Enjoy this article? Subscribe to the weekly newsletter to hear about them all.
Or grab my RSS feed 
The Perfect Play Space
Previous post: Cornflour Goo
Next post: Wordless Wednesday – The Devil’s Marbles
Science activities for parents of babies, toddlers and school children.
Get smart with the Thesis WordPress Theme from DIYthemes.
Siteshit Aljyyosh العاب طبخ
All material on this site copyright © 2009–2024
Facebook
Twitter
Email Newsletter
RSS
{ 14 comments }
Wow! Sounds great. What a big question! I’ll definitely have to come back here if we ever do build our own place.
I don’t have too many answers, but I do really like using drawers for things – they hide a lot of mess and kids (well at least my daughter) quickly learn which is the dress up drawer, which is the craft drawer, which is the puzzle drawer etc etc. I find it helps me clean up too as I’m also notoriously messy.
We have a couple of sets of the IKEA Trofast drawers – I like them because the tops are just the right height for DD – in her room we’ve glued bookends on them to double up as bookshelves.
We have some bookends, that’s a good idea everything keeps falling off the top.
I envy friends’ Ikea Expedit shelves. They’re cube-shaped and can fit various containers so they work as drawers.
Our playroom is carpeted so we do arts and crafts and other messy things in the sunroom. For me the most important thing is that everything has a place, otherwise the toys encroach into the rest of the house and become trip hazards.
rivqa´s latest amazing offering ..Standing and being counted
We have a set of low _very solid_ shelves (3 shelves high, around 2m long), we got from an ex-govey furniture place – it also has a cupboard at one end with changeable shelf heights in it. I use plasetic boxes rather than drwaers, and prefer them, as the kids can take a box of blocks, puzzles, dressups, animals, musical instruments, cars, drawing things, whatever – to where they want to play with it, and have the box handy for packing up afterwards. Using clear plastic boxes means they can see at a glance what’s where on the shelves, and things can be rotated into and out of their favourite shelf spot. We also do chalk, painting and playdough outside so there’s no mess to worry about. what about some hooks near the painting space for smocks (if you use them), or just hooks wherever at their height for hats and jackets for going outside – works a treat here. I know it IS possible to get tables with legs you can adjust the height on – though they are more school-ish tables than desks.[govt. clinics such as speech pathologists have them] .montessori have something similar too http://www.kidadvance.com/Store/Category.asp?catid=51&offset=12
so much food for thought….
HAVE FUN!!!
Thanks, those tables are the sort of thing I was thinking of. Hooks are a great idea, currently all our hats and umbrellas are in a drawer, a row of hooks would make it easier.
Seconding the shout out for the IKEA Expedit shelves – I :heart: ours http://leechbabe.com/2008/11/28/reconstruction-deconstruction-construction/
My mother in law painted one wall of her playroom with magnetic paint – she painted an island and the ocean around it. Then she made little magnet sail boats, people, houses, fish and so many other wonderful pieces. It looked just amazing and the grandchildren had hours of fun playing with it – even the grown ups did as she did the painting from floor to ceiling.
I’m finding in our own playroom that I really love the wooden floors – so easy to clean. We’ve gotten separate shelves now for the reading books and the activity/homeschool books. Also I love that we have a clothes rack the girls can hang up their dressup clothing on.
I want to to more with our ceiling space, we’ve got the plants hanging up and they glow in the dark, but I think more could be done with it 🙂
Marita´s latest amazing offering ..Sleep Deprivation – How do you survive
The planets, not the ‘plants’ hanging up on the ceiling.
Marita´s latest amazing offering ..Sleep Deprivation – How do you survive
MAGNETIC PAINT???? I gots to get me some of that! There’s one decision made.
I’m glad the wooden floors are easy to clean, I was thinking they would just need a vacuum but wasn’t sure. I have some clothes racks, great idea.
Wow! I’m so jealous!
If we had some kind of playroom, I would definitely be painting one wall with magnetic paint. That way you don’t need a giant whiteboard, magnets will go straight on the wall, and you can attach artworks etc with magnets easily.
Enjoy your new space.
Oooh how exciting to have a nice big play space to dream up!
I really love play spaces with loads of natural materials in them, so if we had the space I’d probable sand smooth and bring some of our big wood stumps. I also really love the Steiner inspired play stands… they are so versatile and can become so many things. They are not cheap but I’m sure I’ve seen plans online to build your own…
I hadn’t even thought of natural materials, I tend to think of them as outside toys. We don’t have any large tree stumps, but I’ve been watching Teacher Tom’s tree part toys progressing. I’ll have a look around next time we’re at the farm.
I’ve only seen the Steiner play stands a couple of times, I’ll have to check them out.
we had fantastic cupboards in our old place, in our opinion much better than shelves. the kids knew which things went where, and the room was ablw to actually look tidy occasionally. will have to get some magnetic paint here too.
most important tip? not having doors in every wall of the playroom. make sure that the path from one door to another is not over the very middle of the room where there are sure to be toys and other stuff layed out.
There will probably be doors on two opposite walls, I like the idea of making an actual ‘path’ from one to the other, then they know there’s one area that must be kept clear.
This sound so much fun! I would love to see pictures of the room! I’m sure it looks very good and your kids love it!
Melissa @ chalkboard stickers for wall´s latest amazing offering ..beach
Comments on this entry are closed.