Our Favorite Kid Friendly Fabrics
Starting a family changes our lives in an enormous way, no doubt. Changing the way we live in our homes is just another adjustment that must be made. This is not to say you have to give up on style. Why settle for a space that looks more like the Disney Store vomited all over your living room, than a home. Well folks, you don’t have to! Seriously. We’ve created a short list of our favorite kid friendly fabrics.
So you’ve made a few of the necessary adjustments such as; a coffee table with rounded edges and you put away any breakable items or items that could fall on your child’s head. You have also mounted any bookcases or heavy furniture to the wall so that they cannot be pulled on top of your little ones. That is a great start and safety is always the number one priority. However, we are here to give you a few ideas on how to have a kid friendly home and make it the stylish digs you never (really) wanted to give up.
A great place to start is with the room the family spends most of their time in, the living room. What about the upholstered furniture? The sofa and chairs, the rugs you ask. We have walked into so many homes where the clients have just simply given up. They have kept the old sofa they bought when they first got married, or even worse from the pre-marriage days, and we all can imagine what that might look or smell like. Yuck! They apply a slipcover to hide the already set in stains from who knows what. Well, we are here to tell you that there is another way.
When it comes to upholstery there are so many wonderful stain resistant and kid, pet, and the occasional “oops there goes the red wine again” friendly fabrics on the market today. Here is a trio of our go-to fabric options:
Sensuede. This high-performance fabric is soft like suede and almost indestructible. It is super durable, fade-resistant, washable and can be dry-cleaned. Sensuede is inherently resistant to spills and stains all while being breathable, hypoallergenic, and anti-static. It is also Animal-friendly and doesn’t absorb pet odors. Its non-woven structure makes it resistant to scratching, fraying and pilling. Plus it’s environmentally friendly too! Needless to say, this is a true “work-horse” of a fabric.
Indoor/Outdoor Fabrics. Many designer fabric brands have an indoor/outdoor line that aren’t all stiff like the original Sunbrella fabrics, although Sunbrella has come a long way since it first came on the market. They now have many fabrics that are much more plush than their original counterparts. This new generation of fabrics allows you to live worry-free: food and wine bounce right off these suckers. Among our favorite brands are Perennials and Holly Hunt, which carries a range of outdoor options, including velvet and terry. Outdoor fabrics not only resist wet stains and fading, but often can be cleaned with bleach.
Vinyl. Yes, that’s right: vinyl. There are some supple and textured vinyls out in the market now. Our favorite (as of today) is a Joseph Noble vinyl with a modern interpretation of a starburst pattern called Sound, patterned vinyl adds texture and interest and most of the time you can’t even tell it’s vinyl at first look. We just recently used it on a bench seat for a banquette in a home with three young kids in a high style home renovation. When it comes to cleaning, vinyl is unbeatable, one wipe and you are good to go. Sensuede and the outdoor fabrics, however, will require a tad more than just a wipe because they are more absorbent, albeit still stain resistant.
But what if you have fallen in love with a couch at Restoration Hardware that has normal, low-tech fabric? Or what if you want to keep the couch you love but are worried it will be destroyed? And what about decorative area rugs? MicroSeal it! MicroSeal adds super stain fighting powers to any fabric and even area rugs. It is a permanent fabric protector that has been used in the Aerospace industry for the past 25 years. This protective coating seals all fabrics and rugs without altering the texture or color. MicroSeal also offers permanent stain, sun-fade (nearly 100%), and wear resistance. The product is safe for your children and pets to be around as well. There are no fluorochemicals and it is California VOC compliant. And, as you probably already know, ultrasuede and leather are also sensible and stylish choices for families, as are synthetic blends in darker colors.
For a MicroSeal demo on an oriental rug and on fabric watch these short videos!
We’d be happy to help with your kid friendly renovation!
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