Seeking Lavender Lane

Feb

24

How to Keep a Beautiful Home with Kids

Don’t give up on a beautiful home just because you have kids!

It is no secret that keeping a pretty home is so much harder with kids. There is always more messes, questionable sticky marks on the floor, the never ending supply of Magic Erasers, and of course random leggos and doll shoes hanging around on stairways, bathroom sinks, and under couches. As parents we struggle harder to keep our houses clean and organized and sometimes want to give up on all of it. Love my kids, but hate their messes.

I find one of the hardest parts to keeping my house “pretty” is the organization of their toys and belongings. There is nothing like having a bright red ball sitting in a room when you have grey painted walls and white furniture. Lucky for the ones that have basements to hide all this non-appealing endless supply of TOYS in. For this lady…I have not one extra inch of space to keep the kids stuff after shoving most of it into their bedroom closets.

SO, I had to learn to live with it! And there is only one way to do that….use their belongings as part of the room and hide what is not appealing in decorative storage spaces that will work with your house. I promise, it is possible!

Here is what I’ve done in my home…this is the main area that I store their toys besides their bedrooms and I found smart ways to conceal their toys or use them as part of the decoration.

How to Keep a Beautiful Home with Kids

Mxing Kids toys in pretty spaces.

Above is a new/old table for the kids. The hubby found this Pottery Barn Kids Table on the side of the road last week. Eek can you believe it?! I know I was thrilled to see four legs pulling into the driveway on the roof of his care last week. He knows what woos me! I painted the top with chalk paint, and cleaned up the chairs…like brand new! The table matches our decor in this space and it is a great place the kids can play and do projects. By adding decorative accessories to the table it helps to keep the table sophisticated to fit within this space.

 
 
Since the kids love using their new table to do crafts and coloring. I decided to add a hidden storage spot for their crayons to make it easy to grab, yet pretty for me!

These boxes above are a RH Book Knock off that I created. I will post how I did this at another time, but these look fabulous on this grey top table.

And ready for coloring time!
The above photo is concealing tons of toys, but you can definitely see one toy peaking out from the corner of this photo.

 I love decorative pillows just because they add a cozy feeling to the room, but they are also great to use when you get that unwanted stain on your couch. My kids don’t hesitate to destroy the couches. I have stains no matter how many times I clean them. I have to say it is not their fault, I am the one that loves light colored fabric couches. So in this case when I do get a stain, I just add a pillow or throw blanket to cover it up the best I can. This couch is not too bad since the kids rarely watch TV in this room, mainly the couch and chair in our family room are usually being covered by throws and pillows.  Though they have slipcovers on, the stains still do not come out that well in the wash…and it does take a lot of work taking those covers off, washing, drying, and then putting them back on…phew!

Here is that big red blob that was in the corner of my other photo. It’s quite the rocker from Ikea that my kids love to play on. Something they have not yet to grow out of and I can get rid of at a yard sale. Since they use it often, I just tuck it away on the side of the couch. It is visible (since it’s BRIGHT RED), but when you first enter the room you can not really notice it. Also see that toy hanging out under the couch? Yea..that’s a gigantic floor keyboard the kids got from their grandparents on Christmas. It is easy to store this away right under the couch and can be taken out to play when they want. See…a spot for everything!
Matching Kids toys with Adult furniture

The above photo you can see just about the entire room here. The color of the table matches so nicely with the rest of the decor in here. If I had bought a primary colored table and put in this same spot, this would definitely make the room clash. At first sight you may not even realize it is a kids table. I just love how it all blends together. The table may be temporary, but it still needs to fit within the space to keep it feeling my kind of pretty in here. 

Can you guess where the other toys are in this room? I swear they are here…
Smart storage solutions for toys

Yep those drawers in our TV stand are filled with coloring books, puzzles, and activity books for the kids. Since it is so low for them, they can easily grab what they need.

