To turn dining room into playroom or not?

gimbal · February 2011

Honestly, would I be crazy to do this? We got an absolutely killer deal on an indoor climbing structure-type thing. As far as these hideous things go, it's pretty nice looking. The whole time we were talking about getting it, the plan was to put it in our unfinished basement. Then as DH was picking it up I started to think about the logistics of that. Our basement doesn't leak or anything, but it's still an unfinished basement with a lot of random junk the kids shouldn't get into. I'd have to be down there with them all the time, and for my own piece of mind we'd have to get some foam tiles or a carpet remnant with really thick padding in case anyone falls off the play structure.

So, would I be crazy to just take the furniture out of our dining room and stick the thing in there? On one hand it pains me to think of disrupting the one room in our house that is always spotless and kid-free. On the other hand, it's always spotless because we've only used it maybe five times in the entire time we've lived here.

Thoughts? Opinions?

Ttimes3 · February 2011

We did it (until we finish our basement), so you know my vote.

Meg41208 · February 2011

I probably would, until your basement is finished (if that is your plan). Your kids aren't really at the age where you can send them to the basement without supervision anyway, and if you're like me, I like to see natural daylight while it's still light out and wouldn't particularly enjoy spending daytime hours in the basement (surrounded by toys).

We are going to turn our (currently unfurnished) "formal living room" into a playroom as soon as we can get the carpet replaced (which we won't do until we can have the windows open for a few days while the new carpet smell dissipates).

We will finish our basement, but that's probably more like a 5-10 year project since remodeling the kitchen and master bathroom are higher on our household project priority list than a finished basement. I see DD and future children spending time down there as teenagers but not right now in the toddler years.

Traycee1242 · February 2011

We did it too.

We aren't able to finish our basement as it is an old house and the ceilings are too low. We are planning on moving in about 2 years.

A few months after DS started running around I just thought what a waste that room was... we don't entertain often (and when we do our friends bring their kids) so we said "screw it!" and made it into a play room. I'm so glad we did.

ryry1977 · February 2011

This is what we are planning on doing to our dining room. That is if we get the house we are looking at to buy!

kel716 · February 2011

If it were my house, I would.

kmn3 · February 2011

I plan to. We never use the room, it sits with a nice table. I plan to follow your plan exactly. Why not?

gimbal · February 2011

I'm glad you ladies don't think I'm crazy or trashy (at least in this case). We moved out the furniture last night. I'm feeling good about this. We don't plan to finish the basement for a few years and there isn't an egress window down there, so this just makes more sense.

gemduncan · February 2011

Nope, you're not crazy at all. We turned our dining room into a playroom. DH just finished our basement so now I am slowly moving everything that was in the dining /playroom into the finished basement. We plan to turn the formal dining room into a "game room" to play board games and card games. I'll have a small couch and bookshelf from Ikea in there along with a large coffee table to play games on.

Want a personalized experience?

To turn dining room into playroom or not?

Re: To turn dining room into playroom or not?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards