4 Tips for Making Your New Bathroom Kid-Friendly

[Lucy Clark]

Redesigning your bathroom is one thing. Redesigning your bathroom when you’ve got small children is something else entirely. Families who plan on remodeling need to consider that young children won’t stay small forever, but while they’re growing they also tend to be rough on objects around the house. As such, special accommodations should be made to ensure that your bathroom is safe enough for your children but also useful enough for adults. Here are a few tricks you can use to guarantee that your next bathroom fits all of your family’s needs.

1)      Get durable faucets and countertops. Decorative laminate and stone countertops can be stained and scratched. Artsy bathroom faucets with glass bowls or long stems beg to be broken.  When remodeling your bathroom, try to invest in durability. Get a quartz countertop that won’t show damage and pick up some faucets with a shorter, stockier and sturdier build. You’ll be glad you did in the long run.

2)      Don’t micro-size. It can be tempting to get lower vanities and smaller toilets to accommodate your young children, but the cost of these kid-friendly considerations will far outweigh the benefit. In a few years, your child will outgrow the smaller fixtures and on top of that, non-standard bathrooms will sink your property value when it comes time to sell the house. Do the smart thing and invest in adult-sized sinks and toilets. Provide your kids with stepping stools or other boosters to help them reach the tap until they’re big enough to do so on their own. They’ll thank you once they’re teenagers.

3)      Forget about towel bars. Kids have a hard time folding and replacing those towels that you so painstakingly draped across the towel bar. So save yourself the trouble and ditch the towel bars in favor of towel hooks. They still look good and are much easier for kids to use.

4)      Use accessible, open storage. Kids have a hard time reaching up high into linen closets or rummaging around in cabinets to get things. Try to utilize low, open storage areas such as shelves underneath a stilted vanity to give your kids better access to towels, wash cloths and other essentials.

A bathroom doesn’t have to be kid-sized to be kid-friendly. Use these tips to create a stylish new bathroom that’s both considerate enough for your small children but also large enough to be useful when they hit their growth spurts.

Do you have any remodeling tips for families with young children? Feel free to share them with me in the comments below!