SAY YES TO A WHITE HOME - EVEN WITH KIDS & PETS!

BY BONNIE

If your heart (and your Vision Board) are telling you that your dream home is an all-white wonderland but your head is screaming “NO!” – what’s a girl to do???

There’s a common misconception that if you have kids and pets you can’t have a white house but when it came to designing my dream home, there was no going past all white everything to achieve my vision. #moderncoastalbarn I’m often asked if I regret my colour choices, sharing our family home with 4 boys and many animals. The answer? Heck no!

Lana and Sophie also opted for fresh, white vibes for their Mediterranean-inspired homes. They also have busy families and pets and both maintain that white is totally manageable for their families too.

So, before you throw your dream home vision out with the bath water, read on to see how we design our white houses to withstand family life.

Choose durable surface materials

Paint: We use Dulux Wash&Wear for our interior painting. Just like it sounds, it makes washing off messy finger prints a breeze and it wears like a dream.

Benchtops: I splurged on engineered stone for all the benchtops in my home and they’ve definitely been worth the investment, especially when it comes to keeping them clean. They’re easy to wipe down with a mild detergent and shine like new each time. 

Flooring: I’m still crushing on my Woodcut engineered timber flooring. I chose the colour ‘White Oiled’ and yes, it’s light but it’s so forgiving! Ziggy, our Mini Highland cow, is a bit of an escape artist and has let himself inside on more than one occasion. That’s been a great test of durability for the floors and the Woodcut handled it just fine! It’s really easy to clean with a quick vacuum and mop. My only regret? That I didn’t use it in the bedrooms too!

 Tiles & grout: White tiles with a marble-look vein or some texture through them are more forgiving than plain white tiles. In my ensuite I used a combo of large format Carrara-look tiles for a whiteout effect that doesn’t show up every single strand of hair.
We love white grout on our bathroom walls, it’s our go-to colour for a clean, fresh colour scheme. But TBH we’d recommend that ‘silver grey’ or misty grey’ is the lightest grout you’d go on floors, even if you have white tiles. I went against our own advice in my own home and chose bright white for the floors and a few years it’s definitely not the bright white it used to be.

Washable soft furnishings

I’m a massive fan of washable covers for sofas and cushions. Any sign of a spill and I rip those babies off and throw them straight in the washing machine. 

Lana’s been known to bleach hers… even when the label says no! (so, try at your own peril!) They came up like new.

Sophie maintains that her light colour sofa is easier to keep clean than her previous grey one because she can see the marks as they are made and can spot clean before they have time to stain. And when she washes the covers they don’t fade like the grey ones did. #winwin

Clean little & often

I’m pretty sure I use more baby wipes dabbing chocolate off the sofa than I ever used on my babies! As soon as I see a mark on the furniture I give it a quick spot clean to keep on top of the mess. It’s quick and easy and prolongs the time between washing covers. 

With my fluffy white rugs, a daily run over with the vacuum cleaner is enough to lift most dirt and I get them professionally cleaned every so often too.

What do you think about white at your place? Yay or nay? Tell us below! x