Little ways to adapt your home to children.

[Maastricht]

This thread on kids in the shower by WhyNot got me thinking about all the stuff I do and did in my home to make it easier for both my kid and me to live together.

Some things are adaptations so a small child cannot ruin my stuff, like this self-made mesh screen door that protects our VCR set and yet allows our remote controller to work.

The obvious safety measures most sites list like these stairgates..(this pic shows how I had to make an additional stair post so the gate would fit.)

Others are adaptations so a kid can use our home in the same way we can.
For instance, by having a handrail along the stairs at her own height. Ours was made by buying two wood broom's handles and fastening them to the wall beneath the adult's handrail.

In this category falls also the shower slide bar mentioned in this thread, so kids and adults alike can adjust the showerhead to below their necks and showering doesn't become a kind af waterboarding a kid will try to put off so mom and dad have more work because the kid can't shower alone.

My kid has a small room, (the photographing dad stands in the doorway) so I tried to make the most of it with this bed. It allows easy dressing and diapering, saving my back, it gives a play house underneath the bed, double play space, and my son loves to climb it and jump from the bed into his bean bag chair.

This is his play corner in the living room, in our sight. He has elevated play room, storage he can acess, and his books are in the two lower shelves of the book case. The little carpet marks his area and is softer to sit on. And it is washable.

Lots of DIY tips can also be found here on Ikea hackers.

How did you adapt your home to your kids?