Upstate NY Babies
If you could design a playroom
what would you have in it? What color would you paint ? I want to do something with the wasted space of the formal living room. All we have is a couch in there. Morgan goes in there to chew a bone. I was thinking a little table and chair set. I figure I could start looking on craigslist and slowly get it together. Would it look really stupid to have a playroom at the front of the house with a formal dining room attached? We never use the dining room and dh calls it the museum b/c it's just for looking.
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Re: If you could design a playroom
My SIL and BIL just built a new house last year - and their fomal dining room is a playroom. We're also letting our dining room (attached to our living) room transition into a playroom...so toys aren't scattered ALL over the house.
They have a play kitchen and LOTS of storage. I would concentrate on storage before all else. I love those IKEA tables and chairs (with the chunky legs). We're planning on getting Evan a train table next year (christmas?) and those take up a bunch of space. Those carpets that have city roads or race tracks are neat too when the kids want to play with cars.
As for paint - we have a simple light beige...since there will be sooo many colors in there, I would keep it neutral.
OMG this is totally what we have!!! A long rectangular room that is half formal dining room, the other half is a playroom (which is right by the front door). I have the rooms divided with one of those long gates (playard).
I have "wall to wall" foam flooring, and where the "Happy bday" sign is, I have these artsy prints of birds in 10 frames (1-10). We also have a gate blocking off the opening to the front door (to prevent dirt getting tracked in, or my DD hanging out by the front door or whatever).
As for stuff - oh boy - we have a lot! A little playhouse, a huge dollhouse thing, a play kitchen, a rack of plastic bins, and a table with 2 chairs. Then.. tons of toys pretty much all over, even though I try to contain them in bins.
Here is a photo looking from the playroom to the dining room -
Nest Bio ~ ~ Baby Food Blog
I would want to have a play table and lots of storage too so that it could be picked up and not turn into just a toy dumping ground. The Land of Nod catalog was in my mailbox today and I like how their tables grow with a kid; that is what I might look for in a kid's table set. I also like the idea of those Flor carpet tiles even for a small area rug. Painting a chalkboard and/or mangnetic wall would be kind of neat too.
I don't think it would be weird to have a playroom in the front of the house. I don't know the layout of your house or how much you entertain but another option might be to move the formal dining room to share the space of the formal living in the front of the house and to have the play room where your current dining room is (assuming it is directly off of the kitchen). That way the space could transition to more of a computer room/homework room too and still be close to the core of the house.
Your so lucky to have the space to do this
I'd love to see the finish product
I don't think it would be stupid at all, I would love to have something like that in my house.
Here is a link to a blog I read every once in a while. They did a cute playroom for their DD with some stuff from IKEA.
https://thebabystandard.blogspot.com/2009/10/affordable-and-fun-playroom.html
Ours is slowly coming together, I'll take a pic once the tree is down
And I don't see anything wrong with it- we actually moved our living room into the basement (we don't have a dining room) and it is working out great!
Charlie 11.01.07 ~ Paul 05.07.10 ~ Annaliese 02.24.12
My friend uses her formal living room as a playroom too. I wish we had the space to do that!
Currently I am turning our finished attic into a playroom/craft room/guest room. Like one of the pps mentioned- storage is key! We have built-in shelves and drawers all around the edge of the room so I just bought baskets to go on the shelves. There are lots of different styles of shelves and toy storage units out there to choose from. I bought a table and chairs for up there but we ended up setting it up in the dining room and I think it's going to stay there so there will be more floor space for Eva in the playroom (her play area is only going to be and 6x8). We got this one and I love it! (https://www.buybuybaby.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=15029889&RN=7004&) The storage bins are awesome for holding craft supplies. As for color, I'd stick with something neutral and use artwork to bring in color. Or maybe just paint one wall a fun color as an accent. Our attic is off-white and I am planning on putting up some strips of wire and hanging Eva's artwork up there using some fun, primary colored clips I found at the dollar store.