UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS

Playing around

An option for keeping the rest of your house tidy, while also providing a kid-friendly environment just for play, is a dedicated playroom or play space, if you can set aside the square footage.

Playrooms are both functional and practical for family homes; if you do not have an extra room in your home, then a corner of the living room or child’s room can be dedicated to play.

When designing your children’s playroom, you want to keep a few things in mind, like the space should always have storage for toys and play materials that are within reach for kids so that they may retrieve items and also store them away when play time is finished.

Sid Nama, executive director of Vertex Guam, a general contractor, said, “Recycling kids old toys to decorate the room has multiple advantages in reducing waste, changing designs often and keeping kids excited.”

You want the playroom to encourage imagination and creativity. One way to do this is to include your child in the decorating of the room.

Another great way thing to incorporate in a playroom is color. Walls and décor can follow a theme based on your child’s favorite or you can simply select a bold color to paint a wall and follow with some décor like a functional and comfortable rug, a coloring and painting table and chairs, pillows, bean bags and picture frames to provide accents. There are countless ideas to choose from. An outer space or underwater theme can be easy if your child is fascinated by

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Blackboards are popular additions to encourage creativity.

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these atmospheres. Other ideas can be a farm or zoo theme if the child is an animal lover. Maybe your child has a favorite cartoon character that you want to showcase, however an entire motif of one character might be a bit much because children sometimes outgrow favorite phases. In this case using colors from the same color family as the character will honor it but also all for adjustment in the future.

Some storage options for an organized playroom include cubby holes, built-in shelving units, large bins, wicker or wire baskets, toy boxes and bins that have a splash of color or follow a theme of the space and can be used for accents in the playroom.

Another fun idea to incorporate is a chalkboard on the wall which you can purchase and hang, or you could use chalkboard paint for a whole chalk art area.

Using your child’s favorite color and ideas to decorate the room are ways to celebrate your children and can really make kids adore their playrooms. This can help the child develop some ownership to the room which can also help with responsibility.

Nama said, “A kids’ playroom should be painted with writable paint. It will help kids use their imagination and keep the house looking neat without having to repaint.”

You want the playroom to be child-friendly and inviting so furniture should be appropriately sized and functional.

If your child is a book lover, a rocking chair and floor space for story reading is ideal. Though most things should remain stored within reach for the kids, some items may be stored out of reach if they have many small parts that could get lost, or pose a hazard. Items to be stored out of reach include board games, puzzles and Lego. p

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