The home plays an important role in every child’s development. It’s where they take their first steps, say their first words, and learn the joys of playtime.
At Resi, we believe home design can do more than just make a space look nice. It can provide rooms that encourage your child’s development and allow them to play to their heart’s content.
If you’re looking for ways to stop your kids from clawing at the walls, here are our top tips for adding some playtime fun…
Create space for games
Our 2020 Happy Homes report discovered that adaptability is one of the key factors in shaping our well-being at home. Why?
Not only does it allow our homes to grow with our children’s changing needs, day to day, having an adaptable space opens up more room for play.
Consider adding in furniture to key spaces that are easy to move. Tables on wheels, light foot stools, even couches that can easily pushed to the side. Kids should easily and safely be able to make space for games so that an intense game of tag or a handstand challenge can be carried out without posing a risk to surrounding decor.
Easy to clean
Playtime is often messy time. To help stop you from worrying about hours of chores, consider making design choices that’ll make this area of your life easier. Opt for wooden or laminated flooring, instead of carpet. Choose darker flooring over light, or if you do go with a bright colour scheme, consider ones with a bit of pattern to cover up your sins. Timber with a brush effect is always a good choice to stop scuffs and marks from showing up.
Tiles in the kitchen will make baking adventures easy to clean up, just as they can help in the bathroom. It also doesn’t hurt to choose a paint that can bear a little wash down, should your kids get a little creative with their crayons.
Learn more cleaning design tips.
Space to personalise
However, drawing on the walls doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.
Chalkboard walls and wipeable surfaces are ideal canvases for kids who want to get let out their inner artist. By adding one into their bedroom or another area of your home, you allow your kids to feel like they have control over their home. Showing that it is as much their space as it is yours.
Let them get a little messy
We’ve talked a lot about cleaning but kids (sadly) love a bit of mess and this isn’t something that should always be discouraged.
The garden, if you have one, provides the perfect environment for children to get their hands dirty. We love adding spaces for a ‘mud kitchen’ into our landscape designs, areas were they can splash in puddles, find worms, and build muddy castles.
However, make sure you have a garden tap to hand to help wash down those mucky paws afterwards.
A full sensory experience
Garden fun doesn’t have to stop there.
If your child experiences the world in a unique way, perhaps relying more on sound and touch, the garden can open up all kinds of new experiences. By exploring your local garden centre, you might add in a sensory section to your green space, whereby the focus can be on everything from colour (flowers), texture (grasses), smell (herbs), and even sound (a water feature).
Likewise, you can promote various sensory types of play within the home. Add texture to your walls, fun sounds they can discover, and lights for during those darker hours (glow in the dark paint is always fun to play around with!).
More than one way to get around
If you’re not afraid to design outside of the box, then you can really start to have some fun with your home.
We’ve seen homes add in fireman poles, tunnels into the walls, even slides! While you’ll need to weigh up what these features mean for your home in the longterm, these kinds of additions can really add some fun into your child’s daily routine.
A little bit of quiet time
Even kids need a little quiet time, so make sure they have a space to chill out (and one for yourself too).
This might mean build them a reading nook, a bean bag zone, or even getting a fort in place, where they can hide away.
Whatever you chose, make sure it’s cosy, private, and has a little of their own personal stamp - cushions in their favourite colour, blankets featuring spiderman, or just some cute fairy lights.
Learn more about reading nooks.
Want tailored advice for customising your home to a growing family? Book in a free consultation with our team. We can provide expert advice on everything from design, planning, to finance - giving your project the best possible start.
