Webinar: Designing for famlies

Sophie Donelson is a design expert who has been featured on The Today Show, Good Morning America, and Open. She is also the author of the best-selling book Style Secrets: What Every Room Needs. In this virtual event, she shares tips for designing a vacation rental for families.

Top 5 Takeaways

  1. Good sleep recipe: clean linens, bedside table, bedside lamp + nightlights, blackout curtains, shades, or shutters, good mattress, fan, or air conditioner
     
  2. White bed sheets and towels are, in fact, better. They can freshen up a space. Travelers are conditioned to think clean and bleach when they see white linens, so just go with it!
     
  3. Ideas for a happy house: a striped ceiling, a candy-colored front door, freezer full of local ice cream, ready-to-roast s'mores kit, books, bikes, hammock, record player
     
  4. Child-proofing upgrades: baby gates, outlet plugs/covers, secure or tape loose cords, secure heavy furniture to walls (tv stands, bookcases, etc.), safety latches where household cleaning supplies are stored
     
  5. Make your home inclusive: No threshold or barrier-free entry, 36 inch or 91cm wide doorways and halls, small tiles with ample grout in the bathroom, side by side refrigerator/freezer and low storage in the kitchen, kitchen counters 34 inches or 86cm from the floor

    Bonus takeaway: Kids are obsessed with other people's toys! Keep them in your rental and feature them in your listing photos. Open-ended imagination toys are best, so consider dollhouses, play kitchens, blocks, puzzles, and train sets.

There's this idea that we're designing for the average person, but the truth is there is no average person, and there are people with all different abilities, and all different mobility needs, and all different ages. Instead of thinking of what is average, actually think through a toddler through somebody that is elderly, and everyone inbetween with varying abilities.

Sophie Donelson, Design Expert

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