The home is certainly where the heart is and when you have a young family, it’s important to make your household somewhere you feel comfortable and relaxed and can bring up the children safely. While the overall style of the property and neighborhood may be high on the agenda to achieve this family-friendly ambience, there are several factors you can take into consideration to ensure your home is practical and safe for young children.

If you’re in any doubt, this blog will come in useful as a guide to give you some tips as to how to create a family-friendly home:

Open-plan layout

An open plan layout in the downstairs of the home has become one of the most popular ways to create a safe and functional space for the kids. Not only does it make the space feel larger, but also allows multi-functional use between the living room, dining room and kitchen, so you can keep an eye on the kids at all times. This will, of course, cut out the stress of leaving the kids alone to play while you cook and allows for better bonding time as a family. It would be wise to consult a kitchen designer to create custom kitchens if you’re hoping for an open-plan layout, as the kitchen typically becomes the hub of the open-plan design.

Vinyl flooring

As you may well know, kids can be messy and it’s not uncommon for carpets to become victim to spillages and muddy footprints which can be almost impossible to remove. As an alternative, it would be wise to replace the flooring with a wipeable option such as vinyl that can be wiped down and is near enough impossible to scratch. The good news is that most vinyl is now very realistic in appearance and can be mistaken for hardwood; as well as lasting you for the years to come.

Be creative with storage

When you have children, stuff can overspill in almost every room in the home if you don’t have adequate storage solutions. It’s important to control clutter by integrating as many storage options as possible in free spaces within each room. For example, you could purchase furniture such as sofas or beds in an ottoman design, which doubles up as additional storage or place baskets in corners of the room or shelving to stash goodies out of sight.

Choose your wallpaper wisely

Wallpapers can transform the look of the room and while you may be more inclined to focus on the print, you also need to pay attention to the type of material that it is made from. Silk-based wallpapers are certainly not kid-friendly and won’t react too kindly to greasy, dirty fingerprints and spillages. However, it would always be useful to know how to clean wallpaper to be on the safe side. Toddlers can become very inquisitive and are inclined to pull on the wallpaper, so it would be wise to steer clear of wallpaper and stick to paint or buy a cheaper wallpaper option that you don’t mind replacing if it happens to become damaged.