How To Child-Proof Your Home Without Giving Up Style

One has a lot to deal with and prepare for when a baby joins the family and there’s one aspect of this whole process that we think we can help with: home decorating or, more exactly, child-proof decor ideas that will make your home kid-friendly without putting too much of a damper on its style. Yes, there are ways to have a home that’s both kid-friendly and stylish without sacrificing safety, comfort or beauty. The solutions range from the most basic and common child-proof cabinet locks and outlet caps to carefully-chosen furniture pieces and accessories.

Replace your coffee table with an ottoman

Child proof doors and handles

Coffee tables usually have sharp edges and can be pushed around by kids given their size which can result in injuries. Sure, you can put bumpers on the corners of the table but if you want a way to completely avoid the possibility of injury you could give up the coffee table altogether and use an ottoman instead. Ottomans have soft edges and are much more kid-friendly.

Secure bookshelves and cabinets to the walls

Child proof doors and handles

In order to child-proof your home properly you must try to think like a child so you can spot anything that might appear interesting to a kid but wouldn’t be safe. For example, kids would often try to climb on shelves or cabinets and sometimes this can result in the furniture tipping and falling over. You can make sure that doesn’t happen in your home by securing your shelves and furniture to walls.

Keep breakable items on high shelves

Child proof doors and handles

Those glass vases or sharp-edged sculptures you like so much are not exactly child-proof but that doesn’t mean you have to get rid of them completely. You can still display them in your home as long as you keep them out of reach. Put them on high shelves where you can see them and where they’re inaccessible to the kids. And what about the lower shelves…you might ask. They don’t have to remain empty. You can just

Keep furniture away from windows

Child proof doors and handles

A toddler might find it interesting to climb on top of a chair or a dresser and from there to hop onto the windowsill and that’s dangerous on so many levels. A simple way to avoid all that is to keep furniture away from windows so you don’t give kids the chance to plan any adventurous scenarios. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily means they won’t find other ways to get themselves into trouble but at least you removed one of the possibilities. Also, a rearrangement of the furniture might actually make the room look fresh and perhaps even more beautiful.

Remove the cords from your blinds

Child proof doors and handles

The dangling cords that you use to operate your window blinds can potentially be dangerous to little kids so you have two main options: get new cordless blinds or find a way to either remove the cords or to keep them hidden and secure, away from little children’s hands. Perhaps it’s time to get new window treatments anyway so why not use this opportunity to child-proof your home too?

Use paint with a satin finish

Child proof doors and handles

At one point or another kids will spill things or will start to draw on walls at which point you’ll be happy that you’ve chosen paint with a satin finish which makes it easier to wash the surfaces than flat paint does. It’s good to think ahead and to child-proof your home as much as possible even before you’ve decided to expand your family.

Install safety gates and barriers

Child proof doors and handles

These things are very useful when you want to block access to stairways or to certain rooms that you’d rather not let little kids enter just yet. The reason why they’re so practical is because they allow you to open a door and to let air in while also keeping the kids right where you want them to be. Make sure these barriers are installed properly and that they’re durable because here’s no point in even having them if they’re not going to serve their intended purpose.

Enclose the pool and cover the hot tub

Child proof doors and handles

It would be great to be able to completely cover the pool when you’re using it but not everyone has this feature at their disposal so in order to child-proof this area you’ll have to use other techniques. A solution would be to enclose the pool with a small fence and to lock the gate(s). if you have a hot tub, either cover it up or block access to it when you’re not around.

Install window guards

Child proof doors and handles

Window guards are not exactly common or popular but you can’t deny the fact that they’re very useful at offering safety and helping to child-proof a home. A lot of them are not designed to be permanent so you can remove them as soon as the kids grow up. There are various types of window guards with different installation systems and designs so be sure to do some research and to find the ones that are functional but also good-looking.

Use outlet covers

Child proof doors and handles

Some outlets are already child-proof in a sense as there are various rules and standards in place for that but you may want to install some outlet covers anyway in case you don’t already have them. This won’t really impact your home’s decor in a very visible manner but you should know that there are lots of different designs and models to choose from, a lot of which are meant to look cute or elegant in addition to being functional.

Put bumpers on furniture corners

Child proof doors and handles

You may be able to replace your coffee table with an ottoman but you can’t have everything upholstered so you’ll most likely need to also put bumpers on some furniture corners. Yes, a lot of these don’t look great but surely safety is more important than looks and anyway you can always give these bumpers a makeover and make them look cute or match the color of your furniture to blend in better.

Child-proof your doors and drawers

Child proof doors and handles
Child proof doors and handles

Kids are notorious for getting their tiny fingers squished when closing doors or drawers and it would be nice to prevent something like that from happening whenever possible. Consider getting some child-proof door knobs, using door stoppers and keeping drawers shut and locked. Be careful to also child-proof cabinets by also securing them to walls so they don’t tip over when kids pull the drawers trying to open them.