Are you daunted by the task of making your extra bathroom child-friendly, but don’t know where to start?  Perhaps your child is on the brink of potty training so you’re striving to make the potty room more appealing to your little one (in anticipation of the hours that you’ll both be spending there). Wash away the dated, adult design and shower your family with the following suggestions to create a fun, functional, and safe bathroom suited for the whole family.

Bathroom Basics!

“The best designs should be centered on the child’s interests, and the difficult things should be done first, such as replacing fixtures, cabinets, tile, and mirrors. Keep these components neutral in color and then establish your budding design through easily replaceable things, like towels, soap dispensers, and art,” says Lorain Hayes of Vahleria Concepts, a commercial/residential interior design/decorator firm in Port Orange, FL. These accessories can be a good place to start if you’re on a tight budget and cannot do it all at once. Artistic flair and personal touches can be added through the use of stencils, wallpaper borders, tile decals, and murals.

The Right Restroom Renovation

Kids love to play with water while bathing. For your little girl, enliven the décor with themes of mermaids, flowers, butterflies, or dolls. The theme will be decidedly different for you little fella, as boys tend to have more rugged tastes. Action packed cartoon toys, pirates, shuttles, cars, bikes, and trucks, are some of the most favored toys of boys and can be incorporated throughout the bathroom with accessories. Items that make them dirty during the day can inspire a clean bathing experience!

Designing a bathroom with colored, dim bulbs can add a unique look to its interior.  Fluorescent bulbs with frosted shades are growing in popularity; brighten the space by creating a color scheme with rainbow hues for an absolutely vibrant look. Lighting the bathtubs with illusionary bulbs can also look attractive.

Keeping It Safe, But Child-Friendly

According to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission in Washington, D.C., statistics on household injuries consistently show 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 at a hospital’s emergency room. Toddlers, in particular, are accident-prone and need to be protected by taking potential hazards into consideration during the early planning stages of creating a safe and functional bathroom space.

• Avoid falls ─ Bath surfaces can quickly become wet and slippery, so consider installing special grips that will help ensure your child’s safety when getting in and out of the tub. Products such as the Safe-er-Grip® by Mommy’s Helper can be placed on the tub’s edge or attached to the shower wall. Grips like these help to give a child (or an adult) confidence getting in and out of the tub.  Non-skid tile and mats are a must for the bathroom.
• Scalding accidents ─ Several designs of bath thermometers are available in the form of bath toys to ensure that the water temperature is safe for your baby. Parents should, of course, also manually test the water. Try dipping your elbow into the tub before submerging your child, as your skin’s sensitivity in that area is higher. You can also look for built-in safety stops for your faucets to prevent burns from excessively hot temperatures.
• Drowning accidents ─ Children can drown in as little as three inches of water in just seconds. It is important to empty pails and keep toilet lids down with security latches attached in all of the bathrooms in your home.  Keep bathroom doors closed and consider installing a bathroom alarm or gate.
• Dangerous items ─ All electrical outlets should be properly grounded and equipped with childproof covers. Cleaners, glass bottles, and other hazardous items should be stored in bathroom cabinets that are out of children’s reach and secured with locks. Security locks are available at hardware stores or in the baby aisle of your supermarket.

Little Ones Can Like The Loo

Look through design books or magazines at your local library and browse home improvement stores for ideas to customize a child’s bathroom. For example, if your child adores animals and you’re up for remodeling, utilize themed shower heads.

Granted, when you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go! But there’s nothing to stop you from providing on-site entertainment when laying out your bathroom design; particularly if you’re trying to lure a stubborn toddler into a potty-training schedule. Providing a special space (shelves in a linen closet or mounted shelves on a wall or door) for your child to display his artwork creations can help spark his imagination. You may even want to hang a washable drawing board for your child to use while he/she is in the bathroom. Sturdy board books or washable toddler books can also adorn shelves or a basket beside the potty chair.

Transforming a dull, ordinary bathroom into a whimsical place that the whole family can enjoy may require more thought than you initially anticipated, but can be well worth the effort to create safe and joyful bath time memories.