Making Your Home Toddler Friendly (While Keeping Your Style in Tact)

To childproof your home or homeproof your child? I ask myself this for when the time comes that my daughter to starts being more mobile. The idea of packing away things I love that are breakable and all of my plants being ripped apart makes me just plain sad. So I started looking into some ways to preserve the style of my home, while also making it more toddler-friendly.

There were some articles I found that were titled “easy ways to childproof your home” and one of the first suggestions was to buy rounded furniture. That sounded pretty expensive and not all too easy. Instead you can try silicon furniture bumpers for those sharp corners. Silicon, as opposed to foam, blends in a little better as the color of your furniture comes through while still providing safety. 

I love my houseplants, but I don’t love sweeping up dirt…which is bound to happen with a toddler. So instead, I am going to get them out of reach of little hands. It just takes one long shelf and pots with a drain &tray to spruce up a bare wall and keep your plants safe.

If you have hardwood floors, area rugs are lovely but they can’t really be thrown into the washer when spills happen. Carpet tiles are a great alternative; individual sections can be removed for cleaning making life a lot easier and keeps your floors looking new. 

Sometimes crayons, markers, stickers, you name it, ends up on the walls. Chalkboard paint provides an area of your home that looks unique and is very kid-friendly. Their artwork becomes part of the décor and comes right off as needed. Magnetic Paint is another option to have as an activity wall but be warned that it can require many more coats than the instructions say in order for it to be effective. If the idea of letting your kids decorate a wall isn’t appealing, choose a high gloss paint as it is the easiest to clean should any tiny artists get creative.

Outlet protectors are a staple in every home with young childern but they just look so…utilitarian. I found some cute ones that look like little bears that would be adorable in a kids room. For the rest of the house, on days that I am feeling crafty, I use leftover paint to match the color of the walls and stencil on tiny flowers, although this might not be everybody’s cup of tea but it makes them look just as much decorative as they are functional.

As far as all of the breakable things in you own, there is only so much wall space and only so many shelves that can be hung. To get around having crazy cluttered walls, put only the truly breakable things (like glass ANYTHING) up high. Replace glass picture frames with cute plastic ones so they can be left on tables and through Shutterfly you can make wooden photo cubes. 

Lastly, your expensive flat screen TV. If it isn’t already mounted to the wall, it may be a good idea to do so to keep it safe from your little one possibly knocking it over. It can be an expense to have somebody come out and mount it for you, but it does make the room look more sleek and you can even go a step further and put a wooden frame around it to add some character.

Lisa is a baby-wearing, breastfeeding, cloth diapering mama. She loves running, yoga, craft beer and trying to preserve her home décor the more mobile and curious her daughter gets.