Not posted before although I've been lurking for a while and could do with a bit of advice from some experienced parents/carers.

I'm planning on extending my house and gutting and redesigning the existing structure. Although I know that I want to end up with a three bed house with an extended kitchen, I'm not set on any particular design - I'm meeting up with an architect on Sunday who I expect will make suggestions.

What I'd be interested to know from you guys is - if you were able to design a house from scratch, what child friendly features would you include. I have a 9 month old daughter and would expect her (and maybe another little bambino) to grow up in this house. At the moment it's important to have no steps to the entrance, large enough hallway to house a buggy etc. but wondered if anyone had any suggestions.

Thanks in advance

:thumbsup:

Can't think of anything at the moment, just wanted to say welcome to the parenting group !!

I'm just jealous :)

Give me a bit of time and I'll imagine what I would do if I had such a luxurious option...things like two living rooms downstairs...one to play in, one for adults only.

Welcome to Parenting, by the way!

Aw, thanks guys.

I know- I'm so lucky and want to get it right first time!!!

A downstairs toilet, we find ours especially useful if out in garden as ours is just off the utulity room at the back of the house. Dont have to trudge grass cuttings or sludge upstairs or take shoes off to nip to loo.

Internal doors with safety glass or no glass. We have moved to a house where all internal doors downs stairs contain small paynes of quite thin glass. I am now expecting and we have lots of friends around with their little one and I paranoid that an slammed door is going to result in broken glass and a horrible accident. Going to have to replace them as soon as I can afford it or at least board them up and paint over them.

sue you can get sticky safety film that goes over the glass so you get to keep the light and the glass is safe if broken.

We specifically searched for a house with an extra downstairs room, so we could have a playroom for our twins. It's the best thing we ever did and I'd heartily recommend it. We also have a downstairs loo which helps with the potty training.
The only thing I would like but do not have, is a small room or out of view area for the colossal amount of washing generated, so a utility room, within easy view of the playroom would be my absolute ideal and furthermore, if the playroom led directly onto the garden, that would be even better. Which would mean I could restrict the kids, whilst at the truly messy stage, to the playroom, garden, downstairs loo and kitchen. I could do laundry whilst still supervising and cook too.

A big padded room full of soft adventure play blocks.








For mum and dad to go and bang their heads in :D

But failing that, lots and lots of big cupboards to store all the grot and dangerous/delicate stuff and prams and whatnot in. Non-steep stairs. A nice big garden with lots of grass to play on...

Thanks for the tip about the film for the glass, I will have a look for some.

An open plan kitchen diner with an extending table for dinner parties which the rest of the time goes smaller to make room for a play area (ideally with a sofa or soft seats for you) and toys, play mat, play pen, high chair, tv (if you like) and a wipe clean floor, and a protective cover for the table so it can be bashed, painted on etc. This way they can play whilst you cook, tidy away the pots, do all the other million things that seem to need doing in the kitchen etc You can keep an eye on them, and when they are small they are happy they can see you but you can get on with chores. This then becomes a family room, and a room for when other children come to play/for tea and you keep the living room for adult stuff or less messy play. If entertaining you shove all the toys away and take the table cover off and voila a dining room returns-hence its dual purpose. Lots of people I know have this arrangement and it works brilliantly. Doors out to the garden to some decking from this room is also nice. We also find our utility fab for baskets of washing, big fridge, dogs bed/food, and have recently added a ceiling laundry airer to dry the mounds of washing!!

If i were redesigning my kitchen i would put in a central island in the kitchen with the sink and cooker in it so as i could face the table whilst cooking. That way i could talk to the kids whilst cooking and keep them entertained it always seems to be the time when they want me.

An open plan kitchen diner with an extending table for dinner parties which the rest of the time goes smaller to make room for a play area (ideally with a sofa or soft seats for you) and toys, play mat, play pen, high chair, tv (if you like) and a wipe clean floor, and a protective cover for the table so it can be bashed, painted on etc. This way they can play whilst you cook, tidy away the pots, do all the other million things that seem to need doing in the kitchen etc You can keep an eye on them, and when they are small they are happy they can see you but you can get on with chores. This then becomes a family room, and a room for when other children come to play/for tea and you keep the living room for adult stuff or less messy play. If entertaining you shove all the toys away and take the table cover off and voila a dining room returns-hence its dual purpose. Lots of people I know have this arrangement and it works brilliantly. Doors out to the garden to some decking from this room is also nice. We also find our utility fab for baskets of washing, big fridge, dogs bed/food, and have recently added a ceiling laundry airer to dry the mounds of washing!!


Sounds fab and what I would like. I hate not being able to see what my DD is upto when I'm cooking and have to have faith that she's not up to mischief - which she usually is!

When you're considering your kitchen design it might be an idea to think about having a built-in oven that's high enough out of reach of little hands (and one that has a triple glazed door so it doesn't get as hot to touch).

I wish I had a utility too! A downstairs loo is such a help with little one's too. Think about where you'll put the electricity sockets so you have as few as possible that are accessible to little one's. A hardwearing and waterproof flooring. DON'T whatever you do make the mistake I have and have black gloss kitchen cabinet doors - total nightmare!

If you've got the space a playroom is great, we had a conservatory built on and use that as a playroom. If you don't think you'll have the space, maybe built-in cupboards so that you have plenty of storage for toys and things so you can sometimes make the place tidy :hihi: I think I need a spare house for all babybonny's stuff!

I would have loved to have had a 'breakfast bar' so that babybonny could work/play much closer to me. He loves to help, especially with pastry rolling so having room for us to work side by side would be great. You could set the breakfast bar so that it's lower and therefore more accessible to little one's for a few years and then maybe have it planned so you could raise the hight if you wanted to later on?

Windows - you want to be able to open them but also make sure they're safe. Ours aren't ideal at the moment and they're on the 'to do' list. I've found our 'stable door' pretty useful too.

Thanks everyone. These suggestions have been really useful and have given me loads to think about.