You Can Have Kids, Pets, AND a Beautiful Designer Home—Here's How
Do you think you have to sacrifice style and beauty in your home because your family includes children and/or pets? You absolutely don’t—if you know what choices to make to combine family life with a showpiece home you’re proud of.
A home filled with kids and pets is one filled with joy. There’s never a dull moment with kids playing, heading to sports practice, coming home from school, and even just hanging with their friends. Add in pets with their wet noses and perhaps dirty paw prints everywhere—and you have a house that’s truly a home.
A family-friendly home needs to withstand anything life throws at it. And fortunately that doesn’t mean having to miss out on high-quality design options. Let me introduce you to three finishes that look great and are family-friendly.
High-Quality Flooring
When you’re choosing flooring, you want to ensure it’s tough enough to withstand kids and pets, i.e., hide life’s messes, and is easy to clean. My top choices are hardwood and luxury vinyl tile. Here’s why:
Hardwood. I love the look and feel of hardwood flooring, and when you venture into engineered hardwood there are limitless options that go with every aesthetic. Durable rugs can help soften areas that have lots of hardwood while bringing color and texture to the space.
Luxury vinyl tile (LVT). This is a great choice for high traffic areas or guest and pool houses. This material is known for being almost indestructible and low maintenance and it’s now available in many varieties—even some that mimic hardwood flooring.
Performance Fabric for Furniture Pieces
If your family is like mine, they love to hang on the sofa after a long day or on weekends, so choosing the right style and fabric for this high use area is a major decision. Consider a sofa or sectional made with a performance fabric, an extremely durable stain-resistant fabric ideal for furniture that receives heavy use. These fabrics are easy to clean, which means the whole family—even pets if you’re so inclined—can be more comfortable while lounging around. Less cleanup and more relaxation! Sign me up!
Durable Selections for Other Surfaces
Floors and furniture aren’t the only items in your home that can take a beating from kids and pets. With those family members in mind, as well as nod to lessening the time you need to spend cleaning up after them, you must make smart choices for all the surfaces throughout your home. I’ll focus on two here: countertops and walls.
Countertops. You may be best off choosing quartz for your kitchen countertops; it’s non-porous, doesn’t need to be sealed, and is almost scratch-resistant. Plus, it comes in many different styles and varieties so you’re sure to find one that matches your design aesthetic. Quartz is also easy to keep clean, just needing a quick wipedown, far less maintenance than is required for an option like marble.
Walls. Grubby fingerprints and attempts at artwork are the enemy of any painted wall. A good option for family homes is paint with an egg-shell finish. The finish is a bit smoother, which makes it more stain resistant. Most everyday dirt should wash away with a damp sponge, especially if you get to it quickly.
Your Family-Friendly Home
Creating a home for every member of your family is top priority at JKB Home Design. Having three kids and two dogs of my own, I know firsthand how important it is to choose quality products and surfaces that can withstand a bustling home filled with kids and pets. Combining function with beauty is one of our specialties and creating homes for our clients that are beautiful to look at and even more wonderful to live in is what we love to do!
It’s so important to invest in a home that can last and grow with your family. If you're ready for a home that supports everyday life (even when it gets messy), I would be honored to help. Reach out here and let's chat.
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Warmly, Julie