Decorative Storage Solutions
My bookcase I bet you thought was filled with books or decorative accessories…nope just some more Kids storage. 
The bookcase is close enough to our front door that I can store our winter accessories in this basket. Found this adorable basket at Target last month and thought it was a perfect solution to keep all of the winter hats and gloves together.
 
See I promised it would be possible to still have kids toys hanging around without creating clutter. We can still have our adult home and places for our kids to play. We are not all fortunate to have that extra room to have a playroom, or a basement space to store all the toys. I just wanted to show how I made it possible in my home and you can too. 
Organizing-2BToys-2Bwith-2BLabel
 
Now for keeping those floors clean and not tripping on the toy car going down the stairs….yea I have no answers for that haha. I think the best way to think of it is that one day there wont be those little toys hanging around the house and we as parents are going to miss it like crazy. So embrace the mess sometimes, but finding smart solutions to storing and hiding messes will keep your sanity when guests come over and your having a selfish adult moment ; )

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Hi! I'm Deb

I love a well designed home and I believe you can create this on every type of budget. Follow along here and join me for more seasonal inspiration, trend alerts, DIY , vintage styling, and our newest project, The Mountain Chateau.

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44 Responses

  1. I so believe in stuff like this. We’re still getting it together here, but I like for things to have a place, while also being functional and not too obvious. Right now, in the living room, we have an old wooden storage basin that houses Baby Boy’s toys, right behind the couch. It’s such a great feeling when a room’s all put together and happy! 🙂

  2. I love your tips! I’m a SAHM of 2 boys (2 yrs and 5 yrs) and I babysit my sweet 4 year old neighbor during the week. I feel like my house is always a wreck no matter how much I clean, but you’ve given me some ideas for getting more creative with organizing and hiding the toys :).

    1. Thanks so much Shelley! Oh it is so true though isn’t it?! As much as we complain about having all the toys everywhere and the messes the kids can make, I know one day I will be wishing for these days back again.

  3. Love it! And that round clock table…I saw a similar one in a vintage store near my home and I’m always kicking myself that I never bought it…even more so, now that I see how cute it looks in your living room!

  4. Great tips … I love baskets for a quick tidy up of the kids toys. Your decorative book boxes are great. I have some but not keen on the colour … please share a “how to” 🙂

    1. Hi Jane thanks so much! Just shared today how I updated those book boxes. So easy and just a perfect way to hide those crayons!

  5. awesome post and beautiful home!! I found one of those tables and chalk painted it as well! I think we are kindred spirits lol. Thank you for linking up to Pin Worthy Wednesday you will be featured this week!

    1. Thanks so much Keitha! So excited to be featured : ) Oh I hope you shared your table, I would love to see how yours turned out too!

  6. Such great ideas! I’m struggling with the toys EVERYWHERE as my toddler grows. Especially when the little kiddos toys are totally primary colors! Yikes. I need to get cuter baskets with lids and storage bins for her toys. Thanks for sharing!

  7. First off, your living room is gorgeous! Second, I don’t have kids, but yet I have a hard time keeping things tidy with pets–and a husband who has lots of toys 😉 Your tips are great! Thank you for sharing at Merry Monday!

    1. Thanks so much Amanda! So sweet of you : )
      Yes, hubbys are messy too lol. We do not have a pet yet, but I know once we do it will get messier. I’ll need baskets for pet toys too!

  8. Another one here with a messy house. My boys are 9, 7, 5 and 2 and I love them to bits but they mess the place up faster than I can clean up! Your house is really beautiful. This is now my aim!

  9. Hi! Where did you purchase the stencils used for the clock on the table? Love yours so so much! I’m going to do my outdated country oak dining table like yours!

    Thanks in advance!

    Pamela Bennett
    Southern California

    1. Thanks Pam, that’s so exciting! I actually made the stencils myself by printing out the letters and tracing them on card stock. I am sure there are stencils out there though to make this easier. : )

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