Designing Homes for Kids’ Safety, Fun and Education

By Bill Primavera

The Home Guru

When I observe all the kid safety features of today’s cars, strollers and homes, I wonder how any of us over the age of 40 ever survived into adulthood.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a toddler in the house, but I knew things had changed significantly when my married daughter told me that we could not put my grandson into the crib or the high chair that she had occupied because they were too dangerous.

Considering that her bed from the time she was a toddler to a teenager was a stenciled antique from the 1840s, made with no thought of safety at all, it’s lucky that my wife and I weren’t arrested for endangering the welfare of a child.

Recently I showed a home that was so heavily protected for child safety that I kept embarrassing myself by not being able to figure out the contraptions meant to stump toddlers. I wasn’t immediately able to open the door to the basement or release a safety gate at the top of the stairs. I noted that there was even a safety lock on the toilet, but fortunately, my clients didn’t ask to use it.  Had I stumbled and fallen, I’m sure my head would have bounced off something soft like a rubber guard along the raised fireplace hearth or a spongy protection on the edge of a chest of drawers. 

Today, parents of young children have a whole new world of products that can ensure their safety from anything that could potentially cause harm, even death. And, after taking care of the safety issues, they can plan a child’s room around fun, education and delightful themes.

When I was a child in the dark ages, my older brother and I shared a room that had only two twin beds, a chair, and one chest of drawers. Not much better than a monastery cell, the room had only one decoration: a picture of two orphans from Boys’ Town in Nebraska, where an older boy is carrying a younger one on his back through the snow, and below is the quote, “He ain’t heavy, Father. He’s my brother.”  For sentiment’s sake, I still have that picture in my room.

This week I was passing the new location of I Luv My Kids, a kids’ furniture store right on the border of Yorktown and Cortlandt on Route 202, and I stopped in to wish the owner Matthew Karabaic good luck. While with him, I asked which safety products are most essential for a home with kids. “There’s no specific thing that is more important than the other,” Karabaic responded. “It’s a combination of everything, depending on whatever might go wrong in any room in the house.” 

While Karabaic specializes in high quality furniture and educational toys, he knew all the safety products from his years in the business, and rattled through them like an inventory list. The first safety device he described was a strap that attaches from a wall to the back of a flat screen TV or any piece of furniture that is likely to tip over. He also shared with me a catalogue with all the other safeguard products such as doorknob covers, cabinet latches, stove guards, microwave locks, refrigerator locks, electric socket covers and guards for folding and sliding closet doors.

“With toilet seat locks, I suggest that homeowners remember to unlock them when expecting company or there can be an embarrassing moment,” he said.

His strongest caution was that safety gates at the top of the stairs should be mounted into the wall, making them more secure than pressure gates. “With pressure gates, there is a bar across the bottom and, no matter how many times you remind yourself, you can easily trip over the bar when the gate is open,” he said.

Once the necessity of safety is addressed, there is a whole new world of adventure today in designing a room for a child, starting with high quality cribs that convert to full size beds, using the back as a headboard and the front as the footboard, adding sidebars and slats that are provided   Beauty can be combined with practicality with multi-use furniture where a loft bed might feature storage for clothes while providing other functions as well.

I was drawn to a large and fantastic piece of furniture called the Play and Study Bed that features a loft bed and, below, a four drawer dresser, steps that each open to double as storage, a full desk and a secret hide and seek playroom under the bed with lights and a bookcase inside where parents can add a rug or even another bed for sleepovers. “I warn parents when they come in that their children are not going to want to leave until they have this!” Karabaic said.  With delivery and assembly, the Play and Study Bed costs $2,700.

To pull together the decorative theme of a child’s room, I Luv My Kids also offers the services of an artist to create hand-painted motifs for walls and furniture, with the artwork patterned after a favorite story, a place or even to match a bedding set.

To know more about planning a home for kids, visit www.Iluvmykids.com. The telephone number for the store is 914-402-5402.

Matthew Karabaic, owner of I Luv My Kids, describes the multi-use features of the Play and Study Bed.  Opened doors lead to a secret hide and seek playroom, complete with lights and a bookcase.

Bill Primavera is a licensed Realtor® (PrimaveraHomes.com), affiliated with Coldwell Banker, and a marketing practitioner (PrimaveraPR.com). Anyone considering selling or buying a home can reach him directly at 914-522-2076.