Best child-friendly flooring options

When you’re creating the perfect family home, you may be thinking about childproofing your cupboard doors, and putting up stair gates – but have you considered if your flooring is child-friendly? Some flooring types are ideal for life with little ones and finding the flooring that works not only for your style, but also for your family’s needs, is important.

In this guide, we’ll take you through the different flooring types and their pros and cons for family homes, as well as explore fun options you can consider too. This will give you some ideas of what things to look for when choosing child-friendly flooring.

In this guide:

What does child-friendly flooring mean?
The best flooring types for children
Fun ideas for flooring for children

What does child-friendly flooring mean?

Whether you already have children or are preparing for their arrival in your lives, you’ll want your home to be able to cope with all the fun that comes from living with little ones. There are several key features in child-friendly flooring you might want to look out for:

Durability – Life with kids can be tough and exhausting, and your flooring may begin to show signs of wear and tear quicker with little ones playing, running around and being busy on the floor.
Softness – While toddlers are learning to get their balance right, having a softer floor can save them from some bumps and bruises.
Easy to clean – Accidents happen, and even more so with babies and children, so having flooring that you can clean easily is a big time-saver.
Stain resistant – Those little accidents can sometimes leave stains on your floor and choosing stain resistant flooring can save you from having to consult our carpet cleaning guide.
Water resistant – Bath time and dinner time can get quite exciting and playful, so having water resistant vinyl flooring can give you peace of mind that your subfloors won’t suffer every time bath time comes around.
Comfort – Your children haven’t spent as much time walking around as you have, so their feet are more sensitive to harder surfaces.
Slip resistant – Whether they're learning to walk or whizzing around the room, choosing flooring with extra grip will help to reduce the amount of slips, trips and tumbles.

Some floors will have more of these qualities than others, but your personal preferences will always be the deciding factor in what materials you choose for your home. Let’s take a look at some of the child-friendly flooring options you may want to explore further.

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The best flooring types for children

Here are just some of the options you could explore when you’re looking at making your flooring more child-friendly:

Laminate

One of the most popular smooth floors on the market, laminate flooring is known for being durable thanks to the different layers it’s made from – the strong core helps to give laminate boards strength, and the decorative layer is kept pristine by a protective layer on top, meaning it looks and feels as good as it did when you first got after it many years.

The protective top layer of laminate also makes it scratch resistant, which is great when you have little ones who love to play with toys on the floor. Some of the laminates that we have available are also water resistant, meaning you can confidently use them in your kitchen or dining room when your wee ones are making a mess with their food.

Vinyl

Hardwearing vinyl has some great benefits, the topmost of which is its built-in layer of comfort. Most types of vinyl come with a spongy layer to them that makes them soft when you walk on them, which can be great for sensitive small feet.

Choosing water resistant vinyl means that bath time can get as fun-filled and splashtastic as you like, as you don’t need to worry about any of the water getting through to your subfloor. However, always make sure to mop it up afterwards to avoid any long-term damage!

Luxury Vinyl

Luxury vinyl (or LVT) is another great option if you’re looking for child-friendly flooring. It’s similar to laminate in that it comes in planks or tiles, and it's made the same way as vinyl using multiple layers of materials that give it lots of great benefits like water resistance and scratch resistance.

The LVT flooring options we stock at Tapi are perfect for busy family homes where accidents can be more frequent, and come in realistic finishes that look just like real wood or stone but feel much warmer and softer underfoot.

Carpet

Carpet is traditionally one of the most comfortable floorings available, and it helps to keep your children’s bedrooms cosy and warm, especially when paired with a high tog underlay too. Our favourite carpet option for homes with children is a short pile twist carpet made from polypropylene. You don't need to worry about cleaning up smushed food or even vomit - polypropylene is stain resistant and can easily be cleaned with a diluted bleach solution so it looks as good as new! Choosing a short, compact pile means you're less likely to find Lego or crisp crumbs between the fibres, and it also doesn't flatten down so easily.

Carpets have a great variety of styles to choose from – whether you prefer natural or synthetic materials, or a classic cream or pop of pink, the options are endless. Check out our guide on the best carpets for kids' bedrooms to see what we recommend.

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Fun ideas for flooring for children

Put the fun in functional! Family rooms, playrooms and children's bedrooms are great opportunities to play with pattern and colour, and maybe choose something bolder than your usual style. Here are just some of our ideas:

Use a colourful or patterned rug. Covering smooth floors with a fun rug can make a room look much more child-friendly and comfortable.
Use different colours for different parts of their bedrooms or playrooms. This creates different areas for your kids to play in and makes the room look more colourful and fun.
Use colourful play mats for your children to play on to protect your wooden floors. This will stop any pesky scratches or accidents with staining materials like paint or felt tip pens.
Encourage kids to use doormats when they come in and out of the house to prevent scratches and marks.
Get your kids’ house slippers that they can wear indoors if you prefer harder surface flooring. This way they can keep their feet comfortable and warm, and you can still have your home style the way you want it.

If you’re keen to find out more about the flooring that would work best in your home, why not book a free home appointment or a free store appointment to chat with our floorologists? We also have loads of great inspiration from real customers you can use if you’re not sure how you would style specific flooring in your home – check it out in our Ideas Hub! Alternatively, if you're looking to create the perfect room for your kids, then why not check out our guide to colour clashing, to make your room lively, creative, and fun?