How to have a family-friendly home makeover

Many families feel as if a full home makeover is something to wait for. Renovating the interior of your home can be hard when you have small children to look after. Stripping back wallpaper, lifting carpets,and adding expensive furniture can feel like a risk if you have children running about the house. With a bit of negotiation and a lot of patience, however, you can create a home that’s perfect for both parent and child. A home should not exist purely for the children, nor for the adults who run it. A home that is warm to return to should showcase a bit of everyone’s personality.


Hire an interior decorator
Anyone who has attempted painting a fence on their day off will know that interior and exterior decorating can be quite the work-out. Not everyone has the stamina to commit to a full day’s painting, let alone when you have children to look after! An interior decorator can help you identify trends in interior painting to experiment with, too.

Swap the coffee table for an ottoman
If you’re looking to keep it safe when it comes to a child-friendly makeover, try and remove head-and knee-level breakable and hard surfaces. Anything that your child can run into and hurt themselves on should be avoided. Coffee tables are great for resting your mug of Joe and stacking magazines, but they are also, unfortunately, tripping hazards. Therefore, swapping your coffee table for an ottoman could be a chic and stylish alternative for your living room.

Don’t over-do the theme
If your child is going through a superhero phase or is obsessed with the color green, be careful about going in too heavy with the general theme. While it may be the room of their dreams for a few months, they may shift interests as they get older. A Spiderman obsession at the age of eight may transform into something else just three years later. Transforming their room again will cost you both time and money. Start with a neutral base and build on top of it. Adding accents of a particular theme will showcase their interests in a way that can be adapted a few years down the line when they inevitably change their mind.

Go machine-washable
There’s not necessarily any reason to fear white fabrics, unless perhaps if you have an arty family who is prone to using permanent pens and paints. Using white fabrics in the parents’ bedroom, or opting for pale throws is not necessarily a bad idea; as paler fabrics can certainly handle bleaching far easier. The most important aspect to consider when choosing fabrics is whether they are machine washable or not. Choose stripes, Aztec patterns, polka dots: whatever you wish. Just make sure that in the event of an accident, it can be hurled into the washing machine.

A family-friendly home makeover is all about keeping it practical as well as stylish. You don’t have to scrimp on style at all; you just have to make sure that your furniture is child-friendly, and washing machine safe.