Ah playrooms…I LOVE those things! We had a huge basement at our place in Cincinnati, with a full playroom and guest room. Wade was just old enough before we moved that he would start going down there to play by himself. Hours of entertainment. Another reason I loved it – most of the toys ended up down there instead of in the middle of our living room. Just close the door and there’s no need to pick those suckers up.
These days, we don’t have a playroom. Maybe we will one day in the future, but I’m guessing that won’t be for a long time.
Fortunately, a friend of mine wants to update her house and one of the rooms I want to help with is their playroom! She has two little boys (friends of my own,) so I can happily live vicariously through her while I come up with ideas of how she could decorate this room.
These are the main goals I have for the space:
- Functionality – This room needs to be a place that is fun for the boys to hang out in, and where toys, books, etc…can be easily stored.
- Color – This family loves color! And they’re super fun, so the space needs to match their personality.
- Low Cost – Since the place is a rental, they don’t want to invest much in it. So, I’ve been on the hunt for ideas that give a ton of bang for very little buck.
Since I’ve got playrooms on the brain, I thought I’d share some of the inspiration I’ve found.
Furniture and Storage
They already have an Ikea Expedit (now Kalax) bookcase, which works great for playrooms. Colorful kids books look so good in the dark version they already have.
For storage bins, I love the idea of DIYing something with either felt or a fun, patterned fabric. They currently use Blue Apron boxes for toy storage – and they are the perfect size! We won’t even need to find new boxes, just figure out a way to cover them up a bit.
I’ve been hoarding this Pin for years, and I think their playroom could be the place for me to finally do it! It’s a “command central” of sorts, where the boys’ art and school work can be shown off and where they can write notes and draw pictures.
Again, we can’t do anything permanent to the walls, but we could easily frame some sheet metal from Home Depot for a huge magnet wall, and paint a huge piece of MDF board with chalkboard paint. We could DIY a huge cork board like this. (Operative word here is, obviously, huge. Or maybe bigly, but I won’t go there. Or maybe I just did…)
Artwork
First off, this family likes color! They’re in a rental, so they can’t paint the walls anything crazy (not that I would…but I do love a good chalkboard wall…) The walls would look great in a coolish, light grey. That way, lots of color can be added in with accessories and artwork. (Another benefit to decorating a playroom – toys can be great accessories!)
As far as artwork goes, the boys are obsessed with Nascar these days. Unsplash is a fabulous resources for FREE hi-resolution photos, and I found some great racing options.
Large-scale engineer prints are also a fun way to go to add some drama to a space. They’re super inexpensive (like $6 at Staples for a HUGE print). And, can be easily switched out later. How sweet are these sibling pictures?
Or, maybe we could take some good black and white photos of their favorite Nascar toys and blow those up to hang on the wall.
This Ikea hack can serve as both art and storage. Brilliant!
How about you? Do you have a designated play area in your house? How do you keep things fun, yet manageable?
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