A playroom that children actually play in? Ideas?

[sureitsgrand]

Hi, we are lucky enough to have a playroom- something I would have loved as a child! But- my DS 5 doesn't play in it. What am I doing wrong?! Any simple ideas for a playroom that encourages kids to play if that makes sense. I can't take a summer of it being ignored!
The walls are plain at the moment, it's carpeted. We have lots of toys but I'm not sure they are the right ones.

He likes cars, Lego, imaginex and superheroes.

Its not a huge room.

Help?!

We used to have a playroom. The only time I could get DS to play in it was if someone else was in there too, it was basically a large toy cupboard

My dc use their playroom a lot- older one watches tv/ plays xbox and lounges in the sofa and our youngest (6) will sit and read books/ colour etc. We put all the toys in ikea cube storage and labelled everything with pictures so she knows what's in each. Also have a big rug in the middle for putting today's toys on. It gets used constantly but also opens directly off our kitchen so is easily accessible and they can see and chat to us too.

Go in and start packing up all the toys and tell him because he has more than he can play with you are putting some away. Ime he will immediately start playing with said toys. Repeat as necessary.

It's a nice middle class idea to have enough space for a designated playroom DD had one tastefully decorated and well organised so that your children will express their creativity at various "stations" before curling up in the reading nook. In reality, it depends on the personality of the child whether they will use it or not. DD preferred the dining room table for everything

I had a play tent that I spent hours in! I actually preferred my brother's "space ship" one to my princess one! We also had one of those tiny indoor trampolines in our play room... Although I'm not sure that that would be considered safe anymore but it was great fun! 😁

Following with interest as myself and Dh have been musing this week about our playroom. Both boys have bedrooms (although I'd prefer littlest one not to play alone upstairs) and they have this shared tv room/playroom which they never use. Ds7 gets all his Lego out on my dining table every day and Ds plays in the lounge. We have a through room with playroom at the end so basically this is my only downstairs space and it's purely toys.

We are going to carpet the playroom, move out the big sofa and get 2 smaller chairs, and put the tv on the wall low down rather than above the radiator. Then get something from ikea that will work as a Lego building/playing area. We've said they can choose the wall colour and get sone posters/pics in frames and just generally make it a bit more child friendly.

Our playroom is more of a toy storage room and the toys always find their way to the main living room.

I'm a SAHM and have a 4 and 1 year old. We use the playroom as the main living room with the children during the day and only use the other living room for a change of scene or in the evening. We're in there most of them time when we're home. I think it helps them feel it's a "real" space, not somewhere they're bundled off. It's the default room visitors go in often so it's definitely well used! Most successful aspects of our (actually pretty small!) playroom:

Comfy old sofa
Coffee table for grown ups and also children to do stuff at
Kids table and chairs, where they can colour in etc
A side unit perfect height for my older DC to build Lego and a shelf for the creations to live on
Kallax storage - most stuff accessible to all the one bookshelf for keeping some things out of reach
TV - we're quite relaxed about TV and also use it to play music and dance etc

We haven't decorated it - white walls and ancient carpet (so I don't need to worry about mess). We stick pictures and things up on the wall and the children are allowed snacks and drinks unsupervised in there.

We don't have a playroom, but we have a 'childs' sitting room. I guess my DD is older than your child (9) it has a table and chairs for her to do craft, a big comfy arm chair with cushions and blankets and a tv.

Maybe a room just with toys in isn't very homely and too much like nursery but without any friends to play with?

I agree with other posters regarding making it ‘comfy’

We had a sofa in there, the computer was in there...back in the day when i only let them use it for a half hour a day at the weekend and there was a little telly

It’s still their room...but now its a much bigger telly and a nicer sofa...ds1 is sat there at the moment

We made our life space a play area but tended to be up there with the boys. They did go up with there friends , so was able to put a wash on, load the dishwasher or unload as needed. I generally didn’t leave them that long by themselves up there. We had play dough, train sets , paints , kitchen and a small amount of LEGO . It was a great area

Loft !! Not life!

I’m so jealous. I’d love a playroom even if it was just be for storage. At the moment, alll is the kiddie crap is in my living room. Don’t underestimate how nice it is to have somewhere to store the stuff separately.

Great storage is the answer IMO. If you have good storage, you can have your playroom wherever works best for you all. Our playroom moved around but as long as it all was shut away at the end of the day, I didn't terribly care where it was. My DC liked to be where the adult was when they were little, so their playroom was in what had been the kitchen diner (in the diner bit !). As they got older they were less concerned with being near an adult and more concerned with the TV / Wii / X box etc, so the playroom moved to the front room. I just moved the storage options around and we all did 'tidy up before bed' every evening & so the whole lot got cleared away every night & that seemed to work fine for us.

Put a tv in there.
Just kidding
Maybe take away alllll his toys and just put 1 or 2 in the playroom . Should entice him to go in

Little children want to be with their family, not playing alone in a room. Unless of course their friends are round and then they might disappear in there fir a while.

When the teacher came round for the pre starting school visit she thought i was a childminder

Check out Pinterest - It gave me the idea of putting up an IKEA curtain rail that I hang their ‘art work’ on.

My oldest has only just started playing / hanging out in the playroom now at the age of 9. My youngest still prefers bringing toys into the lounge, she's 4. They will play in there together more than they used to though.

Our playroom was the converted attic- had their larger toys (construction, drum kit, etc), Lego, duplo, arts and crafts, toy cars, garage, dressing up boxes, t.v, PlayStation and computer. Then their rooms had, books, tv, DVD player, board games, and larger things like- Lego Harry Potter castle, Lego fire station etc that they would bring down stairs. Then in the living room we had one toy box of bits.

They used their playroom a lot, and their friends loved it, we even had a few knocks of ‘Can we come and play in the playroom please?’ No sorry dc are not here ‘oh,.... can we still play?’ Ummmm nope!

something like this as a rug so he can play with his cars.

Stay in sight. Keep up chatter about what he's up to until being in there is second nature.

reversible with a farm on the other side

If I had a playroom I would put some active toys in it like an indoor trampoline, climbing gym, stepping stones, gym mats etc. We have a climbing frame and trampoline in the garden for them which get really well used at this time of year so I think they would use an indoor 'gym' too.

My son was never interested until we added a sofa and side table so it looked like a mini lounge and he liked the grown up room for himself!