Furnishing Your Child's Room
Of all the rooms in your home, your child’s room has to be one of the most multifunctional. Think about all the possible activities that just one day holds for your child: playing, napping, diaper changes, coloring, make believe, accidents, the list goes on. When furnishing your child’s room, you need to ensure your choices are both attractive and durable. Recently, I embarked on finding a rug for my son’s room – a task that SEEMED simple, but presented a big learning curve.
So what goes into picking the perfect rug for your child’s room? Of course, the actual design of the rug is important, but that should maybe be the last consideration. When looking for any product for your child, most searches start with two criteria: is the product safe and is it stain resistant? There are both natural and synthetic options, let’s break them down:
Wool Rugs
Wool is great on many levels. A natural fiber, it is also durable, naturally stain resistant, and can be very soft. Wool helps keep your home warm in the winter and cool in the summer and stands up to traffic and spills. As far as cons, if the wool is not made from high-quality long fibers, it will shed A LOT. You can avoid this by sourcing a rug with higher quality wool, but will come at a price. Lastly, be careful to make sure you or your child aren’t sensitive or allergic to wool, as many people are.
Cotton Rugs
Ahhh, cotton - soft, easy to clean, and very affordable. You can also find a lot of great handmade or braided cotton rugs which are not only great looking, but made in the USA! The only downside, in my opinion, is the lack of rug pile. Cotton rugs are generally flat weave and are not going to be very fluffy. Plus, cotton rugs attract and hold dirt fairly easily.
Indoor/Outdoor Rugs
An indoor/outdoor synthetic rug is a surprisingly great option for a child’s room. Made of polypropylene and nylon, synthetic rugs have advanced dramatically in manufacturing techniques, resulting in rugs that look like wool, have great loft/pile, are soft to the touch and are very stylish. The easiest of all fibers to clean, synthetic rugs tend to not shed and are hands-down the most affordable option.
We ended up selecting an indoor/outdoor rug for my son’s room that will go perfectly with the nautical theme of his room that we love and that has endured, three years later. Now, on to baby #2’s room…
