Last week a few of us were chatting on Twitter about our play spaces at home and the lovely Jennie blogged about her immense playroom, which reminded me I have wanted to blog about ours for some time. So, with a poorly baby not up to much in the way of playing today, I thought it would be a nice way to round off a week of sensory and messy play photos. So here it is. Our playroom.
When we first moved here, this room was a dining room. We soon realised that the light and its location, with the french windows leading into the garden, made it a great art room. So The Big One set up her easel in here and when the pre-schooler was a baby, he had a lot of toys in here too. Our lovely big table was used as a painting table more and more and we found ourselves cramped around our small table in the ktichen at mealtimes. Little by little, we swapped rooms and ended up moving the table into the kitchen so that the dining room could become the playroom, doubled up with the office/ record room.
The big picture shows you the view from the kitchen (the room leads into this room) so that you can see how it looks as you walk in. My husband owns a LOT of vinyl. We also have the computer to the right there and lots and lots of books.
Picture number 1 is our sand tray. This is where it lives but we tend to move it into the kitchen when we play with it. I’m always looking for new ideas to fill the tray… Picture 2 is the reading area. The old bookcase behind the pre-schooler’s dinosaur table was renovated by yours truly, with vinyl wrap I bought from Homebase. The kids like to sit on this mat to read or play and the pre-schooler LOVES his dinosaur table. We also keep craft and cooking books here, alongside other books and CDs. Picture 3 is a view of the ‘Creative Area’ and behind the easel are the french windows which lead out to the back garden.
Picture 4 is the small world and role play toys, and on the floor is our car mat. The pre-schooler plays for hours with his tool bench and the doll’s house but soon I will swap it with the play kitchen that has been resting in the playhouse outside. Picture 5 is supposed to be the writing area (the drawers are filled with notebooks and pretty papers etc and the moon dust tray is sat on top of the desk) but at the moment I am storing some messy play materials that need a new home. The last picture is our creative and craft materials. This part of the playroom drives me mad at times. I love it to be organised (much like my classroom) and I really need some labels to make sure the kids are under no illusion what goes where.
So that’s it. We desperately need more storage but I know that we are SO lcuky to have a whole room dedicated towards play. You can’t see it in the pictures, but we have a string that runs across the ceiling where I hang the kids’ pictures. They love this room. It is a happy room and a place to grow, create and learn.I’m hoping we have many more years to spend in this room.
I spy your Tuff Spot!! Lovely room x
Ha ha yes there it is! We’ve yet to use it, I am itching!!!!
xx
GREAT rooms both of you!
Ah bless you. It looks nice when its tidy and I have to resist the urge to wait until they’re finished sometimes!
xxx
Jealous! I wish we had somewhere else to put our dining table and the accompanying stuff so I could surrender the dining room to be a playroom.
We’re really lucky to have the extra room. When Eva was born, I used to walk with the pram up the road we live in now and dreamt of living here. I never imagined we ever would and now we have been here 4 years. It was, and still is, our dream house and only getting better as we will fill it with kids!!
xxx