Building a playroom!

[Mamatolea]

Ok, so we are almost done finishing our porch and it will become our playroom! I am so excited, I get to do everything from scratch!

Of course, I want it to be as natural as possible and have already started collecting toys and such, but I can't decide if I want to theme it, waldorf it, or just a mish mash of things...

Does anyone have any ideas? My kids are a 19 month old girl and a 1 month old boy, so the ideas have to be able to be useable for both. Not that I am in to gendering, so my boy will probably play with fairies and my daughter will most likely want to work on cars, so it's all good!

I am going to have a 10X14 rectangular room with all windows on 2 sides. We are carpeting because we need to try to keep the heat in the winter and we are probably going to paint the walls one color(most likely a mocha color) because the walls can be seen from the outside, so I don't want to do a bright pink of anything

I am making a kitchen for them out of an old entertainment center and I am thinking of doing like a kindergarten room and making a house, a store, etc..I also would like a table area for crafting and some sort of playhut or something.

So many ideas, so little room Please share your ideas!

And if anyone has pictures of their perfect playspace, do let me see them!

[lolo'smom]

we just finished our playroom in what used to my ds's bedroom before i moved both him and dd upstairs closer to us - it was driving me crazy to have him down there by himself!

we did go for the kind of bright color thing and put a dark orange on the walls, it took 5 coats but it looks really good and the trim is white. i' want to build window treatments that are kind of wooden valences that i will upholster with probably a shade of orange, too i'm still deciding what color since the walls are so bold... i got a zebra striped rug for the floor to cover most of the hardwood. it's really kinda wild looking but it works and i love it, ds is crazy about the rug, too it's got a global kind of feeling

we have an easel that we bought from ikea last year for $20!! it has paper on one side and a chalkboard on the other and we put that near the window next to a little table and two chairs that i painted for ds a couple of years ago. i put them next to the closet where we keep all of the messy art stuff out of sight since ds is an avid painter and that can just be very very crazy sometimes LOL

on the other side of the room i want to put a fold up twin sized futon for cousins and such if they want to spend the night or a cozy place to read a book or sit with dd while ds plays, we haven't gotten that yet but we do have a twin bed in there for the time being. i just would rather have the futon since it will take up much less space and ds won't be so tempted to jump on it all day long.

we also have one of those neighborhood play mat things down and several of ds's tractors and trucks and a bookshelf that keeps the rest of the toys. i'm going to put up shelves in the closet for extra storage as well.

i love your idea of the kitchen area you made out of an entertainment center! the room we're using is pretty small but i'd love to incorporate that somehow...

i love the playroom because ds can go in there and tear it up and i can just close the door until we're ready to clean it up and it's a place that the kids can go in and just be kids, ykwim?

i'll try to post pics!

have fun building your playroom!

eta: i do have an old trunk that i want to put in there too for dress up and a mirror that i can hang next to it. the dress up stuff is upstairs for now, again it's a space thing...

[Mamatolea]

Ohh dress up stuff. I forgot about that! We are building a storage bench along one wall too. It will be handy for storing extra toys.

I also had bought a while back some chalkboad paint. It can turn anything into a chalkboard, so I have to decide if I want to paint something like a wall with that, or if I want to do like I read somewhere and paint a large piece of wood with it and then frame it and hang it on the wall. Then it would be removable if we found we didn't need it...

Here is the tutorial I am kind of guiding myself on with the kitchen playset. I am adapting it to our needs and likes, but kind of similar
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=142233.0

If you have less room, this one is a cute idea as well:
http://familyfun.go.com/decorating-i...02_proj_kitch/


I am also thinking of making something like this as well for a hideaway, only maybe in more earthy colors: http://www.hearthsong.com/hearthsong...LL|PRODUCT|335

Then it can be taken down when they are done playing with it. I kind of like this idea better than the playsilks of waldorf since it is bigger and more enclosed.

[rere]

I would suggest using throw rugs over your new carpet so you don't have to worry about mess.

[kittygrrl523]

I used a lot of tips from this article http://wondertime.go.com/life-at-hom...-playroom.html

The idea of having "zones" helped me...I used a tall bookshelf and put books on the lower three shelves to create a reading zone...the top shelves store puzzles and other toys that I didn't want DS to have constant access to...

Then I just sort of grouped the other things together...there's a hamper full of dress-up clothes and I keep meaning to hang a mirror up near that...

We have a small table with bench seats for art and I bring the easel out from time to time...

We have a 9 unit modular storage shelf from Target (pretty easy to assemble and not too $$) and 6 fabric storage bins...The bins are basically boxes made of fabric...each one is a different color which helps to organize the toys...legos in the pink bin, vehicles in the purple, etc...I have 3 of the cubes that don't have bins on them partly to save money and partly cuz it looks cute that way...

Oh, and I got an adorable rug with a street scene on it from a mom-2-mom sale for $3!!!

Oh, and one last thing...the walls are painted a bright color (actually a few) but the cutest thing is that the art is all done by DS...I just hang it up with sticky tack so I can rotate it...I also have snapshots of DS and friends and family sticky tacked up...it gives the room a very personal feel...and there was even space for a desk for me so I can use my laptop or set up my sewing machine in there too!

Have fun!!!

And don't forget lots of storage for the play food and kitchen accessories...that's one thing we seem to need more of!

[lolo'smom]

hope all is going well with your playroom! i loved the idea of a kitchen and the plans for the small kitchen are soooo cute and easy!! we're going to try that out. also, we decided against both the bed and the futon because they each take up so much room so we're going with bean bags or something comfy, big oversized pillows maybe? easy to make at least I also love the hideaway, I can't believe the price!! I'm sure you could make that for MUCH less - good luck!