Let’s be honest – once your toddler starts walking, talking, and playing around the house, keeping your home clean, tidy, and stylish can become a bit of a challenge. But while you will most certainly have to give up some control (and will find yourself regularly craving a holiday weekend away to restore the balance), having kids doesn’t mean you have to compromise your eye for interior design. It simply means that you have to rethink your attitude a little. From minimalist design ideas to easy origami animals for kids to create – here are four tips on how to give your home some style, co-designed by your children.
Choose your statement pieces – but make sure they’re resilient
Living with kids doesn’t mean that you can’t invest in nice furniture, but it is important to choose pieces that are sturdy enough to handle some wear and tear, without needing a professional cleaning every other week. Go for dark colors, leather, and patterned fabrics instead of cream-colored suede if you want to invest in a designer piece. When it comes to coffee tables and cabinets, think practical and go for smooth shapes rather than sharp corners. By thinking outside the box, you might even stumble upon a great piece of furniture that you wouldn’t have found otherwise.
Learn how to curate your kid’s art
Kids love painting and arts and crafts. No wonder – it’s a fun activity that teaches them valuable manual skills and is great to relax kids that tend to get stressed and worried. But if your kids are proud of what they have created, they will most likely want to see it up on a wall for everyone to admire. Whilst you might be hesitant at first to give your kid that prime spot in the living room that you had reserved for some “real art”, it’s time to shift that mindset. The trick is to curate your kid’s art so that only selected paintings or projects make it up on the wall. This will not only make sure that you can pick and choose which artworks will complement your home, but it will also instill a real sense of pride in the chosen artist.
Encourage variety
If your kids tend to stick to the same watercolor style every time they dig out the craft utensils, it might be time for you to show them what else is out there. You could, for example, introduce them to the art of origami – whilst it sounds difficult and fiddly, a lot of origami is simple, straightforward, and suitable for kids. Take a look at these easy origami animals for kids that you can make together. Another idea is to start a collage art project with your children. You can use family photos, magazine cutouts, or pictures you have printed to make collage art. Why not for example make a family calendar? You can buy plain white calendars in every art shop. Once you start to embark on bigger art projects such as these with your kids, the results will surprise you – and look surprisingly great on your kitchen wall.
Keep it simple
One of the most important things to keep in mind when you try to create a style for your home is that it’s crucial to go for simplicity over clutter. A minimalist look for your flat or your house is always great, but it’s almost essential when you have small children playing in the living room and spreading their toys out in the kitchen. By keeping it simple, not only will your kids have fewer opportunities to knock things over when things get a little wild. But it also means that even if they spread out all their toys next to the couch, the room won’t feel too messy and cluttered, and cleaning things up after will be an easy and quick affair.
From easy origami animals for kids to simple storage solutions – having children doesn’t have to be a hindrance to your interior design. There are loads of ways your family can enhance the look and feel of your home – give one of these simple ideas a go and see what you can achieve.
