Designing child-friendly spaces in your home is crucial not only for your child’s comfort and enjoyment but also for their safety. A recent report from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) found that a surprisingly high number of children continue to get serious injuries from furniture tip-overs. As of 2022, nearly 18,000 people went to the emergency room with tip-over injuries, with 40% of that number being children. In recent years, the CPSC found tip-over accidents trending downwards. However, the latest data still shows that every 53 minutes, a child is treated in an emergency department for tip-over incidents.
As such, it’s critical to furnish your home in a way that keeps your kids safe and sound. Taking the time to design child-friendly spaces at home can also be a challenge, as what your children think looks good may not align with your intended style for your house. Fortunately, there are several practices you can try to meet your child’s needs, as well as ensuring you come up with a room or space that matches your personal preferences. Below, we’ll be sharing tips for designing child-friendly spaces at home that won’t compromise your style:
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Involve children in the furniture selection process
One of the best ways to keep everybody happy about the child-friendly spaces in your home is to involve your children in the process as much as possible. While you consider your personal style, tastes, goals, and references, don’t forget to include your children and their preferences. This includes their favorite colors and specific interests or hobbies that can go into your decisions when choosing furniture for the space. Offering your children this level of freedom allows them to feel respected and heard, which is ideal for your family dynamics.
Of course, it’s also important not to go overboard and give the kids total control over the space and furniture they think they need, as they may simply go with preference over form or function. When selecting beds or desks, for example, consider their choices, the amount of space you can work with, and how functional the options are within these spaces. A desk that is too large, even if it comes in your child’s favorite color scheme, may not be comfortable in the long run and may discourage your child from using it. Be prepared to teach your kids how to compromise with you while making these decisions.
Include educational elements
To add to the child-friendly element, you should also consider including educational features in the design of your child-friendly space. While fun and games are almost always necessary in child-friendly spaces, it’s important to balance them out with learning aids and tools to keep your children busy and motivated. These learning materials include interactive learning tools, age-appropriate books, and educational games. For example, if your child owns gaming consoles or computers, it’ll be good to include exciting but educational titles in their games library.
It would be best to remember that your children may not want to use these educational elements, which is where you come in. When introducing your child to their child-friendly space, it can help if you take the time to show them the different aspects and furniture in the room, including the educational tools you’ve slipped in. This is when they are most excited about being in a new and unfamiliar environment, so they are more likely to want to learn and try new things. It will also establish that your intended child-friendly space isn’t only for fun and games but for learning as well.
Invest in storage solutions
As mentioned in our introduction, one of the critical challenges in designing child-friendly spaces is that they may look the opposite of how you envisioned your home. This is especially true when children are involved, as they are likelier to leave clutter and messes in their wake. While in the design process, it’s essential to consider things you and your child can do to declutter. Decluttering expert Megan Golightly encourages parents to teach their children to clean up after themselves, but this can be a hard habit to pick up and sustain at such a young age, and this is where they may need your help.
Aside from actively teaching them how to do it, some of the best solutions for decluttering kids’ rooms include investing in functional and multi-purpose furniture, as one of the leading causes of clutter collecting in a room is insufficient space for everything. A desk that lifts to reveal storage space might be ideal if you’re working with limited space. This Living Spaces coffee table with a lift top would be a natural addition to your living room, and your children can store their books, toys, or dolls inside instead of leaving them on top of the table. Storage solutions like labeled bins, shelves, and drawer organizers are another great way to mitigate this struggle. Just remember to make these easy for your child to find and access.
Prioritize durability and maintenance
Another challenge you may encounter when designing child-friendly spaces is ensuring valuables like furniture and beloved items can survive the high-energy activities of children. As discussed, children can be messy, so choosing durable and easy-to-clean materials for surfaces and furniture is essential. This includes stain-resistant fabrics, washable paints, and durable flooring options to ensure longevity against daily wear and tear. For example, your precious china collection or grandfather’s clock may not be items you want in child-friendly spaces.
Aside from long-term damage and wear and tear, accidents, falls, and spills can happen. It’s always best to be prepared for these, not only for maintaining furniture or room conditions but also to keep your children safe from potential injuries. Learning how to deal with kid-damaged furniture is also a skill that can go a long way. Architectural Digest recommends spraying down newly cleaned sofas with the Scotchgard fabric protector to protect your seats from future disasters. Stained rugs and carpets are also inevitable, but they can be cleaned — just remember to avoid stain removers, as these can cause ugly patches and color differences.
Avoid becoming too sentimental
Child-friendly spaces are an excellent opportunity for making valuable memories and spending quality time with your children. However, beware of the trap this creates, as the more sentimental value you add to furniture or items your child likes to use or play with, the more clutter you may end up with once they outgrow it. Instead, encourage a routine decluttering habit your children can get involved in and help you with. You can teach them to have a list or catalog of their items and favorite toys so that they can keep track of them and stay aware of old items they may no longer have use for.
The same advice should also apply to existing furniture you may particularly like or treasure. As discussed, accidents, spills, and wear and tear will always happen; these are signs that you and your family are having fun living in your home. As such, remember not to get too upset about broken furniture. This is why some parents may also opt for more budget-friendly options the younger their children are, as they may be easier to replace and won’t cause too much uproar if damaged or lost.
Ensure accessibility and independence
Finally, while your children will need your help and guidance to maintain child-friendly spaces and ensure they aren’t leaving more messes than necessary, this is also a good opportunity to instill independence and initiative. Our previous post on How to Cultivate Leadership in Young Adventurers highlights how these skills can serve them later in life. Leaders can make mistakes, but it’s also essential that they learn to take responsibility. For example, if your child accidentally breaks something, it’s crucial not to scold and reprimand them. Instead, show them how they can fix the problem or help clean up.
Ensuring accessibility and independence in child-friendly spaces will also motivate them to be more careful and responsible about spending time in these spaces. While it’s essential to have proper storage for their favorite toys, for example, you should make sure your children are able to find and reach them. This will help as they won’t have to rely on you to access them, and it’ll be easier for them to learn how to put things back where they belong after using them. When you allow children to be independent in their own space, they’re also more likely to respect you on your own. Of course, don’t forget to spend quality time with them as well.
Ultimately, designing child-friendly spaces should be an inclusive process. Instead of alienating your child and deciding everything for them, letting them make small decisions like the color of certain furniture and objects can help cultivate independence and creativity. Having your children involved in planning and maintaining these spaces is also helpful for instilling a sense of responsibility. While keeping your intended style for your home is important, it’s also crucial that your children feel at home in these spaces. By focusing on maintaining the space and preventing clutter, you can certainly design child-friendly spaces without worrying about mess or spills in the long run.
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