It might seem impossible to have a stylish family home that functions as you need it to, but a few key choices can make your dream reality.
1. Choose resilient materials
If there’s one thing you can be sure of with raising a family, it’s that accidents will happen. Things will be spilled or dropped, fittings will be crashed into and decorations will be knocked or smashed.
Choosing resilient materials that are easy to clean at least helps to ensure your home can cope with the carnage and no lasting damage is done to your floors or furniture. Resilient materials aren’t purely function over form. Take luxury vinyl as an example, which looks expensive and has the warmth of wood flooring but is wipeable and stain resistant.
If you’re after cosiness, seek out easy-clean nylon or wool carpets with a lasting stain-and-wear warranty. Especially if you have younger children, wipe-clean wall paints are also hero products that mean you don’t have to compromise on style.
2. Use subtle smart storage
Children come with a lot of ‘stuff’, there’s no two ways about it! But with the right storage hidden in plain sight, you can keep your home free of clutter without interrupting your dream room designs.
Consider fitted furniture that can be custom built to the specifications of your home, transforming would-be wasted space such as alcoves into wardrobes, cupboards or open shelving in the optimal dimensions for your belongings. Multi-functional furniture is another way to subtly increase storage space, such as ottomans, seating with hidden compartments and coffee tables with drawers.
Remember to look at available wall space for storage – hanging items from hooks and installing floating shelves or an overbed wardrobe can free up valuable floor space.
3. Integrating family character
Rather than resisting family-orientated elements in your design in the fear they’ll be disruptive, consciously integrate some of the more stylish options to add cool character and ensure your home is functional.
For example, featuring fun primary colours in bedrooms and nurseries makes these environments more engaging for children and emphasises which rooms are their territory without you needing to fill the spaces with toys.
You can find kids beds in fun shades and shapes and use matching rugs, cushions and throws as accents to tie the design together. Framing artwork and crafts and creating gallery walls is a chic way to make the home feel like a shared space.
4. Layer lighting for flexibility
The family home wears many hats, depending on the time of day, which room you’re in and who’s in the house. It has to be a workspace, practical abode and peaceful oasis simultaneously, and the secret to achieving the right atmosphere as occasion demands lies in layered lighting.
Final Words
The secret to effectively layering lighting in each room is to prioritise versatility. Pair bright overhead and task lighting like desk lamps, useful for visibility and stimulating productivity, with softer options in key areas such as standing, pendant or table lamps. Making your overhead lighting dimmable is a best-of-both-worlds option that enables you to quickly set the mood, a saviour when family life seems unrelenting!