For an enjoyable family home, just add kids

Kya deLongchamps encourages us to live fully, and thrive in stylish, practical surroundings that can be enjoyed by the whole family from zero right up to 100.

I had just banged a couple of feather filled cushions to attention, tenderly plucking their ears into pert corners.

The ten year lofted lightly into the air, landing like a plump kitten and wriggling to luxuriant comfort in the yielding linen. I audibly groaned.

Clearly, after years of being gated off, yelled at, chased down corridors and prohibited entry — the kid had had enough.

She leapt from the chair, fists balled and screeched loud enough for Child Protective Services in the US to hear — ‘hey! It’s my home too!’

It’s confronting to discover that you are determinedly barring your bundle of chaos away from entire areas of the house. Why not offer everyone a home of real inter-generational inclusiveness?

Every living space is a good room

But that should mean- it’s good for everyone. Having children hovering on the threshold of the ‘front room’ sets up more than physical boundaries.

For everyday spaces think vomit and paint, for everywhere else- be reasonable.

Silk sofas? Glass reliquaries of ornaments at waist level? Really?

Box up the precious breakables and bring them out in a decade or so. Clean, casual, pared down contemporary looks great on a family house.

Open plan with clean white walls and pale flooring is popular because it simply looks great.You can scatter colourful accessories over this territory, changing it up and down for decades.

More importantly it offers open, loving mingling plus covert supervision of younger children.

Ensure you reserve some ‘officer country’ to retreat to upstairs. Family life soon makes you realise that the devils is in the detail.

Yes, it does matter where they hang their coats after school.

If two six years old who grate on each other are forced to share a room- it can create domestic warfare that would make Napoleon run for cover.

An architect may be able to rework the floor-plan if things are simply not working for you and yours at all. Find a firm for an initial meeting at riai.ie.

Go Durable

Wipe down and washable from the paintwork on the skirting to the covers on the furniture- once the essentials of child-proofing are covered- the surroundings need to be set up to take the day-to-day strain.

Keeping in mind that carpet will be the dirtiest most allergenic thing in your house if you choose it- there are superb flooring choices including wood planking (softer to temples than ceramic) rubber sheeting, Marmoleum and and a cinch to instal.

Ensure there’s a good key to the bathroom floor. Paint- washable matt and soft sheens every time, from €10 per litre for pure white in a low VOC product.

Fabrics of life

If you say ‘ah-ah’ to clean fingered toddlers when they go to touch the fabrics at a showroom, then leave them there (the products please not the children).

Leather and many woven natural materials with a hint of synthetic for durability are ideal for the rough and tumble of yoghurt pitching babies and teens slinging their muddle cleats up on the ottoman.

Velvet is remarkably tough and looks good even with a bit of a rub. Heavy cotton washes well even at 30C.

Invest in a second set of covers for the main family sofa and chairs. Add at least 20% of synthetic to your wool carpet for economy, and stick to darker colours in a medium tuft (no loops or twists).

Scotch Guard the surface if you must, keeping in mind it is a heavy chemical loading for young crawlers.

PG furnishings

Yes, things should fit the bill (or Bella) but don’t be seduced into ‘toddler’ sized pieces such as IKEA Stuva, that will be shoring up the land-fill within three years. If standard sizes adapt to youngsters needs- choose them first.

Scandinavian designs that ‘grow’ with your child using a system of extending legs and pegs can go some way towards solving the problem, but come at a premium.

The Flexa range is my favourite, and their height adjustable Junior chair from €139 (very mid-century) is a classic. Flexaworld.ie.

Forget the forts, slides, and play house curtains, the single most important piece for every child is a quality mattress with adequate support.

Bullet proof colours

The classic Irish mammy’s directive when decorating ‘

hide the dirt’ doesn’t mean giving leaving grot undercover all over the house, but being less revealing will spare you seeing every spatter the children deal the joint.

Pattern and richer shades are highly forgiving. If you’re looking forward to what’s coming for 2015/2016 then go for a dark chalky blue, gorgeous bounced off white walls, and in concert with the other colour trotting the interior catwalk- bright yellow.

If you love your off-whites, then just dial down to something like a camel where possible in vulnerable surfaces and ensure that pale flooring will take a damp mop.

Colour can have an energising influence in children’s bedrooms, so explore greens, greys and pale primaries before allowing them full throttle on bright shades.

Tidying is pointless

Given this universal truth shared amongst children, it’s up to you to put adult logic on children’s storage.

Age appropriate may mean a simple colour coded plastic trug system for the snifflers, rising to a basket or canvas bag with their name printed on it for teenage laundry.

The shortest, most effortless path to sling-shot something in the direction if not the place it’s going- the better.

With older children, set boundaries and enforce consequences. You’re doing them no favours by suggesting that homes clean themselves.

Plain, boxy, cube storage pieces with blind and open shelving does well in younger and older children’s rooms. The contents dictate the look

In wood they are easily painted up as taste’s change in something like Plastikote sprays, from €14.99 for a solid colour. Divide larger storage pieces internally. Digging to the base of a trunk for a pack of Top Trumps is nothing short of murderous.

Let them put themselves in their place

Never underestimate or ignore individuality. Ask for and listen to their suggestions when re-arranging or decorating- especially their own room.

If you see children gravitating to one place or struggling to perform an activity for lack of room or a surface- do something about it.

It could be a battered but beloved pouffe in the TV room next to a table for board games, or a desk for painting macaroni by your side in the kitchen.

Finally, you will hear a cry from the heart for freedom of expression. Why fight over their repeated request for a magnetic wall mural or a pink shag rug? Is this really a battle you need to win?

We as parents are only borrowing these wonders for a time, so let them fully borrow the house while they are still there.