Setting boundaries and rules in the household is par for the course as a homeowner, particularly if you have pets and young children to think about (not necessarily in that order). It’s true that you can set rules such as not letting a dog jump onto your bed or sofa, teach a child not to climb on the sofa or sit on the windowsills, and deter a cat from being a cat (good luck!)
But ultimately, any household filled with life, people and furry friends is going to be a touch chaotic. The first thing to remember is not to feel like your home has to look like a showroom or be perfect in order to be good. You can tidy up repeatedly, and you no doubt will, but the house shouldn’t look like a showroom (if that’s even possible).
Decorating a home with climbing kids and pets to worry about, however, can feel harder than it looks on the surface. In this post, we’ll discuss how to balance your need for aesthetic appeal with the very practical elements that come from having such challenges to deal with:
Artificial Flowers
Fresh flowers are beautiful but they don’t stand much of a chance when you’ve got curious pets and kids running around. That’s because cats love to knock over vases, or your dogs might decide to drink the flower water, and toddlers always seem drawn to pulling petals off anything within reach.
Silk flowers solve most of these problems since there’s no water to spill and no wilting petals to clean up. You can still have that pop of color and natural look you want, just placed up on shelves or tables where little hands and paws can’t reach them as easily. If they fall, it’s not so much of a big deal, they’ll withstand it.
Heights Are Your Friend
Most of your prettier decorations probably need to live above the danger zone if you want them to survive more than a week. We’d suggest that floating shelves, tall bookcases, and mantels become your best storage spots for anything breakable or valuable, just make sure to fit them to the wall with attachments so they can’t be pulled over.
You can still make lower areas look nice with more durable decorations or items that won’t cause disasters if they get knocked around. Kids and pets mostly operate in that bottom three feet of space, so anything above that tends to stay safer and cleaner.
Open Pathways & Boundaries
Cramped spaces will easily turn into obstacle courses when you add running children and excited pets to the mix. You can’t really prevent a cat from getting everywhere, but you can with a little toddler. If you begin keeping main walkways clear, it means fewer collisions and less chance of someone knocking over your favorite lamp during a chase scene.
You might also need to rethink your furniture placement to create natural barriers that should guide the traffic flow. A well placed footrest or coffee table can redirect the chaos away from your more delicate areas while still keeping the room functional for everyone.
With this advice, we hope you can decorate your home, despite having people zooming around it.
