A Guide for Choosing Kid-Friendly Furniture

Any caregiver knows that while children are great blessings, they’re also the sources of big messes. Whether you have overexcited toddlers who spill juice, school children who want to make an art gallery of your wall, or teenagers who play indoor hockey matches, you know that kids equal chaos. The furniture we choose for our homes, especially in communal living spaces, needs to hold up to them. If you’re unsure how to find the pieces you need at a price you can afford, we can help. Keep reading the following guide for choosing kid-friendly furniture to learn what you should look for to keep your home beautiful.

Pick the Right Upholstery

Hard surfaces are the easiest to clean after a spill or accident, but your home won’t be very comfortable with no soft areas to sit on, especially in the living room. The key to finding living room furniture that can withstand your children is picking the right upholstery. You want something with a tight, flat weave, as such fabrics are easier to clean.

Ultrasuede, microfiber, Crypton, twill, velvet, and wool are the most popular fabric choices that are simple to clean. Leather and vinyl are two other upholstery options that you can easily clean, especially since they’re not fabrics at all. Your choice between these fabric and upholstery options will depend on the style you’re designing for in your living room, the color options available, and what you can afford. Genuine leather and Ultrasuede are sometimes too expensive for people shopping on a budget, but there are plenty of other alternatives available. You can also look into additional financial options, such as no-interest furniture financing, which will allow you to get the furniture you want at a price you can afford.

Plan for Stains

No one wants to plan for bad things. But when you have kids, you must plan ahead for stains. While choosing the right upholstery will help prevent spills from staining your furniture, you need to have a backup plan for your furniture in case a stain doesn’t come out.

The best way to plan for stains is to choose furniture in dark colors or prints so that most won’t show up. You should also invest in slipcovers. While some people worry that dark colors may ruin the look of their furniture, there are lots of dark upholstery options that look great in various styles, so you should be able to find something you like. Moreover, you can cover the dark furniture with a slipcover in another color if you want to further protect your furniture while getting the look you want. If you don’t prefer dark furniture or slipcovers, try to get furniture with changeable options, such as a sofa that lets you easily flip the seat cushion over if it gets a permanent stain.

Don’t Mess Around

Stains aren’t the only messes that could happen in your communal living spaces. Most kids want to be involved in family life while doing their own thing. This means toys, blankets, books, and school supplies get dragged from kitchen tables and bedrooms into your living area. While you can always make rules regarding what items can or can’t come into the living room, you can also welcome them into the room and get furnishings that help prevent messes from growing out of hand.

The best way to avoid a mess on your living room floor is to have plenty of storage. It’s much easier to have storage options on hand in the room your kids play in than to encourage them to carry everything back to its proper place in another room. You’ll also find communal storage areas helpful since you can use them to keep books handy, store candles in between burning them, and have blankets on hand during the colder months. You can choose functional storage pieces like ottomans with compartments or add basic storage furniture like shelves against the wall. Just make sure to pick ottomans that don’t have sharp corners where a child could easily hit themselves. Also, anchor shelving to the wall so that little ones don’t get hurt if they try to climb and pull something down while you’re not looking.

Decorate Wisely

Your home should reflect who you are, regardless of whether you have some messy kids around or not. Most people use decorations to display their personalities in their homes, but those messy kids can make it difficult. You don’t want to leave something dangerous or precious where a child could damage it or hurt themselves. But that doesn’t mean you have to give up decorating altogether.

The key to wise decorating is to place things where your kids can’t reach them. This isn’t always foolproof since a stray frisbee or ball could easily crash into something out of reach. However, it’s the best solution available. Hang up family heirlooms or portraits where young children can’t reach them, such as over a fireplace or at least five feet up on a wall. Decorate coffee tables with soft, unbreakable, or replaceable items, including doilies, candles, and books. Just remember to always keep lit candles out of the reach of children and pets.

Focus on Function

Everyone wants their home to look beautiful. You want guests to like the pieces you’ve picked and compliment your decorations. But you also need something that will function well daily. And sometimes, the pretty pieces can’t do that.

Don’t get discouraged. Focus on the function of your furniture and how it will bring your family and your guests together. Your couch may be a darker color than you want, or you may have to hang family pictures on the wall instead of leaving them on your coffee table. But your communal space is going to feature lots of great memories. The right sectional will allow you all to sit together during the holidays, and the right ottoman will store the baby blanket that no one wants to get rid of. While it’s easy to get lost in the idea of having a home that looks like it’s out of a magazine, having a safe, happy home is ultimately more important than aesthetics.

We hope our guide for choosing kid-friendly furniture reminds you of how important it is to choose the right upholstery, plan for stains, get good storage, decorate carefully, and not hold yourself to an impossible standard. Your furniture and the memories you make with it will help your house feel like a home. If you need no-interest furniture financing so that you can afford the pieces that will turn your house into a home, we can help. Grand Furniture offers various financing options that will help you afford the pieces you love.