In 2010 Joy Cho's living room got rockstar treatment from Emily Henderson on her HGTV show, Secrets From A Stylist. The results were gorgeous and decidedly grownup. Within a year, Joy got pregnant, had baby Ruby, and then Ruby started to move. Joy and Emily reunited recently to make the living room safe for Ruby without compromising style.
Some of the challenges confronted by Emily and Joy are perennial concerns discussed by Apartment Therapy readers: can babies coexist with a white couch? A fantastic coffee table? Decorative objects? Sharp corners? The answer: it depends. Some pieces of furniture were non-starters so Emily and Joy found stylish replacements. Goodbye beautiful coffee table, hello giant poufs. Other safety concerns were resolved with childproofing equipment and blocking off danger zones. That white couch? It hadn't weathered Ruby's early days so well, so Emily and Joy chose a gorgeous piece of fabric and had it made into a fitted sheet to slip over the seat cushions.
Check out the complete before and after and get more great ideas at Oh Joy!
(Image: Oh Joy!)
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I don't think we could go so far as to give up our coffee table (we put corner bumpers on it and our son has been fine since) but the candles/ knick nacks on it had to go.
A big misconception of "baby proofing" we quickly came to learn from other parents we met was more "how can i make my house safe so i can do my own thing and not have to worry about my kid or pay much attention to them" Seems obvious, but the parents who were more involved with their kids and played with them/watched them never had to baby proof much beyond the biggies like outlets. The ones who wanted a big sterile bubble were the ones who wanted to have a worry free afternoon sans baby.
jmh26, i dont know if my kids are just more interested in getting into things, or if I have a different definition of playing with them, but before we baby proofed (as in, made it so most of the things that were in reach were ok for them to be playing with), spending time with them consisted of basically telling them to stop doing what they were doing every 10 seconds (big draws included the heating vent on the floor which came up, the blinds, the books that we didnt want ruined, the tv, etc etc)
I suppose we could have kept the coffee table, but ours was a pedestal and I was afraid of one of them pulling it down on the other (it was heavy marble).
now that they are almost a year and a half we see some signs of being able to tell them that things are off limits and have them listen and respect this while we are sitting there, but until this point it was redirection with them going right back to it. rinse. repeat.
Loved this episode!
Where is the post on how to teenage proof your house?
Baby proofing in all irony for us wasn't the problem. Your kids will eventually get used to the given items and know what's off limits and learn to climb stairs. Keeping everything clean by the time there are several kids and they are older is a whole other ball game. I wash our microfiber couch covers ever week (and spot clean daily) and it's not even white so I am amazed at how clean that couch is in the tour even with the new cover.
If you want a good laugh for what a real life house tour with kids is like go to this site: http://crappypictures.com/house-tour-with-amber-of-crappy-pictures/#.T7B59u5H-rQ.facebook
My kids are well beyond the toddler stage now but I really enjoyed this house tour. What a beautiful home! The baby-proofing changes were well thought out. I wish I had switched out my coffee table with something soft like those poufs when my first born began to walk/run. Every time I look at him, I'm reminded of the day his face hit the side of our coffee table. At 14 months, he had to endure 6 stitches. Those ugly foam corner bumpers would not have prevented our trip to the hospital.