How to Create a Playroom for Your Kids

It’s a fact of life that kids love to play (so do adults to be fair, we just never get a chance). But while most parents want to encourage their kids to play – primarily because of the benefits it has for skills development and socialisation, but also so the parents can get five minutes peace as well – the mess that ensues can be extremely frustrating. Let’s not kid ourselves, when you have a child, there will be mess; they will leave toys everywhere, and inevitably you will step on Lego at some point. But the mess can be reduced to a degree if the kids have a designated area to play in, a playroom if you will. It’s the perfect solution; the children have a room all their own, and mum and dad don’t have to keep removing trucks or dolls from inside the washing machine.

But if you’ve never really thought about creating a playroom (or have, and decided it’s too much hassle), never fear, because we are here to give you the inside scoop on how to create a playroom without the stress.

1. Choose the space – this is probably fairly straightforward unless you live in a mansion, but assuming you only have one spare room, this will probably be the room of choice. But choosing the room might also involve relocating your or your child’s bedroom to maximise the space. Either way, once you’ve chosen the space, assess it to see what needs doing, and how much room you really have to play with.

2. Start with storage – it’s all well and good filling up your child’s new playroom with tons of gadgets and toys (that’s what it’s for after all). But we recommend that you actually start by planning what storage you will need. Will you need a TV cabinet, a toy chest, or even a wardrobe to store all their playthings? Or will it be enough to have a few storage boxes that they can chuck their stuff in at the end of the day? It’s important to know, as storage could dictate how much actual play space they have once it’s all set up, but be sensible, it seems a little pointless to have lots of storage, but no room for them to actually play.

3. Make it fun – but not too specific. You want the playroom to reflect fun, and to be of interest to your child. But don’t get too specific when decorating; as we all know, children’s flights of fancy can change within a blink of an eye, so while you’ve gone to the trouble of creating the ultimate dinosaur haven for your child, next week they might decide it’s all about space travel; cue a total re-design. One way of getting round this, especially for wall decorations, is instead of decorating walls with a specific motif, simply paint it in something fun but neutral, and then hang up bed sheets with the current object of desire on. This way, if they do change from week to week, so can their wall.

4. Include a scribble wall – this is actually a trend that’s taken off in a lot of offices lately, but it’s also great for creative kids. If your kids like to draw (especially on walls), then cover one specific wall with whiteboard material (you can buy sheets of this that stick to the wall), and give them a few pens. This way they can decorate one wall however they like, whenever they like, and you don’t have to wash it off.