As a mum to two young boys, I know how much mess little ones can make. I could tidy up my house, turn around for a few seconds and my whirlwind sons would have already spread their toys everywhere.
I know that as a parent, a bit of mess is to be expected. However, when you’ve spent what feels like hours cleaning, only for the house to get messed up in seconds, it’s frustrating.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this recently, trying to work out what causes the house to get messy so quickly. I realised that it’s the fact that the kids don’t have a place of their own to play in. They have their bedrooms upstairs, but nowhere else to play and keep their toys, which makes it harder to keep things tidy.
The key to combating this problem would be to give the kids their own playroom. I have actually, been thinking about this for a while, which is why I have lots of ideas to share with you in this post.
In case you are also considering creating a playroom for your children, I thought that I would share some tips and ideas that I have found useful.
Choose wipeable flooring
We all know that children get dirt everywhere, so it makes sense that their playroom should have wipeable flooring. Whether that’s real wood flooring or laminate or vinyl, it doesn’t matter, just as long as it’s super easy to clean.
While most easy-to-clean flooring is ideal for a playroom, tile and slate is not suitable. It might be long-lasting, but these types of floors become slippery and dangerous when wet. Plus, as slate and tile floors are so hard, if your children were to slip over, they could really hurt themselves. Keeping that in mind, you could consider vinyl flooring from flooring sites like grosvenor-flooring.com as an option, as they are generally low maintenance and can easily be cleaned. They are also quite durable and cost- effective, thus proving to be a viable option.
Make it a creative space
If you want to encourage your little ones to express themselves through art, why not make their new playroom into a creative space? Instead of using regular paint for the walls, opt for chalk paint, so that they have the freedom to doodle.
Don’t let the misconception that chalk paint only comes in black put you off of this idea, as that’s not the case. Chalk paints come in a range of colours, so whatever type of space you want to design, you can.
As well as having walls that can be drawn on, it’s important to think about how else you can encourage creativity. Adding art items, like an easel for painting on, is the perfect way to help your children to use their playroom to be more creative. You could also add an arts and crafts box to the room, filled with paper, buttons, stickers, and all sorts of crafty things.
Incorporate bright colours with accessories
Children love bright colours, well my kids do, anyway. So it makes sense to use vibrant shades to decorate the room. If you have decided to go for white or light coloured walls, you can still make the room bright and bold, by using accessories.
Just like every other room in the house, your children’s playroom needs accessories. It might be a space for playing in, but it still needs to be stylish and well-designed. You can use items like the curtains, play table, pictures on the walls, and storage containers to add splashes of colour to help brighten it up.
Add educational elements
As well as being a space where the boys can play, I also want their playroom to be somewhere that they can learn. Even though they are only young, I believe it’s important for children to start learning from a young age.
The type of educational elements that you choose to add to your child’s playroom will depend on their ages. For younger children, however, things like counting charts and alphabet posters are ideal resources. An abacus, play money and cash register, and dot-to-dot books are also great.
If you want to give the room a magic sparkle, you could consider covering the ceiling with glow-in-the-dark stars. To compliment the stars, you could hang planets around them – this is an idea that I saw online and loved. It teaches your children about the solar system and adds some sparkle to where they play.
Make it personal
If you want to ensure that your kids love their new playroom as much as you do, it’s a good idea to add some personal touches. Children adapt better to new places if there is a sense of familiarity to them, so making the room personal is a must.
An idea that a friend mentioned to me was getting bunting that spells out each of the boy’s names. This could be hung in the playroom, with one string of bunting at each end, to help make the boys feel happier to play in there.
Another great idea to add personality to the playroom is investing in canvas prints of family photographs. You could also consider taking a photo of your children’s art and having it blown up and put onto canvases.
Don’t forget about storage
For most of us parents, the idea of creating a playroom for our kids came from being fed up with too much mess. If you want to combat this issue, the key is to ensure that there is adequate storage for toys and games. Otherwise, the mess will just move from your living room to the playroom.
Instead of investing in storage crates and chests, why not consider built-in storage space? This could either be storage wardrobes or even built in storage boxes that double as seats. There are so many many options for built-in storage, so whatever space there is, you can work around it.
Creating a playroom that your children will love, doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, by following the simple tips mentioned above, you can design them an amazing play space. All you need to do is ensure that room is bright and fun, and your children will love playing in there.