Bathrooms are considered the most dangerous room in the house because of their notoriously slippery hard surfaces. But here’s the great news: we have a ton of expert tips and tricks for designing a kid-friendly bathroom renovation.
And the best thing about that is that if a room is safe and accessible for kids, then it’s safe and accessible for everyone.
7 Tips to Create a Safe and Accessible Bathroom For the Kids
Here are seven tips to get you started as you begin planning for your upcoming bathroom renovation.
1. Assess Age-related Bathroom Flow & Accessibility
A bathroom primarily used by children is one they can move around in safely and have access to everything they use without the use of stepping stools or climbing on the countertops. This should be kept in mind when working with professionals on a bathroom design.
Sure, a stepping stool is fine for toddlers and wee ones when they can’t yet reach the countertop or the sink. However, we want to ensure they can easily access soap, shampoo, bath toys, bubble bath, extra toothpaste, etc., by accessing the lower cabinets and shelves as much as possible.
The more they can use their bathroom without having to climb up or on anything, the lower their chances of falling.
2. Take Advantage of Recessed Niches
If the kids’ bathroom is on the smaller side, you’ll want to make the most of your space. One way to do that is to take advantage of interior wall spaces and create storage niches that are open (preventing pack-rat stuffing/hoarding in cabinets and drawers) and easy for children to access.
These also form a space to embrace decor that honors the children’s ages (patterned bath towels, brightly colored lotion/soap dispensers, superhero band-aid boxes, etc.) but that doesn’t require repairing or renovating once they’re older.
3. Think About Double Vanities or Dual-Faucet Sinks
Bedtime is always a scramble and one of the most fraught times of the day for many families. Take some of the competition and stress out of it by adding an additional vanity or a dual-faucet sink, which eliminates some of the squabbling.
3. Round the Hard Edges
A kid’s bathroom is no place for the hard, sharp edges prevalent in modern design – including many freestanding bathtubs. Make sure your countertop edges and shower/bath features have rounded edges that make a softer landing than sharp corners if a child falls or slips backward at any time.
4. Limit Flooring & Tile Choices to Non-Slip Options
Non-slip flooring and shower tile options are another priority for kid-friendly bathrooms. And, of course, this is safer for anyone using the bathroom as well. When you’re shopping for selections, tell showroom pros you’re only interested in non-slip options. We promise there are plenty of luxurious options available.
5. Include A Slide-Out Step Stool Drawer
We mentioned minimizing the amount of climbing up kids have to do to keep the bathroom safer. One way to do this is to skip stepping stools altogether since they’re easily overturned, not to mention trip hazards.
Instead, we can build cabinets with pull-out bottom “drawers” that are solid and serve as stepping stools as needed. When kids are older, you can choose to keep them there to accommodate smaller visitors or future grandchildren or swap them out for real drawers to augment storage.
6. Consider Installing Grab Bars
People think of grab bars as something for their senior years. However, everyone benefits when grab bars are installed now – rather than later. Kids will use them all the time to stand up and get out of the bath or to help themselves get down from the toilet when they’re just big enough to access it on their own.
Grab bars also come in handy whenever someone is tired or foggy in the middle of the night, weak from the flu, or recovering from an injury – not to mention friends or family with mobility issues. Installing them now means they’re tastefully incorporated into the bathroom design rather than added later as an afterthought.
7. Whimsical Fixtures & Finishes
The key here is to select which fixtures and finishes should boast whimsical colors or styles. For example, hand-held shower faucets are easy to swap out when kids get older, and there are plenty of colorful, fanciful options to choose from.
Even something like a slip-on bath faucet cover doubling as a hippo or elephant spouting water boosts visual appeal, makes the faucet safer, and is easily removed when no longer needed. The same is true for cabinet door handles and drawer knobs or the style of bath towel hooks selected for the back of that bathroom door.
All of these can easily be changed as children age and tastes change, unlike the installation of a rainbow polka-dotted countertop or a brightly-colored toilet that is more troublesome to replace down the road.
Design a Kid-Friendly Bathroom That Grows With the Family
At Details Construction Group, we make it a priority to design luxurious bathroom renovations that are as relevant tomorrow as they are today. We have lots of ideas for designing a kid-friendly bathroom that grows with your family and can be enjoyed for decades to come. Schedule a consultation, and let’s get started!
