When you have a young family, most of the choices you make must take your children into account. For example, going on holiday as a family must be somewhere with entertaining things to do for your kids, hotels must be family-friendly, and the dates you go must be during a time when they’re not meant to be at school. As well as holidays, your choice of car has to cater to the size of your family as well as any hobbies they might be into, such as having a bike rack if they enjoy cycling. Another important thing to think about is the design of your home and how it benefits your children. You’ll likely have to make many compromises when designing your home when you have kids. For example, your living room will instead be more of a family room, catering to everyone in the household, not just kids or adults. To help with this, here are some important steps to remember when decorating your family room.
Understand What A Family Room Is
It’s important to first have a good idea as to what the difference between a living room and a family room is. More often than not, a living room will be situated at the front of a property as it’s where you’d first welcome guests into your home. The design of a formal living room is intended to be a perfect mixture of comfort for you and your family whilst also boasting sophistication and attractive aesthetics. Whereas a family room will be situated further towards the back of the house instead, offering added privacy and focusing on relaxation and play rather than being a space to impress your guests. However, there isn’t any reason why this space can’t be suitable for your kids to play in during the day and then for you to entertain guests in the evening. This just requires a bit of extra work.
Add Storage Options
One of the primary considerations when designing your family room should be to have some great storage solutions. You’ll want to create a family room that all of you can enjoy equally. At the end of the day, it isn’t called a kid’s room but a family room. This room can still be a place that your kids can enjoy throughout the day, playing with their toys, watching TV or doing creative activities. But having some subtle yet effective storage options in the room in which you can pack toys away when your kids aren’t playing with them is very important. Cluttered toys are a big contributor to a room looking unwelcoming, at least to adults. Having storage solutions within the room will allow you to easily put things away without carrying them back to their bedrooms, too. Instead, you can open up a storage chest and quickly drop everything inside. This storage could double as a foot stool or even a chair or shelving unit, hiding any evidence that it was previously being used as a play area before your guests arrived.
Integrate Uplifting Lighting
Lighting is so important for your family room, as it will be used regularly for many different activities. You might spend time reading in your family room and having a nice reading lamp will make this a much more enjoyable experience instead of forcing you to follow the natural light around the room throughout the day. You could also use smart lights, allowing you to dim the lights and even change the colours, depending on the smart bulbs you get. As well as being aesthetically pleasing, it’s worth noting that smart lighting uses much less energy than traditional light bulbs. As you’ll all be spending a lot of time in your family room, having a low-energy lighting option is a great idea. These bulbs will also last a lot longer on average too. You’ll also be able to control these lights remotely, improving your home’s security and helping keep your family safe.
Add Some Greenery
Another great option when it comes to decorating your family room is to place some attractive house plants around the room. You could add so many different types of plants to this room, but it’s important to choose some that are resilient and safe for your kids to be around. You must remember that certain plants and flowers can be toxic for pets and people, so it’s best to choose something safe like this Areca Palm from The Stem. These indoor palms add a beautiful splash of colour to a room and don’t require much care at all due to their hardy nature. Adding plants to a room has many benefits for you and your family. For a start, they’re said to improve our mental health, and plants act as natural air purifiers, providing you and your family with better air to breathe.
Make Use Of Natural Light
While smart lights offer some great functionality, nothing out there beats natural light. For a start, natural light is free, allowing you to save money by keeping your lights off. Alongside this, the natural light from outside has a number of health benefits and can improve comfort and reduce stress. This should be a top consideration for you and your family, and there are a number of methods you can use to provide your family room with more natural light. Consider replacing your windows with larger ones, or even add a skylight to the room. You could also make use of some large mirrors, as these will help to reflect natural light from other areas of your home.
Be Clever With Your Technology
Alongside your smart lights, the chances are you’re going to want to add a number of other types of technology to the room. You’ll likely want to add a TV to the room as well as things like sound systems. If you’re going to be doing this, try to consider these things when planning the room out so that you can tuck them away, making them appear much more subtle. Having your TV secured in a cabinet, for example, will not only allow you to restrict the viewing time of your kids, but also you can hide the TV when guests arrive. This prevents the TV from becoming a focal point unless your guests are joining you for a movie night, of course. Being able to hide away your technology can also benefit you as a family too, as it can help everyone focus on family nights in which you might be playing some family games. Tech can look unsightly at times, and having the option to hide things away like this is a great step towards reducing tech clutter in your family room.
Choose Child-Friendly Furnishings
A common fear for parents is buying an expensive furniture suite or carpet, only to have it completely ruined that same day by an unfortunate spill or muddy footprints being traipsed along them. This is why it’s quite important that you choose child-friendly furnishings for your family room. Using fabrics and other materials that can be cleaned easily and are sturdy is essential, but that doesn’t mean you have to compromise on your design. There are some gorgeous products you can implement into your family room that are easy to wipe clean and resistant to damage yet look aesthetically pleasing, too. It’s also worth making sure that your furniture choices in this room and throughout your entire home, preferably, are not full of sharp edges. Choose soft materials and curved edges to reduce injuries.
In addition, if you are struggling to find furnishings that you like, you can hire a painter and decorator professional to help you out. They will be able to help you with the design and functionality of your child’s room while keeping in mind your budget and style preferences. This can be an invaluable service, especially if you are working with a limited amount of time or money. So, don’t hesitate to call in a professional when you need help choosing child-friendly furnishings for your home.
Disclosure: This is a featured post.