makeover? If you have kids at home, then you would surely want to make sure your new décor is kid-friendly. Obviously, you would not want to spend too much money, as most children are bounded by no price in their mess-making! And naturally, you would not want to spend too much time cleaning the home or policing the kids. So what are some good thought for kid-friendly furnishings?

If you are thinking about replacing the flooring, think about the available options and which one would work best for your family. Carpets in a home with pets and kids can turn out to be a disaster. Other choices of flooring like ceramic tiles and laminated flooring are a lot easier to maintain. If you love carpets, you can go for carpet tiles. By doing this, you will easily be able to replace a stained tile with another one.

If you have kids at home, upholstered furniture would be your best choice. You may like pillows that have back cushion, but just imagine the mess with kids playing pillow fights with the same pillows. Therefore, it is better to go for upholstered furniture with easy-care fabrics. You can also choose outdoor furniture which is a lot easier to clean. You can easily maintain such furniture by simply wiping it with a soft cloth. Leather and microfiber upholstery are ideal because they are so easy to clean. Plus, microfiber is naturally dust and pollen resistant.

If you want wood furniture in your home, go for inexpensive antiques as they are usually made using solid wood and can be refinished once the kids grow up. Not only this, wood furniture can easily be painted over in case of any damages. On the contrary, particle board furniture does not last too long and cannot be fixed if it is damaged.

When it comes to window covering, it is very important to exercise caution in a home with kids. Lavish designer curtains that sweep the floor are beautiful to look at, but can be a mishap for kids for might step on it, or try to climb it. There have a number of accident cases involving children and window coverings/mini blinds with cords. Therefore, always choose cordless window covering. You can also go for valances to cover your windows efficiently while keeping it out of your child’s reach.

When we talk about wall covering, a number of options are available, which can be quite good for homes with kids. A number of brands have come up with paints targeted for kid friendly homes. Semi-gloss paints are a good choice for kids homes as they can be easily cleaning by wiping. If you like wallpaper, make sure to pick out the ones which can be scrubbed. Additionally, experiment with matte finish. This permanent and protective finish enables Crayola, markers, paints to wipe off of the wall and reduce wall glare all at the same time!


Other Safety Precautions
  • Make sure to install child-resistant locks in all your storage cabinets. This will help in avoiding mishaps that may be caused due swallowing chemicals or touching harmful objects such as cleaning products, medicines, or insect poisons.

  • Make sure to keep all electrical wires and phone cords bundled up to avoid accidents. 

  • Install smoke alarms in all the rooms for your house.

  • Make sure that the fence surrounding your house from outside should not contain any sharp edges which can wound the child.

  • Avoid putting up any plants inside or outside your home which are poisonous or attract harmful insects and bees.

Author Bio: Ethan S. writes on behalf of Design55- a UK-based designer furniture shop that specializes in living room furniture and modern living rooms.

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Wait! If you are entering my giveaway, please make sure you are following my blog through Google Friend Connect. It is NOT mandatory -However, karma begs that you do! Here's why; the more followers this blog has, the more great things I can continue to bring you. Remember in order to win on Locomotion of Expressions, all you have to do is place one comment stating that you want to win.