How does a playroom actually work?

[lecce]

Sorry for the stupid question but I am just wondering whether we will regret, in the long-run, designating a room as a playroom.

So new house has 2 good sized reception rooms and a proper sized kitchen-diner. Current owner is a child-minder so has the second reception room set up as such. With dc aged 3 and 5 it seemed the obvious thing for us to follow suit but I am just wondering whether people find them workable. Do you like spending most of the day in a room full of toys? Do you put a tv in? A sofa? The one we hope to acquire has lovely doors opening into the garden. Lovely but will we regret it in the summer when we may want to sit in there in the evenings but will have to be surrounded by toys to do so? Also, at what age do dc migrate to their bedrooms to lie moodily on the bed listening to music? When that happens, what do you do with the room?

I am probably jinxing our sale/purchase in posting this, but, hey...

I and my best friend both have playrooms which provide access to the garden. Mine is also a futility room to complicate matters. What you need is cupboards - vast floor to ceiling cupboards and loads of plastic crates which you can fill with crap and put in the cupboards and shelving built in for the stuff that isn't good in crates.

My friend's room has now largely reverted to a TV room with sofas etc now the kids are 6 and 9. Mine is more of a futility room than anything else although the toys are kept in there too.

Surely if the weather is nice, you'll want to sit outside in the evenings rather than inside?

Oh and sorry, I didn't answer your question. No, I don't think you'll regret it at all! It's great to have somewhere downstairs which is a designated kids zone - they know that's where their stuff lives and it's much easier to curtail its movement around your home.

We have a 'playing room' as it's called by DS1. They are 6 and 2 and we've had this room for 5 years.

It is good having a room to put all the toys in. It's also our dining room, so we have our table in there up against the wall. It's used for sticking and painting and what-not.

We have the computer in there, and DS1 also does his homework there.

All the toys migrate though. But sometimes in the evenings I just chuck them (the toys) in there and shut the door.

We redesigned our house 3 years ago, its all open plan downstairs, except for a loo and a playroom off the hall.

The playroom is never used. Its used for toy storage, and occasionally if someone wants to watch something on TV and we don't. My DC just like being in the same room as me - GAH! They are nearly 9 and 6. GAH!

I think they migrate when you decide you have had enough. About the age of 7 for mine!

I can't help thinking that when they are young, they want / need to be in the same room as you, so it wouldn't get used then except when you can be in there, and then when they get older, they can play in their bedrooms. I can understand why a CM needs one, but I can't see the point in what is 'just' a family home.

A Playroom - toys live in it in boxes - in theory to be brought out and played with there or elsewhere and put away at night.

In practice at the moment I cannot get in ours as DCs have tipped the contents of every single box out and emptied the book case all over the floor - and I can't face sorting it.

What usually happens is all the toys migrate elsewhere - then I throw them back in the playroom - when that happens it works well not to have toys everywhere all the time.

We have one and it's always been useful. When we first moved in (pre kids) we had our piano in there, and it was a lovely, grown up space. Then the twins were born and it became a dumping ground. At the same time, our living room became crowded with toys etc. When the girls were a year or so old, we moved the piano into the dining room and turned the other room into the playroom. It was great to get the toys out of the living room. It did mean that I spent quite a lot of time in the playroom, and of course things migrated through... But it was lovely to be able to close the door in the evening and have a relaxing living room back. The twins are 6 now and play v happily in there. All their crappy art and craft stuff is in there as is their Lego etc etc. obviously things still get brought through and they do get arsey when asked to tidy it up but I do not regret having one! They share a bedroom so it's nice for them to have a second room, IYSWIM.

We have a playroom downstairs and I love it. My children are 5 and 4 and admittedly a lot of the time they bring their toys into the lounge to play with but it is so nice to put everything away at the end of the day and have a nice tidy lounge. We have lots of storage in there (I recommend Ikea for this) and in the future the plan is to put a sofa, TV and computer in there for them.

We always had a playroom which started off full of brio and puzzles, moved on to swords and lego and is now housing a 'table football' table, a large TV, playstation, XBox, wii and all the associated crap that goes along with them... we dont allow TV's and consoles in their rooms - that way they have to continue to share and socialise with each other !!

I use ours for toy storage and for doing crafts etc on a little table.

DS doesn't play in there on his own - he's only 19mo- but it is useful as a toy storage place. I hate having toys in the sitting room and upstairs in the bedroom is impractical

We have this set up, though the doors to the garden are from the lounge rather than the playroom.

The DC are 4 and 2 - we have a huge floor to ceiling dresser which is full of puzzles and board games etc, then a table with storage tubs and other stuff. We also have a computer desk and a sofa in there.

It works really well for us - the DC take toys from the playroom all over the house, but they all get put back in the playroom at the end of the day and the lounge is a toy-free area.

Our kitchen diner only has a four seater table in, so at christmas we move some of the toys into the garage and set the playroom up as a dining room (which is it's formal function).

It works really well for us as a second sitting room - if I have someone over Dh can watch films in the lounge while I gossip and drink wine in the other room with my friends.

When it's no longer a playroom we'll probably set it up as a dining room, though I'd like to keep the desk and sofa too.

Ours is a room off our living room but with doors so we can throw the toys and other crap in there at the end of each day, close the doors and then pretend we are child-free people.

