Walls: Kids are really tough on walls. Their fingerprints end up everywhere! Make sure you paint with satin finish paint or you'll lose the battle before it has even begun. Wainscotting and beadboard are also great options because they get coated with durable semi-gloss paint. For those of you who want to encourage your child's creativity, you can buy chalkboard paint and turn any surface in your home into a canvas for your child's artwork.

                     

                              

 

Floors: My preference for family friendly flooring is laminate, but wood, tile, and vinyl are also good options. If you want to add an area rug, consider one of those that are manufactured for outdoor living spaces. They come in hundreds of beautiful designs (one example is below), but when these get dirty you just drag them outside and hose them off. How simple is that? If you are intent on having wall to wall carpeting, keep the pile low and tight for easier cleaning.

 

                                   

 

Furniture: This may seem counter-intuitive, but buy the best you can afford. High quality sofas, loveseats, and chairs are made with kiln-dried hardwoods that are screwed, glued, cornerblocked, and 8-way hand tied. What does that mean? It means they will hold up to even the most rambunctious of children. Cheaper seating will end up in the landfill before your child even graduates from kindergarten. As for what to cover it with? Microfiber (shown below), leather, or denim are top choices. Two newer options are Sunbrella and Crypton. Sunbrella was originally designed for outdoor use, but its durability is perfect for indoor family use. Crypton was designed for use in medical facilities, but is now available through designers for home use. You honestly cannot get anything more durable than that.

 

                      

 

Accessories: Families with children should always observe the "four feet rule":  anything delicate, breakable, or of sentimental value should be placed four feet off the floor or higher. The theory is, by the time your offspring can reach that high, they are old enough to respect the objects and not break them.  Lofty goal, huh? Also integrate lots of storage into your design plans. Children generate loads of clutter between their toys, games, and schoolwork. Provide baskets, bins, and cubbies to contain the messes. I love storage ottomans (photo above) for the sheer volume of stuff you can hide in them!

 

Metallic Finishes:  To add some design interest to all the natural textures, incorporate some metallic finishes into the family room. Metallics can be found in lighting, artwork, and accessories. Not only do they add an attractive glow to the room, they are unbreakable, which is always a plus with kids around.

 

                 

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle is the mantra of the green movement and those principles integrate perfectly into family friendly design:

 

Reduce: We are a consumption-based society, and fill our homes with much more "stuff" than we really need. I encourage you all to buy quality and not quantity. Commit to reducing the number of items you purchase, and instead invest in a few classics that will last forever. That $500 sofa may seem like a bargain, but it will end up costing you more in the long run because it will need to be replaced sooner than a quality piece of furniture.  When it comes to accessorizing, choose something you love, something substantial, and not a jumble of useless clutter.

 

                          
 

Reuse: Before you get rid of something, think about whether you can reuse it in a different room or for a different purpose. After my chandelier crashed onto the top of my glass dining room table, I re-purposed the base as a console table instead of throwing it away. When I got a larger television, my living room entertainment armoire got moved into a bedroom for extra storage. If you can't find a new place for something in your own home, consider donating it to Goodwill or the Salvation Army or post it on Craigslist or Freecycle . Remember, one person's trash is another person's treasure.

 

                                      

 

Recycle: Recycling home products is a new but growing industry. Did you know that each year, roughly 2.5 million tons of waste carpet reaches landfills in the US? This accounts for almost 3% of total landfill space. When it is time to replace your wall to wall carpeting make sure your supplier can haul the old carpet to a recycling center. Recycled carpet by-products can be used for the manufacture of new carpeting, carpet padding, building products, and resins for the plastics industry. The over one million square feet of carpet that was just removed from the Charlotte Convention Center is now powering an industrial plant in South Carolina!