So, you've decided that having kids doesn't mean giving up on style. You are determined that yours will not become one of those living rooms that look like a Fisher Price liquidation sale, dominated by Disney pink and Thomas the Tank Engine blue. But you also know that you don't want your living room to be, well, un-livable. You refuse to live in fear of your precious, breakable coffee table (not to mention your toddler's precious, breakable head).
So, you make some sensible (but not style-numbing) compromises:
- Coffee table with rounded edges. Check.
- Discrete, tasteful toy bins. Check.
- Lamps and ceramics on a high shelf. Check.
But what about the upholstered furniture? What about that sofa and the armchairs? You give up, deciding that the beige Pottery Barn couch from your husband's bachelor days will suffice until the kids grow up. You consider a slipcover.
No. There is another way. Or so says Liz Levin, a young, Washington, DC-based interior designer.
In 2009, Levin launched Nesting, an online resource and shop for people who believe that having kids (or pets) does not mean giving up on style. On the site, you can purchase carefully selected stain-resistant upholstery and "corner-free" tables. Levin also offers a la carte design services (from a $25 phone consultation with a design "nestpert" to a $500 comprehensive room design plan).
I spoke with Levin to find out what she recommends for kid-friendly (but not adult-repellent) upholstery.
"Upholstery stains are what people worry about most when it comes to kids and entertaining; they are so hard to clean on your own," Levin explains. "I eat on my sofa almost every night of the week with my husband. He drops a meatball or my daughter's yogurt tube squirts a geyser and it's all back to happy with a little paper towel action." How does she do it?
For kid-friendly, pet-friendly and drunk-red-wine-drinker-friendly furniture Liz comes armed with a trio of go-to fabric options:
• Sensuede. It is soft like suede and pretty indestructible as far as fabrics go, Liz says. A mild dish liquid with damp paper towel will clean most spills. And it is environmentally friendly, to boot.• Outdoor fabrics (for inside). Many designer, to the trade brands have an outdoor line that aren't all stiff like the original Sunbrella fabrics. This new generation of fabrics allows you to live worry-free: "food and wine bounce off these babies," Levin says. Among Levin's 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. Donghia also has a good outdoor line of fabrics with deep colors that Levin has used on indoor sofas.
• Vinyl. Yes, that's right: vinyl. Levin insists there are some supple and textured vinyls out there. "My favorite has an ostrich skin pattern, which adds texture and interest. And we're currently working on a white vinyl bench seat for a banquette in a home with two young boys and high style kitchen 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 Room and Board that has normal, low-tech fabric? Or what if you want to keep the couch you love but are worried it will be destroyed? "Nanotex it," Levin says, sounding a little like a decorating superhero. Apparently, Nanotex adds super stain fighting powers to any fabric. You can even get a durablock lining that makes fabric impervious to liquid penetration. And, as you probably already know, ultra suede and leather are also sensible and stylish choices for families, as are synthetic blends in darker colors.
But no matter what kind of fabric you have on your couches and chairs, my advice is that you make your kids eat in the kitchen. It's smart on so many levels. And, most importantly, find every single Sharpie in your home and put it in a lockbox on a very high shelf. Now.
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Comments (29)
I don't get the whole "living in fear" thing. First, is it so hard to eat and drink in the kitchen or dining room? I let my kid eat popcorn or something like that on the couch at the most and I have charcoal chenille ethan allen couches that were not cheap. Luckily the fabric is protected because i can tell you that it wasn't my toddler that spilled a glass of red wine on it!
labchick: Catrin here. I know what you mean. I actually have totally UN-kid-friendly fabrics in my living room and they are doing fine. But I also have some strict rules: No food outside the kitchen and shoes off at the front door. And all markers/painting/arts& crafts are done in the basement. So I actually don't really live in fear at all. But I know a lot of parents who are pretty freaked out by the fact that I have a white couch and some grey linen armchairs. I think it is harder if you have only one big room that serves as family room/TV room/living room. We have a townhouse so we can have a formal space in addition to a play space. If I were in an NYC apartment I might be more likely to use kid-friendly fabrics...Who knows...
But for those who do live in fear: it is nice to know there are more options beyond slipcovers.
not all kids listen and only eat at the table- so the whole discipline your child and only allow food in the kitchen/dining room doesn't always apply. i have a 3 year old son on the autism spectrum who doesn't always follow direction-he likes to eat on the couch in our open living/dining room, i try to keep him at the table but he can climb out of his highchair easily and eats most of his snacks on the couch or at the coffee table. so our chocolate brown microfiber sofas have taken a beating! the cushion covers come clean in the wash but the arms definitely show wear from all the spot cleaning after only 3 years!
we will be looking to get a new sofa in the next year and move these to the basement, and are debating over leather/vinyl and slipcovers.