We cleared it out recently as we have an older DD and a toddler DS who has just started wanting to play. DD is at school, so we have removed a lot of her dolly/baby/pink crap and put it in her bedroom, and given the train/car/Lego stuff more prominence. DD doesn't spend much time in there anymore.

Storage is essential. We have a sofa so that we can sit in comfort whilst they play. No TV. A play table of some kind is handy if possible. Get a big colourful rug or that slot-together foam flooring so that the room can also be used for messy play or painting.

Sorry posted too soon

He brings out toys to the sitting room / kitchen and we play with them then tidy away before bed. We dot spend all day in there, but a fair bit of time. Ours has French doors to the garden too so we are in and out.

Dd has her playroom next to the kitchen. It's a godsend and I chose a house with 2 reception rooms for this reason. She is old enough at 3 to play in there independently for periods - not always v long! It made putting her in the small bedroom easier as she doesn't need toy storage space.

She has a little table and chairs for drawing etc and a big play may for putting out trains or happy land etc

We got her a drawer unit from homemade that has canvas drawers that are more like bins in a single row each a different colour. She has a drawer for vehicles and one for music toys etc etc. I had to make everything accessible to her.

I am getting rid of a tent and a ball pool - take up too much room and don't get ayed with much and putting in a sofa as I am about to have dd2 and I can't sit on the floor and bf all the time!

It's taken a bit of work to make it work for dd but when she has a friend over it works brilliantly and they do mostly stay in there. I am the kind of person who can shit the door on the messy playroom and relax though! Dd has one basket in the living room of toys which I empty out back in her play room frequently.

If you are on Facebook there is a page/group called 'play at home mom' which is an American lady who does lots of Montessori/Reggio inspired stuff with her kids. She posts loads of pictures of what she calls 'the environment' and it gave me loads of ideas/motivation about how I wanted to do a playroom if I was able to have one. Ours is still a work in progress but I recently bought some more cheerful storage stuff from Ikea. What I really desire is a low play table with a raised edge but they are v spendy

Our playroom = a place to store toys (I love Expedit) which are then dragged into the living room to be played with and then abandoned til I lose my rag and demand that they move them all back.

It's only actually played in when friends come over.

It also houses our piano, so I often retreat in there to play when I can't stand looking at all the toys around the living room.

DCs are 5 & 8. They also only play in their rooms when friends are here. I'm hoping they'll use it more as a den/TV room when they're teenagers and don't want to be anywhere near us. Failing that it will become our study/music room.

So still hopefully worth having...

We have one,now dd is 13 I am trying to refer to it as The Study, especially as its DHs room now! He's in there watching sky tv, he's got his Xbox set up, the family pc, treadmill, drying rack, Hoover etc. anything unsightly!

Dd own the living Room, more sky, DVD etc

I live in the kitchen/diner, got huge comfy chair, free view etc

They both wanted us to add a conservatory, I said absolutely no way do we need to add another room that we won't sit in together!

We have a similar 'family room' with access to the garden. We have sofas and a tv in there and often DH and I find ourselves sitting in there in the evenings rather than the lounge as it is a comfy room.

Lots of storage for toys but it is cosy and we put in nice lamps etc.

My advice would be to look past the toddler/pre-school years and plan for a room that your children can play in with their friends and, as they get older, bring friends back for tv/wii/chilling out etc.

My conversatory has been taken over by DS as a playroom. It works quite well. It's good to have a large space to spread toys out in and not have to tidy everything up at the end of the day, I just shut the door on it! There's currently quite a large Lego town set up...

Toys are brought into the living room especially if DS wants me to play a board game or something with him but they get tidied back away when we're finished with them. As a result, there are very few toys in my living room, which is nice.

Visiting kids love it and sometimes it's even possible to leave them to it while the grown ups chat in the living room.

There's a sofa in there but no TV. ExP did have his Xbox set up in there but took it with him when he left and I've got no plans to replace the TV. Maybe when DS is older or if he gets a console of his own.

We have to reception rooms and a large kitchen diner. The front room is the grown ups room (no toys allowed) and the back room with patio doors on to garden is the kids room. They have a sofa and chair, tv with dvd player and all their toys that won't go in there bedrooms there.

There is no need for a dining room in our house so it makes sense for us to do things this way. ( they are 3 and 5 by the way)

As they grow older and want there privacy when friends come over etc they'll have a room to relax in with out parents breathing down there neck.

Would also be a room for a comunal work station for home work etc. And maybe exercise equipment.

We have a conservatory that we use as a playroom. It has an opening to it directly from the kitchen diner. It has doors onto the garden (obviously being a conservatory).

We have toy and book storage on the end wall, a play table which is used for drawing, crafts and messy play.

The room is divided by a cheap Ikea sofa (Klippan). And on the opposite wall we have a large desk, a TV and a dresser with games consoles in.

When sitting on the settee you can't see the toys. And I spend loads of time in there, even when I have no children.

I am a CM but only just started and we've always used it as a playroom.

I like ours but it has taken us ages to get the furniture layout right.

Ours is part of the converted garage and tiny 9 foot squared perhaps.

But really really useful, particularly as they get older.

It means they can play wii / watch dvds etc without taking over the tv.

Teens can gather without us having to listen to them and vice versa. Much better than them hanging round the park or wherever - downside is they all congregate here and eat us out of house and home

Craft projects can be left out whilst work in progress.

Sofa bed in there for sleepovers