Five Ways to Design a Kid and Pet Friendly Home

I hear all the time that people are waiting for their kids to be older, less messy, or waiting for their puppy to be trained before they design their house. Having a beautifully designed home and having kids, and dogs, red wine and real life do not have to be mutually exclusive. You can have both!

If you’re worried about buying a new sofa for fear of stains, fear not! You should be able to LIVE with your new furniture! We have designed many family rooms in Massachusetts that needed furniture that was dog and kid friendly. It can be challenging when you’re not aware of all the options available! So, this week I want to share with you 5 things to take into account when you are designing a room for a family, pets or people that are just plain messy!

1. PERFORMANCE FABRIC
The first thing is upholstered items in the space. Between kids, pets, friends and family, spills are inevitable! We want you to feel comfortable with your new furniture and be able to LIVE with it. Whether it’s a custom chair or a sofa, the thing that we always like to do is choose a performance fabric. There are all kinds of all kinds of options nowadays and different upholstery companies have different lines that they work with. There’s Krypton, Sunbrella, Revolution Fabrics, and the list goes on. Or you can do a COM, which is customers own material. You can purchase a performance fabric and send it to the furniture company you’re working with. They will then use that fabric to cover your piece of furniture.

Performance fabrics have come a long way. They are not the stiff, crunchy fabrics that you remember on outdoor furniture back in the day. They have a really soft hand now, as we say in the design industry, which just means that they are soft and they feel really nice to your hand when you’re sitting on them. A really important note about these performance fabrics is that a lot of them are cleanable with bleach! You can blot up the stain, and then clean the whole thing with bleach. So when we are doing custom sofas or custom chairs, we tend to choose a performance fabric. Read more about buying the right sofa here! So upholstered pieces are the first things to take into account.

2. AREA RUGS
The next thing to consider when designing for real life is area rugs! Life doesn’t only happen on the furniture! Area rugs take quite a beating, so they need to be made out of materials that are easily cleaned as well. You do not want to choose a rug that has viscose in it. Viscose is a type of material that makes the rug nice and soft, but it is really difficult to clean.

Wool and polypropylene, however, are very durable fibers and are very easily cleaned. So make sure when you’re buying an area rug that you look at the care and maintenance instructions so that you know how to take care of them. You know something is going to get spilled on that area rug! That is the second thing to think about.

3. ROUND EDGES
Number three is rounded edges. When we are choosing tables and case goods for a space that has small children, we tend to choose pieces that have rounded edges. This doesn’t mean it has to be round, it just means that if it is square, the edges are rounded instead of pointed because if you’ve ever had a toddler who’s running around the dining room, you know that the sharp corner of the table is right at their forehead height! So if it’s rounded you’ll save yourself a trip to the ER for some stitches in the forehead.

Rounded edges on things such as countertops and coffee tables can also make for easier movement from one space to another. Have you ever had a spot in your home that you always bump into the same corner over and over again? That’s what we’re trying to prevent here. So rounded edges is third thing to take into account.

4. TEMPERED GLASS TABLES
The fourth thing is tables with glass. Most furniture companies now make tables with tempered glass that shatters instead of breaking into large pieces that can hurt somebody. If you are looking at antique pieces, you want to check what kind of glass it is because you don’t want a child to fall on that coffee table and have it break into large pieces that can really injure them. Check out this blog post to read more about buying quality furniture!

So be sure you check that, especially if you’re purchasing antique pieces before they started making tables with tempered glass that shatters.

5. WINDOW TREATMENT CORDS
The last thing that you should really take into account is cords on window treatments. You know the cords on window treatments that hang, like from roman shades and blinds? They should not be in a loop and hanging because that is a hazard and it can strangle a small child if they fall and get their head caught in there. There are beautiful shades now that are cord free! You can pull them down and push them up super easy, plus they look nicer since there are no cords hanging on the side of the window. They have more of a clean, seamless appearance and are much safer.

Those are the five things that we take into account when we are designing spaces for everyday, real life!
Life is short. Don’t wait until the kids are grown or dogs are trained to create a home that you love to live in. With so many stain resistant options in the world of design, let’s do this now!
If you need some help with your home please schedule a call with us to see how we can help you! (link to schedule a free phone call – Click HERE to find out more

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