When I first saw the post, I thought you were going to do restoration on something with a Sharpie because I actually did this with an old Persian rug. It had faded, changed, and looked damaged and awful on one side because of a number of spills that had happened on the same spot & cleaning efforts that only made things worse.
After deciding that the rug couldn't look any more ruined than it did, and was worth saving if possible, I took my set of multi-colored sharpies, found the colors that most approximated the colors on the undamaged portion of the rug, and began applying the appropriate hue to each of the compromised areas/shapes. I did it carefully & gently, & learned that the fibers were easily taking in the color and then looking like they had always been that way. By the time I finished, the rug looked much like it had before all the spills happened. You would never know that it had been so compromised; it has its symmetry, its shapes & its colors back and looks great.
Heck, I'm still pregnant and I've already banished all of the Sharpies and pens to the cupboard over the fridge! :P
@ Mr.Modtonic lol.
Pretty much all toy bins are "discrete" so the correct word for this context is "discreet"...
@mei-ling - My old boss had your exact story, but at her first job as a teenager in an antiques/restoration store. A customer came in with her fading oriental rug, was told an expert color matcher would use all natural dyes to restore it, and when she left, he handed my boss a handful of Sharpies and said "do your best." She was shocked! And I'm sure the customer was charged an arm and a leg.
Much like duct tape, so much can be salvaged with a Sharpie! Or, permanently destroyed...
I grew up with normal fabric, and the couch is fine, I'm sitting on it now, 21 years later.
Excellent post. I'm all for "used and rules." We use a craigslist-found Danish teak table for dining--stylish, but not too precious given its very reasonable price tag. Teak oil every now and then brings out its luster despite the spills, dings, and constant wiping down. The same is true for our living room coffee table--found at a thrift shop, but gorgeous wood with nifty brass accents and handy drawers for storing all the little toys that migrate. Older Persian/Oriental rugs have proven their mettle and are extremely durable.
That being said, we do have a linen (slip-covered) sofa, so we do have rules: we take off our shoes when entering our home; wash our hands when coming in from the outside; milk and juice only in the kitchen, water is OK everywhere else; food that can easily vacuumed OK in the family/playroom. Our home is definitely not a museum--nor do I want it to be; but it is a home, and not a toy store.
Let's be real: the food does not stay in the kitchen/dining room and all it takes is a pen snatched from mommy's work bag to ruin a nice sofa (it happened to me - several times). Or god forbid, your kid gets a a hankering for writing on the wall. Some things are just par for the course when you have kids. If you can't scrub it out/off, then you will learn to live with it.
Wow, as a child it *never* occurred to me to eat outside of the dining or breakfast room, unless it was a party, in which case the kids sat at the card table specifically made up for eating. And we had white couches in the formal living room. BUT, I remember taking a red sharpie to a red parsons side table once (thinking I was so clever because then my drawings would be camouflaged). I grew up in the era of spanking, and nothing generally gets past my mom, but for some reason, I never got punished for that! (Must call and ask if she remembers!)
I grew up in the era of spanking too. My brother & I still broke things. A lot. We have all the various food, shoes, and art supply rules. My oldest child has disabilities and my youngest vomits if the wind blows the wrong way. It's led to more than a few destroyed items. All the rules in the world can't prevent that.
I furnish with thrifted pieces that can be repainted/restained. I slipcover or reupholster in Crypton fabrics. I put anything I really care about in storage. In about 10 years, I can furnish my home the way I want.
Silver State's got a LOT of beautiful fabrics, and most of them are nanotechnology-treated. Here's an example: http://upholsteryjournalmag.com/articles/1009_np2_textural.html Search "SilverState" for more.
Also, we ran an article a while ago on nanotechnology treatments for upholstery: http://upholsteryjournalmag.com/articles/0209_f2_nano.html
Hope that helps anyone out there thinking about these options!
I'm living the white living room dream courtesy of Ikea Karlstad. If something spills, I just bleach it.
We have a sage-green cotton twill upholstered sofa. The cushion covers have been through the wash at least a dozen times and held up just fine. Our three year old is allowed to have dry snacks (cheerios, raisins, etc) and drinks in sippy cups on the couch, and all other foods get eaten at the table.
Oh, and all drawing instruments are carefully hidden away! Washable pens only, sharpies don't even exist as far as he's concerned.
the only nod I have to childproofing my furniture is that we upholstered our (solid wood) slab cocktail table with chalk cloth. The sharp edges + a toddler....i hedged there. And the chalk cloth? well that's just fun.
But I'm really blase about thing like that. Furniture is there to be used and if at the end it looks used, well, then it served its purpose.
