When you’re looking to design your outdoor living space, ensuring your child’s safety and wellness are two important things that probably come to mind. Unfortunately, the backyard area can hold several risks for your kids such as slips, falls, cuts, scrapes and sunburn. The following ideas will show you ways to design a kid-friendly environment where they can play and run around.
Do Your Research
Designing a great backyard is more than just aesthetically creating an environment that will leave your neighbors green with envy. You also want to design a place where you children can play safely. Playground toys are a great way for kids to expend energy. But with over 50,000 emergency room visits due to home injuries, the outdoor equipment can be quite unsettling for parents.
When you’re ready to put up a playful structure in your backyard, you want to do your research to ensure a product is durable and safe. Read online reviews first from other parents to see if there are recalls or complaints. The product should also meet the required safety guidelines. When putting together the play equipment, follow the instructions on the manual. You also want to pay attention to the wood used. Pressure-treated materials may exposure your child to serious health issues such as cancer.
Choose Natural Products
Grass, rocks and wood chips can create dangerous slipping surfaces for your child to play in. If you’re designing a backyard play area for your children, you want to consider the artificial variety. Artificial playground turf offers kids a safe environment where they can play with their friends.
When compared to natural grass, synthetic lawns offer a surface that is more even for little kids to run around. This can make for fewer slips and falls. When installed by the experts, it also offers a soft surface if accidents do occur. If you have pets, another added benefit is that the animal’s urine drains properly through the fibers of the synthetic lawn and into the dirt below. Because the artificial lawn doesn’t require fertilizer, pesticides and other toxins, you won’t expose your kids to harmful chemicals like you would with real grass.
Get Their Input
When you’re designing a kid-friendly backyard, inviting your children to participate can not only help them feel valued and involved, but will ensure they have a space they truly love and can call their own. For example, try to incorporate colors they love. If you’re getting a backyard treehouse, why not have it designed with a color scheme that matches their personality and preference? “Your children will appreciate you incorporating them into your plans for a personalized space,” says Teaberry Painters, a professional painting company. “Just as you’d want your home curated with styles you love, infusing colors that resonate with them will create a much more enjoyable play area.”
Incorporate Plant-Friendly Blooms
Children learn by exploring and touching things. Unfortunately, plants such as poison ivy, thistles and roses can be sharp and painful. When you’re incorporating greenery into your backyard, look for kid and pet-friendly blooms that are safe for your entire family. Reaching to approximately 5 feet, Alliums can attract the attention of your child for their colorful blooms and resemblance to a lollipop. With a fuzzy and bright topper, chenille is another unique flower your child may love to look at and touch.
If you’re looking for something fun besides flowers, find a section of your backyard to plant a garden. Your child may get more enthusiastic over the backyard project when you enlist their help in deciding on what items to grow such as carrots, pumpkins, corn and green beans. Planting trees and shrubs throughout the yard can also protect your children from excessive sun exposure, so you want to pick the right location.
Be Mindful of Obvious Dangers
It’s easy to see why outdoor fire pits are popular. First, they are a welcoming place for the family to gather and bond over storytelling and smore treats. When done correctly using decorative brick, they can also liven any up any outdoor yard space. But this outdoor attraction can pose a serious threat to younger children. When constructing your own DIY project, choose a safe location away from trees and shrubs. It should also be big enough to fit lounging chairs or benches around the structure comfortably and safely. Before the flame to your fire pit is lit, teach your child to never run near the flame.
Secure Your Backyard Pool
Installing a pool offers your kid friendly backyard space where they can cool off during the warm months. Whether you select something inground or above, you want to begin by finding the ideal location. A brick patio, chairs and tables can provide space for your family to relax after a swim. Once complete, you want to ensure that your pool is safe and secure with fencing, locks and an alarm to prevent toddlers and young children from entering the structure and accidentally drowning.
Designing a kid-friendly backyard can take some careful thought and planning. While you want your child to be able to run free and burn energy, you want to be mindful of their safety. The above thoughtful projects are designed to transform a dull backyard into fun and exciting livable space your entire family can enjoy.
