Make your spare room the ultimate children’s play area

To the bah hum-bugs among us, having a children's play room in the house may seem like both a waste of time and money. There is some logic to that, obviously, as a play room uses up a space that could otherwise be used for a boring guest room or study. However, if your little monkeys are suiting of the title, you might want to consider one.

A play room keeps your children happily playing in one area of the house. Rather than their toys being spread out into every possible (and seemingly impossible) corner, their mess is contained in an easy to manage room. This means that when they are playing, they are not charging about the living room while you catch up on Coro, but are instead making a ruckus by themselves away from your tired ears. On top of that, restricting toys to a single room will mean they aren't scattered about your kid's bedroom when it comes to night time, meaning they won't be distracted when they should be sleeping.

Here are some kids decorating ideas to help you get started.

Painting a play room

Play rooms need to inspire creativity and fun in every essence of their being, from the walls to the furniture. That means bright colours galore!

With the furniture removed, you can now paint the space. For the floor you have the option to think in terms of practicality or fun. For example, if you want to keep things practical then go for a hardwood floor, so those accidental spills are easier to clean up. Think wood with a whitewash finish such as Resene Colorwood Whitewash to help illuminate the space with a more natural glow.

If you're more into fun, get a crazy carpet in there with stripes, spirals or other fun patterns. Blues akin to Resene Sports Star are fun, maybe even with highlights and stripes similar to Resene Buzz.

Moving up, the walls are a great place to let your own creativity burst. What kind of theme do you want the room to have? For a boy, will it be a pirate's treasure island or race car super stadium? For your girls it could be the fairy kingdom or wonderland tea party. Alternatively, keeping it gender neutral is as easy as painting with natural colours, like a forest or a beach, or adding in fun animals, insects and other quirky characters. 

Stripes, brickwork and other fun patterns look great with alternating colours, so try mixing yellows like Resene Turbo with reds, blues and greens.

Your walls could be play spaces too. Try making a magnetic blackboard wall with Resene Magnetic Magic and Resene Blackboard Paint, or a coloured whiteboard wall with Resene Write-on Wall Paint over your favourite colour.

Furnishing a play room

As this is not a bedroom, you can utilise maximum floor space for fun. 

A colourful table and chairs set would look great in a corner, offering the little ones a place to let out their inner artist (or do their homework somewhere a bit more interesting). Colours like Resene Get Reddy would look great for the table top, or Resene Softly Softly for something more relaxed. However, you may also want to keep with the theme of the room mentioned before. Consider what imaginative world you are trying to create and run with that for the furniture, too.

Make sure there is plenty of storage around the room, including bookcases, drawers and anything else you think will hold a plethora of toys. To keep floorspace open, build shelves into the walls, rather than purchase bulky furniture, so that the space doesn't seem cluttered or cramped. 

Finally, get some play equipment in there as well. How about a wooden boat or race car for the boys, or a castle, play kitchen or wardrobe for girls? If all else fails, throw in a bit of both and see what happens. 

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