To wonder if I can pull off a 'disappearing playroom'?

[VeniceQueen2004]

It's probably just the lockdown crafty competitiveness and Pinterest overdose talking, but I've got this crazy idea...

We live in a terraced house with quite high ceilings but a very small yard. I have an active three year old, and I am dreadful for buying/borrowing things for her so the play room (also our main lounging space) is very crowded with her toys etc.

I remember a while ago seeing this:

basically its a Dutch company who designed a 'dissappearing office' - basically, all the desks etc were on cables which winched up into the ceiling space at 5pm to encourage better work/life balance.

I'm wondering if there's any way I could do this in the playroom - i.e. have some things winched up into the ceiling except when in use? i'm thinking maybe a hammock (she loves them) and/or a rope ladder/some sort of light climbing apparatus as she's well into climbing at the moment and my sofa can''t take any more! So nothing heavy like a rocking horse or something that might crash down onto our heads unexpectedly

Give it to me straight Mumsnet, am I batshit?

[HoneysuckIejasmine]

You are, but I can understand why!

[LivingThatLockdownLife]

Or just get a Kallax like the rest of us

[VeniceQueen2004]

Thanks @honeysucklejasmine - at least i'm not totally out there. John Lennon's Imagine plays in background :P

[HoneysuckIejasmine]

Yeah Kallax is your friend. Alllllll the kallax.

[onwheels]

looks great in that video.

sounds like a great idea to use the high ceiling but not sure if a climbing wall or ceiling bars are a good idea as the ceiling or joists might need to be strengthened and the lifespan of the apparatus might be quite short as your child grows. it might also be a bit in your face (obstructive), lol!

honestly, if i were in a victorian terrace, i would fit floor to ceiling built in cupboards with a desk somewhere behind doors for your kid to do craft/art/ jigsaws when they get a bit older is 6+. this could be very pricey if you get it custom built and installed

[TimothyTerrible]

I’ve no idea, but the yoga (or Pilates?) is hilarious. Thanks for sharing that

[Samtsirch]

What if your daughter got accidentally winched up to the ceiling too?

[Beachcomber74]

You need one of those giant balloon nets that hold balloons up In across the ceiling then release at weddings/proms.

[TiddlestheCat]

I have fitted IKEA sliding wardrobes in my playroom/lounge. It houses a toy kitchen/ dolls house etc, all of which can be accessed by sliding the doors without the need to drag them out. It also has the TV in there/drawers for puzzles and games etc. It's a godsend. And nice and white and minimalistic, because I can no longer cope with anymore visual overload!

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

Seriously- get a kallax. Pick grown up looking storage boxes and fill them with kids shit.

[TheCanyon]

This is genius, fuck the kallax, so it!

[VeniceQueen2004]

@Samtsirch

What if your daughter got accidentally winched up to the ceiling too?

Oh my God she'd fucking love it

[VeniceQueen2004]

I LIKE the sliding door wardrobe idea! Thanks for that!

[VeniceQueen2004]

I'm not a big Kallax fan... just don't like the boxiness, feels unfriendly. Bloody useful though!! We've got a small Trofast for her Duplo/Playmobil/endless fucking crayons, but it's the big items - play kitchen, doll's house, rocking chair - we're struggling to work around. I'd just like them to go up to bed when she does so we can have some grown up space. We do have the front room but - fools that we are! - the telly's in the playroom, so when we should be sitting on the naice sofas next to the wood-burning stove, we're actually slobbed out in the playroom watching Tiger King and would like it to be a bit less fecking heaving with kid junk!

[MrsMoastyToasty]

I used a 6ft tall office cupboard with a roller front which I bought from a junk shop. Boxed games on one shelf, crate of Lego on another. Deep enough for everything else too. I sold it on afterwards for more than I paid for it.

[TiddlestheCat]

Here's mine.

[burritofan]

Why not... move the TV?

[VeniceQueen2004]

@burritofan nowhere to put it in there! We bought two sofas wanting one for the front room and one for the playroom, turned out when they turned up neither one would fit through the door into the playroom so kept them both in the front - which actually makes it really cosy but nowhere for the TV to go (I'm unreasonably phobic about wall-mounted TVs, I just hate the sight of them for no good reason at all! Also we don't want the toddler in the good room eating biscuits and wiping bogies on the good sofas while she mainlines Peppa Pig :P

[SilenceOfThePrams]

One of those old fashioned wooden laundry airers - a Shiela maid? Cover it with hooks and hang all the bigger toys off it then just winch it up high.

Daytime, hang a blanket off it halfway down and you’ve got a play tent!

[Stripeytopgirl]

Come up with some elaborate hiding toy contraption or move the bloody tv?

@burritofan
has the answer 🤣

You have one room for adulting & one room for playing!!

[VeniceQueen2004]

@SilenceOfThePrams you are a bloody genius!

[SleepingMammoth]

For climbing, get a pikler triangle like a Tri-Climb or Wee'un.
You can buy various enhancements that hook on too, like a slide etc.

They fold flat when not in use, and you could use a bike-rack style hook to store them on the wall rather than on the floor?

[Wynston]

You just need to get over the phobia about wall mounted tv's they are awesome.....infact better than a kallax unit!

[VeniceQueen2004]

@SleepingMammoth oh god thepikler triangle!! That is perfect!

See this is why I love MN. Helpful kind people with brilliant ideas!

Wondering if this could also be hacked into an occasional playpen if I ever have another one

[SleepingMammoth]

You are most welcome! I've tried to attach a photo so you can see.

(Not my idea or my photo - saved it yonks ago from a FB group but don't know where from!)