How to Baby Proof Your Living Room

When you’re shopping for new home furniture and weighing different design options, you have enough to think about. Should you go for a sectional even if you have a smaller living room? Is your fireplace a worthy enough focal point, or should you opt for an entertainment console as the centerpiece? Is yellow too bright, and is beige too boring?

Now, when you have to factor a baby or toddler into the equation as well, your living room furniture buying just got a lot more complicated.

Living Room Furniture Ideas for Baby Proofing

As a family-owned furniture store in Dallas, Bailey’s Furniture has helped families furnish their homes for the last 50 years. Over the years, we’ve compiled quite a few tips on how to baby proof a home, and we wanted to share some of these living room furniture ideas with you.

Add Anchors

While anchoring your living room furniture is an established aspect of baby proofing, it is still imperative to mention. Some newer living room furniture comes with built-in anchor systems, but many other types of living room furniture — think armoires, entertainment consoles, desks, bookshelves, or anything tall enough to tip over — still require additional anchors.

A recent study from the Consumer Product Safety Commission found that a child is injured or killed by tipped-over furniture every two weeks. While consumers assume that heavy, shorter pieces of furniture are more stable, the study refutes this assumption. Instead, it finds that anything a child can grab onto (especially dressers) poses a threat.

The absolute safest way to go when it comes to living room furniture, then, is to anchor everything you can to the walls.

Store Cords in an Entertainment Console

One of the best child-proofing living room design ideas involves getting an entertainment center. Cords are one of the most dangerous “everyday” items when you have a crawling, curious toddler in your home. They can trip over cords, get trapped in them, or generally wreck havoc with your electronics.

When you have an entertainment center, however, you provide storage for a lot of these miscellaneous cords. Modern entertainment centers have strategic spots for television, video game, and other electronic cords.

You also want to keep your computer chargers and cell phones in mind. While you aren’t going to plug these in behind your entertainment console, you still want to have a place to store them. Consider a bookshelf, ottoman with storage, or armoire. As always, make sure to anchor these bigger pieces of living room furniture!

For practical and high quality entertainment centers, check out our selection today at Bailey’s Furniture or online!

Make the Room Soft

When you’re baby proofing your home, you have to think of every room in the house as a potential obstacle course. Your crawling toddler will inevitably try to explore every surface — what’s it going to look like if they fall?

For this reason, we recommend prioritizing soft items as you sort through living room furniture ideas. Add a bigger rug with an anti-slip guard. We also recommend investing in a leather ottoman with rounded corners. An ottoman not only adds storage, but it can also function as a softer coffee table.

For soft and comfortable ottomans, browse our selection from Bailey’s Furniture!

Bailey’s Furniture in Dallas

These living room design ideas just skim the surface when it comes to baby proofing a home, but it’s at least a starting point as you get your home ready for children.

If you have any questions, stop by our furniture warehouse in Dallas. As the Top Rated Local® furniture showroom in Dallas, we pride ourselves on our quality furniture and helpful staff. Be sure to ask about child proofing and our team will offer some recommendations.

Child proof your furniture today at Bailey’s Furniture!