@ Home Body: Oh my God! That's so interesting - thanks for passing the story on.
leather has been my answer to this problem. we do enforce a relatively strict eating at the dining table rule and we do have an open floor plan so that certainly makes it easier. but the new leather karlstad from ikea has been a dream (minus the cheap looking blocky feet that need to be replaced with something sleaker) and is far better quality than i could have expected for $900. and our ebay persian rug from 8 years ago (which is who knows how old) has held up incredibly well too. plus the millions of colors and very busy pattern hides anything that might actually have stained it after all these years, particularly red wine :)
sleeker, doh.
This subject reminds me of something that happened when my son was about 5 or 6. I had let him and his best friend (girl) play in the basement, while i napped. (I know, I know!) Well, they decided to come up to the living room and "wax" the floors... with baby oil, also getting a hughe arc (spray) on the wall. I had to laugh it off, they thought they were being helpful, and I had no business "napping". The only way to cover the oil stain on the wall was to paint it. I painted my living room a lot back then anyway(orange, yes orange,red,it was the 70's)so it was no big deal. Children are like a box of chocolates, you never know.....
@ Mr.Modtonic Growing up, our family never worried about cups on tables, because my dad made all of the furniture in our home and put a coat of polyurethane on all of the furniture with surfaces. Well, when I made my first pice of furniture, my brother visited, set a cup on the table, and the surface was completely ruined. After that, I had to refinish the table, and while I was at it, protected all of the other tables with polyurethane. It's kinda awesome now when people ask me if they should use a coaster, and I tell them not to worry about it. :)
*piece* of furniture :)
"Children are like a box of chocolates, you never know....."
Great quote.
@ ArtsyGirl: As I read your story I can only laugh because I remember doing a similar thing when I was about 7. My mom was always a neat freak growing up (with 3 kids!) god bless her soul. She was also a lover of antiques. Saturday mornings were 'big cleaning days' at our house and while she was off probably scrubbing the kitchen floor I decided to clean her 1800's antique dresser with... wait for it... windex. I remember when she found me she started crying. More like sobbing. All I could do was apologize repeatedly while she polished it with Old English and explained through tears that I was 'only trying to help.' She was able to save it but it was never the same. I now have the beautiful piece and I'll never forget that story. I don't know what I'm going to do when I have kids. Maybe I'll go insane. But I think it's safe to say that when I do, lamps will be broken, family heirlooms will be shattered and tears will be shed. But the most important thing to remember is that they're just things and s*!t happens.
My 3 yr old daughter took a Sharpie to her newly painted walls yesterday- I still want to cry. I mean, it took 2 coats of primer, 3 coats of paint and me harassing hubby for days to get it done- ONE DAY it was painted. ONE DAY! Now it looks like Picasso on acid in there. Gah. So much for letting hubby watch her while I go do groceries. (side note- the same day, same dad watching, she managed to "give kitty a haircut". Our super fluffy cat is now a mangled wreck who hides in shame).
We have chocolate brown microsuede couches we LURVE. EVERYTHING cleans up off of them, which is good- we have 3 adults (my bro in law lives with us), 2 kids ages 3 and 8, 2 dogs (Labs), and 3 cats. A LOT of stuff gets spilled, especially since our dining room living room are together, and hubby refuses to eat at a table. Our choco lab tends to clean up most of the messes, but I have a handy dandy Little Green steam cleaner- it tackles every single mess out there. But, even if a small stain is left behind, you can't see it on the darn brown... you also sit on our dogs a lot as they really blend in!
We have a table with square corners-- it was never an issue with our kids. We never really baby proofed our home at all-- and we never had any issues beyond yesterdays Sharpie incident. No broken stuff (maybe a mug here and there?), no wrecked upholstery (maybe a spilled medicine stain on bedding)...
Our dining table top is (Ikea Jokkmokk set) painted with chalkboard paint-- the kids can doodle during dinner, when I'm cooking, etc. I painted the front of our fridge with whiteboard paint, and they draw on there with abandon. and no, they have never drawn on anyone elses fridge or dining table!
LEt kids be kids, be realistic about the messes involved, and there shouldn't be an issue. Oh, I also use under the bed storage bins (wicker ones) for toys under the couch. Looks chic, hides messes, lightening fast clean up when I see my mother in law pull into the driveway at 7 am some mornings. LOL
I visited a young family, placing my bag on the mantel out of reach of their boy toddlers, I thought. They pulled it down by the strap when we adults left the room. Before we returned, they'd decorated themselves and the living room with my lipstick. We were relieved that they hadn't taken my pills, instead.
we have three children who are now 17, 15 and 9. No matter how tough you are, they are going to spill something, somehow, somewhere. I have a Hans Wegner Chairs upholstered in white vinyl - has worked well for 17 years. I also have a very light tan upholstered sofa - in nothing special. It all works out and actually the condition of your upholstery will not be a major concern as look for colleges and dodge many of lifes bullets
Okay, I have a question about the statement in the article, "Nanotex it." That sounds like you can apply it to regular fabrics, but I thought it was IN the fibers so it would involve reupholstering the piece. More info please!