Dining room come play room?

[kitkat321]

Anyone have a dining room come play room? We sacrificed our dining room to give dd a playroom - initially it was just somewhere to keep the jumperoo and chuck her toys and stuff at night so my living room looked tidy. Then I wanted to make it a proper play room so I got a wee ikea sofa, a storage unit, tv/dvd and a wee table and chair for her - despite all of this, she never plays in it - she goes and drags the toys out of it into the living room or plays upstairs in her room (she's 2 now). I was thinking about reclaiming it back as a dining room - at the moment we have an ikea gateleg table in the kitchen which is ok but a bit tight. I don't want to take it away though if she's more likely to use it when she's older?

Do people find it more useful as they get older? Her current bedroom is the smallest in the house but we will move her when she is older - we have 2 spare bedrooms that she could have so not lacking space upstairs.

The dining room isn't that big to begin with - 8ft 3 by 10ft 4 and I don't want it to feel cramped so I'm not sure if it would be big enough to be dual purpose?

Trying to work out the best options before I go and spend a small fortune on my first ever nice dining table only to regret it!

Why can't she have a play room upstairs? It's a change of scenery and the mess is upstairs! Do rotation boxes and bring one down each week - cups and dolls one week - trainset the next - coloring and crafts for rainy days

Then yes reclaim the dining room - look for storage stools or nice wooden toy box - maybe a cupboard for board games -

My kids are older and the retreat to their room s so it's lol short term

We've found our small children like to play in the room you're in so they'll always gravitate to the sitting room or a room linked to family spaces. Our toys are split between sitting room, dining room and bedrooms. My 6yo is happier playing on her own in her room now than she used to be so we're making more space for her upstairs. My 2yo is just copying her big sister so in time more and more will be upstairs hopefully. I do long for a more grown-up space.

I'd reclaim your dining room, put an oilcloth cover on the table to prevent damage and use it for crafts/homework (eventually) and family meals. I find not having a play room means I try to keep on top on how much toy clutter I allow to accumulate and move stuff on as soon as it's grown out of. I also put a crate of toys away for a few weeks and rotate where big things (kitchen/dolls house) are to keep them interesting.

A big sideboard would hold lots of toys behind doors in a dining room if you have the space?