I always knew I wanted a separate area from sleep and play for our boys, they aren’t the best sleepers and so seperating the two spaces was something I thought they would benefit from. Having all their toys in one room has been really beneficial and we love how they play in there and how clean their bedroom stays!
When I first did up their playroom originally I just packed it full of colour and toys and things and thought it would work but soon realised that it was probably too overwhelming for them and it just encouraged them to be destructive rather then imaginative and creative so I’ve since stripped it back, still keeping it colourful but calm.
The Wall paper also makes such a huge difference to this space, it just adds a touch of something to rid all of the white!
As we are renting we used removable wall paper, goes on easy and no damage once removed! It really does transform the space.
These Desk Draws from Ikea are ideal for us! They are HUGE and store all of the boys toys in them, the are wheeled on the bottom so they are easy to open and I really loved the pop of colour. I put all of their natural/wooden toys on top of them to keep the space neutral and not overwhelmed. Don’t get me wrong though, our playroom isn’t full of beautiful handcrafted pieces and this is where the draws come in! I decided against clear containers because I wanted to be able to hide all of “shit” looking toys (in my opinion haha) so that they could still have them and they could pull them out whenever but having the big draws just made it a thousand times easier to pack away! There’s no organisation method in them, I’ve seen people do it but I just wanted to be able to open up the draws and throw it all back in with no fuss! I also highly recommend a soft play mat in a play room, it’s perfect for building and floor play; especially if you’ve only got hard floors or soft carpet, Lego towers need it!
Storage Draws – IKEA.
Wooden Doll house – IKEA
Grimms Rainbow Peg Dolls – Oskars Wooden Arc
Musical Instruments – Marching Bambino
Wooden Abacus – A little creation I made myself
Cane Basket – IKEA
Timber Desert Rainbow – Zilvi
Soft Foam Play Mat – Grace & Maggie Playmats
Removable Wall Paper – Milton & King
I love this little corner of the room, especially the prints! I usually have the animals set up on here in the cane basket because Bowie is obsessed with them and he usually takes them out and lines them all up. We also use this area for other fine motor skill play like threading and magnetics and drawing. The Table and stools are from Ikea, I just painted the tops of the stools different colours to add a bit more fun to the space but they come just as a raw timber. I think it’s important to have a table area for your children to play and seperate them from the floor. When kids are immersed in play, they need plenty of room to spread out!
Art Prints – My Hidden Forest
White round table – IKEA
Stools – IKEA
Toy animals – kmart
Wooden Art Hangers – Modern Monty
On the otherside of the room they have all of their arty stuff and small intricate activities like small lego and magnetics.
The higher shelves we use because some things need to be supervised and having them up high just means they have a place but can’t be easily accessed by small people. I love the idea of having a big art table with all the coloured pencils and crayons you could dream of but it just isn’t practical when you live in a home with white walls and creative toddlers!
It’s an easy way to store activities too so when the boys need to do something different I can just bring a container to the mat and we can play with something different.
They love the ikea play kitchen, we hacked it to make it more inviting just using paint from bunnings, it’s a rough job but they don’t mind thankfully! We’ve got a mix of hard and soft foods, I prefer the soft because it probably get’s thrown around more often then played with but it just means no one get’s hurt and it doesn’t send us in a world of pain if we step on something!
I love having the books on open shelves, this really encourages the boys to read them more so then if they were just stored in a box or shelf. It makes it easier for them to choose a book to read as well so they don’t have to pull everything out, and book covers are getting so pretty these days it’s nice to look at them and appreciate the illustrations!
Kitchen Setting – IKEA
Art Easel – IKEA
Soft Fruits – IKEA
Book shelves – IKEA
Bucket Chairs – Kmart
Desk is the same as the toy draws but without the draw
Wooden Rainbow – Oskars Wooden Ark
Wooden Mixer – Kmart
Ollie Ella Luggy – Dear Heart
Baby Doll Pram – The Mum Life
Wooden Wall Shelf with baskets – IKEA
And that’s it for this space! I hope it inspired you to create a magic space for you little babes!
Quick tips,
Keep it fun
Plenty of floor space
Easy to move furniture so you can switch things up!
Open ended toys and play (kitchens and blocks)
A big table
Activities and toys your kids actually like
Get rid of all the old or broken toys
Storage Storage Storage
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