Why we can't have nice things

So far our puppy has destroyed most of the garden.  She’s chewed the arm of the sofa, trashed our shoes and upended more pot plants than I can count.  She’s also made a start on the balustrades.

We’ll need to live in a puppy-proofed house for the next 6 months, or until she loses interest in our worldly belongings.  In the meantime, our really special stuff has been put out of her reach.

That’s why (for now) we can’t have our nice stuff out and about.  Or, why we won’t be buying nice things to replace our less than ideal stuff, yet.  She needs to get older (and calmer) first.

I hear this a lot from clients with small children – “there’s no point buying something nice ‘cause they’ll just wreck it.”

Absolutely, hold off updating your home until you’re comfortable that your investment will be cherished by all members of your household.  However, if you’d like to make a small start in the meantime (for the sake of your sanity), I’d like to suggest that there may be a middle ground.

‘Nice’ doesn’t have to mean ‘delicate’.  It also doesn’t mean “look, but don’t touch”.  It can mean the really good stuff is kept safe on the higher shelves but the things we use daily can be robust, washable and if scratched, we survive.

Dark slip covers of sofas, washable rugs, secondhand furniture, easy clean surfaces for walls and kitchen cabinets, decorator items that bounce when they’re knocked off a coffee table….

Have a chat to an interior designer about how you might be able to make small enhancements to your home that work for your family in the short term and help you work towards the home you’re waiting to create, once the kids (or hooligan puppies) are older.

I’m currently investigating a metal-framed, chew-proof outdoor sofa.

Hooligan!

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