Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

If your kids show an interest in helping you in the garden (or maybe you’d just like them to), why not get them some gardening tools specifically designed for little hands? That way they can dig and weed right alongside you. (Just don’t tell them it’s work.) Put out by Insect Lore (a company that specializes in making bugs fun for kids), this lady-bug-themed set includes a hand shovel, a hand cultivator, a kneeling pad, and kid-sized gloves. Other themes available include butterflies, spiders, mantises, and bumble bees. The gardening set costs $20 and is appropriate for children 4 and up.

http://www.insectlore.com

This combination lamp and night light from Bellacor’s Merrymac collection is a nice idea for a children’s room. During waking hours, it functions as a normal bedside lamp, taking a 60 Watt bulb. Once your kids are ready to go to sleep, you can turn off the lamp and turn on the night light function. Then the base glows softly to keep darkness from conquering the bedroom. Stars, clouds, and moons are hand-painted onto the lamp and shade to give it a youthful personality. The price is about $100.

http://www.bellacor.com

Decorating the children’s rooms is a fun way to add personality to fit your kids’ passions. Some people hire painters to do custom murals, but if that seems time-consuming, maybe you can check out the wallpaper murals at That’s My Room. This pirate wallpaper mural is one of many different pictures and themes they offer. You need to apply your own paste, but that means you can pick something that won’t stain and that will be easy to change when the kids grow out of it. Prices for the murals start at under $50 and go to more than $500, depending on the size.

http://www.thatsmyroom.com

The stuffed animals I had as a kid didn’t do much besides sit there. Now they have ones that walk, talk, and even light up. This teddy bear from Celia is a fun alternative to a night light. Powered by batteries, the stuffed animal glows with an inner light and it changes colors, cycling through the spectrum. An on/off switch means you don’t need to keep it running all the time. The light-up teddy bear costs about $20 and is available from stores like Target.

http://www.cepiallc.com

A night light is a nice addition to a children’s room, even if your young-uns aren’t afraid of the dark. If you don’t want to invest $100 in something like the star egg night light (that projects stars on the ceiling), this color changing night light, offered by Smarthome, might be a good alternative. It cycles through the entire color spectrum and has a built-in photo sensor to automatically turn on the light at dusk and turn it off at dawn. The price is $10.

Color Changing Night Light

Do you have children who are afraid of the dark? A night light is an age-old solution, but this egg-shaped lamp from Uncommon Goods offers an unique twist. Made from ceramic, the “Star Egg Night Light” has tiny holes in it that shine pinpricks of light on the ceiling. At night, it looks like there are stars above your kid’s bed. The handmade lamp stands 8.5 inches high, 6 inches wide, and costs $125.

Star Egg Night Light

Well, we’ve seen toilets made just for kids, so why not sinks? Elkay’s Scrub-a-Dub Sink line offers six styles in shapes such as footballs, fish, butterflies, and hearts. The sinks are made from a solid-surface composite material that’s easy to clean and resistant to cracks, scratches, and dents. They fit into the same size hole as regular sinks, so when your kids outgrow them, it’s easy to plop a new sink in. Expect to pay about $250 for a Scrub-a-Dub Sink.

http://www.elkayusa.com/

AquaClimb is a climbing wall that attaches to the edge of the swimming pool. They offer models for commercial pools as well as indoor and outdoor residential pools of various shapes and sizes. Built-in safety features keep the walls kid friendly. The AquaClimb panels feature high quality fiberglass with a textured non-slip surface. The system is designed to hold up to UV rays, high winds, and salt and chlorinated water. The climbing wall incorporates real rock features with inset and protruding holds. The panels can be interchanged and rotated to offer variety and different levels of difficulty.

All I can say is where were these all those years I was on swim team growing up? They look like a great way to incorporate both fun and fitness into the swimming pool environment.

http://www.aquaclimb.com/

Every kid needs a tree swing, right? But if you’re living in a posh 3 or 4 car garage house in a classy neighborhood, a tire on a rope hanging from a tree branch might be considered a bit… ghetto. Why not ditch the tire and try a painted tree swing shaped like a leaf or a ladybug? These swings can handle up to 150 pounds in weight and can be hung outdoors from a tree or indoors from a sturdy rafter.

http://www.sassafrasenterprises.com/

Move over plastic potty–the toddlers of today’s well-off parents are learning to do their business on toilets designed just for them. These child-sized toilets are a little more expensive than regular models, but usually work fine with existing house plumbing (though the switch can take some work). They can be replaced once the kids grow out of them.

The Gerber PeeWee toilet (MSPR $350) has a seat about 10 inches high, which is 4 inches shorter than a typical toilet.

http://www.gerberonline.com

Source: “Toilets for Tots” in the print version of the 6/9/05 edition of the Wall Street Journal