Creative ideas to make your dining room kid-friendly

The dining room is the real heart of your home. This is where you spend time with your family, catching up with everyone and bonding over good food. However, most dining spaces aren’t designed for children, often adorned with chandeliers and elegant centerpieces that may even become a hazard for your little ones.

Make your dining room a more inviting space for your children by incorporating design ideas that cater to their specific needs and make the area safer for them. Here are some ideas to make your dining room more kid-friendly without compromising style.

Choose the right chair

If your child is too big for a high chair but still too short to reach the dining table using regular dining chairs, you should consider investing in a junior chair. This kid-friendly dining room chair looks like a regular one, only with longer legs. It allows your little one to eat with the whole family without the restrictions of a high chair’s safety harness and tray.

You can also choose to replace your individual dining chairs with a bench to reduce the amount of furniture in the room. A bench allows your child to come to and go from the dining table easily without assistance. It also reduces the chances of your little one dragging the seat across the room, leaving scuff marks on your floor.

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See all dining benches

Swap out ceramics and glasses

Ceramic plates and glasses are nice to look at and use on the dining table. However, if you have a little one with grabby hands, they might accidentally break these pieces. This not only leaves you with fewer elegant china but also with hazards in your dining area.

To avoid accidents, it’s best to use child-friendly dinnerware for your everyday meals. These items come in minimalist designs and colors, so you don’t have to worry about them affecting your style.

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See all children's kitchenware & tableware

Protect your table

Kids are known to be messy eaters, with some of their food somehow always ending up on the table. To keep your table clean, consider using colorful placemats for every meal. They help preserve the appearance of your table and lessen cleanup time. These placemats can also make your little ones more excited to eat because of their vibrant colors and fun prints.

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See all place mats & coasters

Keep your floors stylish

Designing a kid-friendly dining room doesn’t mean that you need to keep your floors bare. Yes, sometimes your kid’s food ends up on the floor, but you can still bring your decor together with a rug.

Instead of choosing a rug made of wool, lay a woven rug under your dining set. This material makes it easy for you to vacuum out any crumbs your little one leaves when they eat and ties the look of the whole room together.

You can also opt for dark-colored rugs that hide stains well. By doing so, you can ensure that your dining room looks presentable even when your rug is hiding a lot of your kid’s spills and messes.

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See all rugs

Protect your child from sharp corners

Children can be clumsy, making them prone to bumping their heads. If you have a square or rectangular table, its corners can become a hazard for your little one. To protect their head and avoid other injuries, invest in corner bumpers that cover the sharp edges of your furniture.

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See all child safety products

Make the space engaging

One way to keep your kid excited about eating is by painting bright and bold artwork on your dining room wall. The colors on your mural will make meal times more enjoyable for your little one, serving as their entertainment as they eat with the whole family.

If you’re going for a minimalist look or not the creative type, you can display family photos or art on the wall instead. This gives your child something to look at while eating.

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See all arts & crafts