Tell me about your playroom

[bananapancakes]

The house we are moving to has a finished basement and we are planning to turn part of it into a fully child proofed playroom. I'm in the process of gathering ideas now so tell me about yours.

I definitely want a large, shatter proof mirror on one of the walls as L loves looking at himself. I spent a ton of time looking around and could only find super expensive ones at daycare suppy stores. After much googling, I found that Home Depot carries shatter proof, acrylic ceiling tiles so I'm planning in getting one of those. Here's the link if anyone is interested. www.homedepot.ca/product/acrylic-sheet-mirror-118-inch-x-24-inch-x-48-inch/924852

My next challenge is the floor. It's hard wood right now so I definitely want some sort of mat. I have those foam puzzle piece tiles but I hate how they always come apart. I'd really like a couple of gym mats, like the ones from elementary PE class but they are crazy expensive. I'm looking at this one but it is $155.

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What do you have on the floor? What do you love about your playroom? What would you like to change? PIPS are appreciated!

[ECB]

I don't know the exact brand, but we have the following mat down in DSs room. The alphabet. We have the #s too, but they are in a closet. This has been in his room for 4 years now - they've held up great!

www.toysrus.com/buy/reading-writing/imaginarium-alphabet-numbers-foam-puzzle-mat-36-piece-5f5e93b-11773791

One thing I love about our playroom is our comfy couch. I wanted to have a comfy place to sit and to even entertain when we have friends over and the kids are playing.

We also have a wall of cupboards - lots of easy storage that can easily be closed and hidden away.

[ECB]

Oct 30, 2014 7:59:22 GMT -5 @this said:

My favorite things in our loft/playroom are the couch and the TV. lol

We actually recently bought a new TV for our playroom.  The old one was OLD and huge.  I figure if we want to fully use the room, including when DS wants to watch a movie or something, having a nicer TV would be NICE.  It's not big - I don't want it to overwhelm the room or take too much focus - but... yeah.  When I have 2am wakeups where I can't fall back to sleep - guess where I go?  The playroom to watch TV and fall back to sleep.

[chickens987]

bananapancakes, do you have an Ikea (don't remember, sorry)? They have gymnastics mats for $30.

[dragonfly08]

We have a vinyl plank floor in the playroom. There's a foam world map mat on one side, and a carpet from IKEA on the other, plus two bean bag chairs and a play table and chairs. That gives the girls plenty of places to sit and play comfortably. Although they really don't mind just being on the floor, either. What I love is that it's their dedicated space; we have a lot of shelving units bolted to the walls so the vast majority of their toys and books and games can stay down there. Keeps the rest of the house, especially their room, much neater! And they love that b/c it's their space, I don't make them clean everything up at the end of the day...if they build a great block tower, it can stay there to be used again tomorrow. I just close the basement door and forget about it!

[redheadk]

We had wood floors in our old playroom and it was completely fine. We had a woven cotton rug (so not plush). I don't know that I'd choose one again, it wasn't any better for cleaning than a regular rug but it was cheaper and I can have it washed if I need to.

[bananapancakes]

Oct 30, 2014 9:08:44 GMT -5 chickens987 said:

bananapancakes, do you have an Ikea (don't remember, sorry)? They have gymnastics mats for $30.

Yes! Our new house is 15 minutes from an Ikea. I shall check it out!

[hrp22]

I am not of a fan of primary colors in my house so I looked long and hard at mats that were comfy, safe, but yet not so bright. I found these "wood" mats, that are actually foam, that look like wood. When people walk down the steps and first step on the foam, they are freaked out because they legitimately thought it was a solid surface.

I got mine in light oak, and love them. I think they make the playroom and I'll use them again if we should move and face a similar problem.

www.foamtiles.com/tiles/58-soft-wood-tiles.html

Here's a pic right after we put them in.

[Marmee]

I tried out those foam tiles in my very first playroom 9yrs ago & not a fan. My kids had wood floors in their playroom (& sometimes an area rug) up until 2yrs ago. Now we have Berber carpet in the main areas (tile in the art room). We have an IKEA sectional, TV console in one area...in the other we have a tent, Nilo table/bins & IKEA egg chair in the other. There is a large closet that has 2 IKEA Expedit units with toys on one side, a large clothes rod (tons of dress up clothes), a shelf above (board games) & a book case full of manipulatives on the other.

[mrsGreeko]

We use the room that is meant to be an office as our play room. It's great because it has French doors with windows so you can see in without disturbing the kids. Then we put the office in the finished basement.

It has hardwood floors so we bought a rug at target for like $30 to put down. There is a futon in there and under the futon are underbed storage containers with dolls in one and games in one. Then against the wall opposite the play kitchen and little table are there. Against the futon is
The toy box with dress up clothes in it and books
On the bookshelf on it and opposite
Is one of those 9 cube shelf things with the Legos, horse stuff, misc, Barbie stuff, puzzles, etc. above that there is a
Pet net to hold stuffed animals. In various other books and crannies are things like doll strollers/beds, ride on fire truck, grocery cart, etc.

[electricmayhem]

Our playroom is in our (finished) basement, so it has wall-to-wall carpet. When we were considering doing a hard-surface flooring down there, I looked at mats to put on sections of the floor, but ultimately decided I'd buy an inexpensive rug. I think the foam tiles come apart too easily, which would drive me crazy. Plus, I think they are too expensive for what you usually get.

I bought four of the 3-shelf Carson bookcases from Target, lined them up and bolted them all to the wall. I also bought eight fabric bins from there for storage. We have quite a bit of wallspace above the bookcases, but it's empty for now. I'd like to incorporate a blackboard and art station when my kids get older, and framed sheet metal to display artwork w/ magnets at some point. We also have a train table, table and chairs and a standalone indoor trampoline. Our sectional marks where the playroom ends and TV space begins.

[InBetweenDays]

Our basement play room is carpeted, but you could use those Flor tiles. They have adhesive that keep them together and if ones gets dirty/ruined you can easily replace it. m.flor.com/category/roomtype__nurserykids.html

Here's our playroom. We have the Ikea Expedit bookcases to store the toys, a play table from Land of Nod with drawers under it, and we adhered a long thin piece of metal to the wall to hang art/photos (just above the table). We have a storage/crawlspace behind the wall, so we built that chalkboard frame which can be removed to access the storage.

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[redpenmama]

Our playroom is carpeted, but we have a thick 5x7 rug in the middle of it. The kids tend to pull the toys into the middle of the floor and play there, so it creates a bit of a play space for them. IKEA has cute/colorful rugs that would be perfect for a playroom.