Guest post by Catherine Collins

To an adult, a bathroom is just another room in the house. It is a place where one usually starts and ends their day. For a child, however, the situation is entirely different. For them, this room is not only functional but it is also filled with so many new things and fun activities – and that is the problem. Usually, the various forms of hazards that might be awaiting a child in a bathroom are things easily overlooked by adults.

In order to avoid mishaps and accidents, especially when you have young children living with you, we have gathered few handy tips that might help you create a kid-friendly bathroom.

 

1) Start with a step stool

The fact that your kid isn’t tall enough to get to the counter represents both a problem and a relief at the same time. The reason for the latter is that this particular feature gives you a slightly larger margin of error, meaning that unintentionally leaving something on a counter has a smaller chance of backfiring.

On the other hand, this also poses a functional issue that needs to be resolved. The easiest way to do so is to get a stepping stool. Just make sure you tuck it away somewhere when your kid is done in the bathroom.

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2) Be smart about your storage

One of the greatest problems in making your bathroom kid-friendly is the issue of storage. Have different storage levels and have ample storage.

For starters, you want your medicine cabinet high enough so that your kid can’t reach it even with the help of the above-mentioned stool. You ought to do something similar with all kinds of electric appliances, as well. A hairdryer is much more dangerous than you may assume, especially in a room with so many water fixtures. But there are some items you want your kid to be able to reach – like towels & kids toiletries, for example. This means that some of the racks need to be installed a bit lower.

Also, kids often have a lot of bath toys – using plastic baskets to hold them is a very handy idea.

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3) Choosing between a tub or a shower.

This particular issue is brought up in every bathroom design. Nonetheless, when it comes to kid-friendly design, it gets a completely new dimension. The difference is that with a kid in the picture, a tub might be a clear-cut answer because:

• it is easier to bathe a child in a tub
• it is much more fun for the child (making your life that much easier)

Or better – a combo of tub AND a shower. A sturdy plastic curtain needs to installed which can be easy to drag and shut, especially if you do not have drainage in your bathroom and you don’t want to flood it.

 

First of all, it is obvious that a young child shouldn’t take a bath without the supervision of an adult, however, you can’t keep an eye on them 24/7. Therefore, should you go with a tub instead of a shower, you need to look at its design first like:

•  Round bath tubs are safer, seeing as how they don’t have sharp edges that could be potentially dangerous.
• Shallow tubs pose a smaller risk for your child, for obvious reasons.

4) Create a theme

Finally, a bland bathroom might be too boring for your child to visit – your bathroom needs to leave a strong visual impression on your child, which is probably why you should go with a kid-friendly theme while decorating.

All-white or full contemporary décor may look impressive to an adult but in order to make it more interesting to a kid, you need to add a bit of color to the mix. In order to get there as easy as possible, you might want to look for a stylish bathroom design for kids.

But remember to not add a permanent item to your bathroom like having a 3-year-old child-themed back splash/wallpaper which is difficult to be replaced once the child grows up or his/her interest is changed consider easily updatable themes.

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5) Personalisation

In cases when two or more kids are sharing a bathroom, fights, especially over the resources, are inevitable. Avoid this by encouraging kids to make personal storage for their bathroom – e.g. a personalized brush holder by using mason jars with their name on it. This might help reduce some hassle.

Also adding their art on the walls might keep them more interested in staying there, if the water is not enough to lure them in.

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Creating a kid-friendly bathroom is far from easy, due to the fact that the overall safety becomes a much bigger factor than it is in a regular bathroom. Still, being a parent was never supposed to be easy in the first place. Luckily, you can always rest assured that all the effort you invested into this project is more than worth your time and resources.

Also, you might want to know about teaching pre-schoolers about using bathrooms on their own.

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Author’s bio: Catherine is a passionate home design consultant from Melbourne. She loves making homes beautiful and buildings sustainable, but she also likes sharing her advice and knowledge with people. That is why she is also a regular contributor to the Smoothdecorator blog. Besides all this, she loves reading and enjoys spending time with her family, friends, and pets. She can be contacted via Facebook & Twitter.