Family Friendly Furniture Choices to Help Streamline Your Life
Moms: what’s your biggest concern when outfitting your home with furniture? Do you want it to be safe? Are you concerned about stains? Do you want your home to look like adults live in it, not a herd of children? There are great ways to add furniture to your home and create a pleasing mixture of both adult and kid-friendly pieces. Here are things to consider when choosing your new furniture:
1. Surfaces
When choosing new furniture, the surfaces and materials you choose should be one of the top considerations. When you purchase new furniture, you want to make sure that the surfaces you choose are durable, safe and easy to clean.
When picking out wood furniture, look for woods like maple and cherry. Hard woods are more resistant to dents and dings than softer woods like pine, and will stand the test of time. When looking for fabrics to cover your couch and chairs, leather is a fantastic choice. Leather is easy to wipe off and is very resistant to scratches. Avoid glass as part of your furniture design if you have small, uncoordinated children; glass coffee tables are an accident waiting to happen when you’ve got toddlers running around the house.
2. Versatility
Look for furniture that can either be used for more than one thin or that can grow with your children. Workstations, book shelves and coffee tables can meet your needs now and can be rearranged later to suit your needs at that time.
Ottomans make great rolling storage and can double as extra seating in a pinch. Sectional sofas will give everyone in the house a soft, comfortable place to sit and a recliner will give your kids a place to read and a place to catch a quick nap.
3. Organization
If you’ve got kids and pets, you need a lot of space for “stuff”. Armoires can double as television cabinets and storage for CDs, video games and books when needed. If you choose a set of shelves, pick out some lovely storage baskets or crates and use them to hide away anything you want out of sight.
When you are organizing, make sure that you keep baskets with your children’s items on reachable shelves. If you keep these toys and games on high shelves, you risk industrious children trying to climb to reach them. You can find storage cubes, crates and baskets at virtually any big box store for a great price.
4. Bedrooms
If you are outfitting your toddler’s room, try to skip the toddler bed and look for a twin bed with rails instead. A trundle bed will give you an extra bed for guests that can be pushed away when not in use. A bed with storage underneath will give you an extra place for blankets, shoes or games.
Choosing a bedroom suite that is designed for an older child will prevent you from having to purchase a whole new set in just a few years, when your child is ready to step up. Unless you bought a crib that can be converted into a bed, go straight for a “big kid’s” bedroom set.
Shopping for new furniture can be fun if you know what to look for before you enter the store. Look around your house and decide which pieces you want to replace. Decide on the best materials and surfaces for those pieces before you leave home; make a list and carry it with you. By knowing what you’re looking for, you’ll be able to better resist the salesman’s pitch for that piece that doesn’t really meet your needs.
Amanda Peters is passionate about home furnishings and offers advice on everything from modern sofas to the newest trends in draperies. She enjoys browsing the internet for unique furniture finds!