Olga

A formal dining room is an elegant entertainment asset for your home. Unfortunately, if you have small children running about the house, your beautiful dining area can quickly turn into just another disaster zone.

If you want to be able to enjoy an immaculate or at the very least, presentable, formal dining room, then you need to take steps to make sure the dining room works with your family.

Here are a few tips to help you make your formal dining room childproof:

Secure loose ends.

It may seem like you are battening down for war, but with small children around anything that is not nailed down is fair game for either snatching up or knocking over. You will want to ensure that decorative center or side pieces are well weighted, and if you have display shelving you will want to purchase small frames or pins to help hold plates and figurines in place while the troops go thundering past.

Assess things from child eye level.

Kneeling down, you will want to take a look through your dining room from a child's point of view. This will help you childproof the room in two ways. First, you will have a first-hand perspective on what elements of the room look too tempting to be left alone. Second, it will give you an accurate projection of which items are truly in reach for your child.

Move everything up.

A formal dining room is designed for an audience that stands well above table top height. Thus, you can take the preventative measure of moving everything up higher. This keeps it well out of a child's reach while also presenting it at eye level for the audience who will most appreciate your decorative flair.

Cushion sharp edges.

Since it is inevitable that the children will make an appearance in the formal room, you can keep them from being injured or catching on sharp edges by cushioning your corners and outposts. There are both custom designed corner guards and a number of press on products that are both unobtrusive and effective.

By taking these steps to childproof your formal dining room, you will be better able to enjoy the room as an entertainment area and adult relaxation zone instead of worrying about what your or other children might be doing to the room.