Kid-friendly bathroom remodeling

If a bathroom remodel is in your future, here are a few suggestions to make it more family-friendly.

• Consider adding a hand shower. Not only are hand showers great for rinsing shampoo off little heads, they're less intimidating for older kids transitioning from baths to showers. They also make cleaning the bathtub a snap. You can either replace your regular shower head with a hand shower (the kind that slides up and down on a bar so you can adjust the height), or you can install both, and use a diverter to direct water to one head or the other.
• Install a grab bar inside the shower stall. Good for everyone -- it's slippery in there.
• Choose a soft-close toilet seat. No more slamming.
• A pedestal sink, well-anchored to the wall studs, has no cabinet doors to open.
• If you like to keep cleaning supplies in the bathroom, consider adding a small shelf above the door frame to keep them out of reach. Store supplies in a plastic caddy so you can grab them easily.

Any other suggestions?

Tags: Home improvement, Remodeling

Comments

[cooper]

one of THE BEST decisions we made when we remodeled was the hand held spray in the bath tub. Completely revolutionized kid hair washing. No more tupperware containers or big plastic cups needed to rinse hair. I highly recommend this item. Two sinks was a pretty good investment too. AND a back splash, you need that.

[Jill]

Consider the flooring too- never carpet, nothing slippery, and avoid any grout that will be hard to keep clean. I'd consider doing the boys' bathroom over in yellow so it never looked peed on. :)

[Robyn]

The above-door shelf idea is great!

I'll add, look for sinks, cabinets, and tubs with rounded edges, not sharp corners. Make sure there's room enough to put a small stepstool in front of the toilet without it being a tripping hazard.

I recommend flooring in a medium tone -- not light enough to show hair and not dark enough to show water spots. Anything that helps it at least LOOK clean is good!

[Maia]

We have a shower with a built-in bench- I suppose it goes with the grab bar for the accessible bathroom that happened to be in our house when we got it. I put both toddlers in there every morning when I take a shower with plastic jars and cups to play with so their sleep-messy hair gets wet, and I can get a shower myself!

[kristin]

We added a pull out stool in the bottome of the vanity (the toe kick area). It has a pull on it that matches the hardware in the bathroom. No more plastic stools in the bathroom to trip over anymore!