Designing Bathrooms for Children

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If you're daunted by the task of making your extra bathroom child-friendly but don't know where to start, here are some practical ideas to implement.

Are you confounded by the dilemma of how to turn that extra bathroom into a space your kids will enjoy using? Are your children on the brink of potty training and you're striving for a more appealing look, in anticipation of the hours you'll both be spending in the bathroom? Are your toddlers at a reach-for-everything stage that makes safety a major concern?

Here are some suggestions for designing fun, functional, and safe bathrooms you and your kids are sure to love.

First the Basics!

"The best way to have a design evolve with a child's interests is to do the difficult things first, by replacing fixtures, cabinets, tile, and mirrors. Keep them neutral, and base your evolving design on the replaceable things like towels, soap dispensers, and art," says Lorain Haynes of Vahleria Concepts, a commercial/residential interior design/decorator firm in Port Orange, Florida. The latter can be a good place to start if you're on a tight budget and can't do it all at once. You can add artistic flair through the use of stencils, wallpaper borders, tile "stickers," and murals to give the bathroom a whimsical, childlike touch.

Keeping It Safe but Child-Friendly

Safety is the number one concern when it comes to designing a bathroom for children. According to recent information published by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in Washington, DC, statistics on household injuries have consistently shown that the bathroom is one of the most hazardous areas in the home. Accidents linked to bathtubs and showering areas are involved in almost 68,000 injuries every year—injuries that are serious enough to warrant treatment in a hospital's emergency room. Toddlers in particular are accident-prone and need to be protected by taking potential hazards into consideration while in the early planning stages.