12 Fun and Functional Playroom Ideas
Do you have a playroom dedicated to play and games for your kids? Here are 12 playroom ideas that will give you a functional, organized, and FUN playroom.
Designate a corner of your playroom to act as a dress up area. Put a full-length mirror that’s tall enough for your kids and hang up their dresses and costumes near it. Your kids will love having everything at reach and a mirror for them to admire themselves. Add even more storage with an ottoman that can hold shoes, hats, scarves, and tiaras. If your kids have a lot of dress up clothes, you could DIY this nifty dress rack!
If you have an awkward wall in your playroom with a window and not much wall space, you can turn that spot into a window seat with side by side shelves. You don’t need to pay lots of money for a custom install — pay a visit to IKEA and grab three of their Kallax shelf units. Put one below the window and the other two standing on both sides of the window. Add storage boxes that fit into the shelves and a cushion on the “bench” and ta-da, you’ve got a great storage solution that looks great AND extra seating for your kiddos.
Don’t forget to decorate the walls with lots of art to stimulate your kids’ imagination and creativity. Not sure what art to use? Consider art from much-loved kids’ books, such as Eric Carle. Don’t go ripping up your kids’ books just yet — look for decorative prints of these books. Like this one! Or you could scour thrift stores for used copies of your kids’ favorite books and cut out pages from those.
Another great art idea for the playroom is interactive art: something that you can take down and let the kids play with, and then hang back up when they’re done. This truly great felt board is fun for kids to play with by rearranging all the people, vehicles, and animals in the park, but it also looks really nice in the playroom.
Kids create a lot of art and they love to see us display them. Make it easy by adding hanging clips in your playroom. Whenever your kids complete a masterpiece, you can just clip it up without fussing with tape or pins. And it’s easy to swap out older art pieces for newer ones. Depending on how many kids you have, you might want to have two or three or four of these hanging clips, or curtain wire with clips, which is what they’re called at IKEA.
Yes, hopscotch is traditionally an outdoor game, but there’s no reason why it can’t be moved indoors. The game is confined in the lines and there’s no real throwing, so go ahead and put it in your playroom! You could paint the lines right on the floor, but an easier solution would be to use tape to make the lines. Paint tape would work great on wood floors, while duct tape would be just fine for carpets. There’s a lot of colorful duct tape on the market now; choose one that matches your playroom’s decor.
Kids are physical creatures and they often need space to run, swing, and experiment with what their bodies can do. That’s usually done outside in a playground, but sometimes it’s too cold or too hot to go outside. If your playroom is big enough, consider putting in some playground features, like gymnastics rings, a climbing wall, a swing, a ball pit, or even a slide.
Chalkboard walls are popular in playrooms, but why not take an extra step and make your chalkboard wall magnetic? That way, your kids can draw with chalk AND play with magnets – double the fun. Use a combination of magnetic primer and chalkboard paint to make your magnetic chalkboard wall. Make sure to stir the magnetic primer thoroughly and do two coats so the magnets will stick to your wall. To make your chalkboard wall prettier, consider framing it with molding or window casing.
If you have texture on your walls, you still can have a magnetic chalkboard wall. Try this great tutorial!
Dedicate a spot in your playroom to the exciting activity of reading! There’s a lot you can do to make a reading corner a perfect place for your kids to sit back and escape into another world. Install rain gutter shelves or ledge shelves to hold your kids’ books, put down a couple of bean bags, and a lamp or sconce. You could also put in a tepee to make it even more cozy. If you have an unused closet in your playroom, you could turn it into a reading nook like this one.
Crayons, pencils, pens, markers, and chalk can get disorganized fast… but when they’re organized, they’re often hidden away and kids forget about them. Solve both problems by using glass jars, such as cookie jars or candy jars, to hold art supplies. These glass jars could be used to hold small toys, like marbles, and craft supplies, like stickers and pom-poms.
Do you have kids who are addicted to Legos? Organize all these tiny pieces with the help of a Lego table and a few plastic bins. There are many different versions of a Lego table, but a great one is this one hacked from an IKEA LACK coffee table. Put Lego road plates or any other Lego base plate on top and organize all the pieces by color or type into the plastic bins. Put the bins on the shelf and under the table and rest easy knowing you’ll never step on a tiny Lego piece again.
Not sure how to organize the plethora of stuffed animals that’s overtaking your playroom? Put them in wall mounted garden baskets! Take out the lining, spray paint the baskets in any color you like or leave them as is, and mount them on the wall. Put up all of your kids’ stuffed animals in these baskets. It’ll still be easy for your kids to see and if you hang them low, they can grab whatever stuffed animal they want. This is also a cute way to decorate a wall or a corner of your playroom.
How did you like these playroom ideas? I’m sure you’ll find a few ideas from this list that would be useful for your playroom. What other playroom ideas have caught your eye lately?
I’m Elisa and I live in Austin, Texas with my husband and our two little girls. I used to teach reading and writing, but now I stay at home with my two kiddos and read and write in my spare time. I also love to undertake DIY projects, find new recipes on Pinterest, and dream about someday finally completing our home. Above all, I love to learn about new things and sharing my new-found knowledge with others.
