Decoration tips for family friendly homes.

Decorating any house is an exciting task filled with a myriad of creative decisions to be made, but when it comes to tackling a family home, the delight involved is often multiplied. The opportunity to create a space for adults and children to enjoy, as well as making decisions about furniture, dressings, and accessories that are going to be integral to your family life, is one to be embraced – but where do you start? While all decorative tasks involve a great deal of thought and forward planning, choosing how to create a family space can be difficult. What design decisions will work best for adults and children? How do you ensure that safety is maintained throughout? What happens with all of those breakable accessories you love so much?

The task of decorating a family home needn’t be as daunting as you’re expecting, as long as you’re prepared to approach each moment with an open mind and creative flair.

Top decorating tips for a family friendly interior

The very best tip for decorating a family friendly home is to ensure that it’s adaptable, and to let your children have a say as they get older. Young ones grow so quickly that it makes much more sense to decorate your home in a way that can be altered subtly as their tastes and personalities emerge and change. Rather than choosing bold colors and themes for your walls, learn to accessorize cleverly, and pick furnishings for their versatility; what else could they be used for as your children grow? It’s also incredibly important to create space for children, whether that’s a play corner in the living room, a bedroom that can double as a playroom and an area in which to play, or a little library where they could snuggle with books.

Safety first

When it comes to decorating a home with children in mind, it’s essential to think about safety, and to ensure that your home can be attractive and habitable, without compromising the wellbeing of your children, or your furnishings. Accept it now: things are never going to be the same again! While you’ve no doubt thought about cables, electric sockets, sharp objects, and household chemicals already, now is a good time to think about the ways in which you decorate and furnish your home; how suitable are those loose fabrics and blind cords when it comes to your children’s safety? Stylish wooden shutters are a fantastic alternative to curtains and blinds; shutters will not only complement your home and allow you to control the flow of natural light that enters, but they also look incredibly stylish with any color scheme, or theme, at all.

Bold, fresh, and bright

Having children doesn’t mean compromising on style, or dulling the trends that you have come to love; indeed, welcoming children into your household is a great excuse to experiment, to discover new colors and textures, and to refresh the areas within your home that may be starting to fade a little around the edges. If you’re a fan of neutral shades on the walls, aim to add color elsewhere with throws, pillows, and soft furnishings that can be removed or adjusted as and when you fancy a change. You could even introduce a feature wall if you’re feeling brave. Think patterned borders and decals, using paints that can be wiped clean, and soft rugs that are perfect for floor play, but be sure to keep rooms easy to clean, and casual – who has time to keep rooms pristine when there are kids around?

Accessorize

Many people assume that having children means that you need to stop accessorizing your home, or that favorite breakables should be resigned to the attic for the time being, but that’s simply not true. Children must be taught to respect the items that belong to others, and should have an appreciation for the finer things in life. Aim to keep ornaments and breakable accessories well out of reach, using cabinets or floating shelves; indeed, experimenting with clever shelving is yet another way to refresh your home, and to keep favorite items safely out of reach. Keep other accessories fun by adding cushions to sofas and well-placed toys in other rooms – with a little clever storage to hide things when necessary. This will add a little color and keep children occupied if you’re trying to get chores done; toys are a huge part of childhood and should be enjoyed. Embrace every second rather than worrying about what toys will do to the ambience of your home.

Above all, remember that having children doesn’t necessarily have to change a thing, aside from making you a little more safety-conscious and aware of what works and what doesn’t. You don’t have to redecorate every room to resemble a fun house or inhabit every alcove with toys just because there are small people in your home now. Simply aim to be mindful of the additional storage you’ll need, and the precautions that will be essential for securing your home and protecting little fingers, and a little creativity is sure to follow.