There’s more to decorating a child’s playroom than just throwing up a new coat of paint and calling it a day. In fact, there are three separate areas you’ll need to consider for the perfect playroom.
A World of Pure Imagination: 25 Ways to Decorate Your Child’s Playroom
Practical
How much space do you have? What about doors, lights and sharp edges? Think about organization and storage space. Think about long-term cleanliness. You don’t want a playroom that’s going to turn into the hallway from The Shining every time your child spills a cup of red kool-aid.
Physical
This is where you start applying your vision to reality. Go to the hardware store and get paint swatches; ask your friends and neighbors for their spare timber; buy your stencils, fabrics, curtains, bedspreads and wall decorations. Try to see the room through your child’s eyes. Where will they run? Where will they store their toys? What will they see from their eye line?
Psychological
This is the most important decision of all. What is your playroom going to offer your child in terms of cognitive development? What do you want it to accomplish? Maybe you’re hoping for it to boost their creativity. Maybe you want it to improve their physical fitness. There’s no right or wrong answer here; it all depends on your parenting goals.
The three “P”s of the perfect playroom should be considered carefully as you design your child’s recreational space. If you need a little help to get the creative juices flowing, here are 25 kids playroom ideas to get you started.
1. Just Watch Out for Bugs!
If you’re worried about your kids enjoying the great outdoors, this is a great starter bedroom for your little tykes. The striped caterpillar cushion with the happy face, the large plastic tree with the many branches, and the little cubby holes in the window, tree, and bookshelf all make this room the perfect starter room for your future outdoorsy kid.
2. A-B-C, It’s Easy As 1-2-3
If your child shows a proclivity for art or if they simply have a lot of it in their genes, this room is a great way to get their colors flowing. Start off with something non-messy, like chalk, and put a lot of pieces of chalk in each color in each bucket. The stools allow them to stand and sit on the board as they want to and the pictures and projects hanging above, combined with the color palette, are a great inspiration.
3. A Book Nook with a Hook
We all know that readers love their quiet cubby holes and this space allows for both parents and children to be satisfied. The curtain provides the perfect reading privacy and it can be pulled back to show the room to full advantage for the parents. Many book racks and lots of pillows are necessary, of course.
4. Spelling for Success
Large magnet boards are perfect for teaching your kids how to spell and how to create their own words and inventions. This is also the perfect invention for kids who don’t know how to write their letters yet and still want to play around with the alphabet. This room encourages spelling and more reading, not to mention creative puzzle solving.
5. Playing House in a Real House
Give your kids a sense of what it will be like to own and live in their own homes by using this charming indoor kids space for both their sleeping and playing. A ladder gives them access to the second story (and reminds them to climb their trees outside their real house on a regular basis) and the front door and windows give them a real indoor feel.
6. The Classroom of Laura Ingalls Wilder
If your kid likes to play, color and read with their friends, they can do so easily at their own personal table along with their own personal wall to hang up their best artwork. Over time, they will outdo themselves in art because they want to make better pictures and impress their friends more.
7. Aiming for New Heights
If physical activity and athleticism are important to you, make sure your kids get all of it they can get with their very own climbing wall and landing mat. While you may not put your child’s favorite toys at the top for motivation, they will still get a kick out of climbing and then see how far they can jump down onto the mat below.
8. Adding the “Wow” Factor to Your Pow-Wow
This is a great room to get your kids in touch with their Native American heritage, whether you live in the city or out in the country. This private reading teepee encourages both playing with their friends and solitary reading of their favorite books. Make sure the teepee has blankets, pillows, and lots of books and good lighting coming from a cut out window inside.
9. The Basics of a Free Economy
Give your kids a very realistic feel for commerce and business by setting them up with their very own store in their room. A counter with built-in cubbies for their merchandise, a shopping cart and cash register for their transactions, and a board for the specials is a great place to start. Help them learn how to make shopping lists by setting them up with pencil and notebooks.
10. For Potty-Trained Children Only
It’s amazing what you can do with PVC pipe, some netting, and an awesome load of play balls. Make sure that your child is potty-trained or this scenario could get really messy, really fast. Give young kids a great feel for being submerged in water and kind of swimming around right in the comfort of their own room.
11. Who’s Afraid of a Few Chalk Stains?
A chalk desk entirely devoted to art creation is a fantastic resource for your little artists. Give them a box of chalk, an ultra-large wiper rag, and their favorite juice bottle and let them go to town on their table.
12. Delightful Dumbo Decorations
If your kid has a favorite character, animal, or set of books, having a painted, themed bookshelf for those books is a great way to instill a deeper sense of imagination in them when they think about their favorite stories. Put their awards, medals, and achievements on this shelf as they get older.
13. When Storage Meets Style
Kids don’t always remember from the spine of the book just how much they enjoyed the reading inside. Remind them of their favorite stories, decorate your kid’s room without extra fol-de-rol, and create a nice, cozy reading nook for them by transforming their wall and their shelves all into book display cases. Put a beanbag chair on the floor of their closet so that they can feel cozy and happy in their reading nook.
14. Kids Playroom Design Idea for Multiple Children
Facilitate group play by having a central table in a large corner of the room, complete with a variety of seats and a variety of tools available. Keep coloring, drawing, reading, and puzzle making equipment nearby so that they can play with anything they want.
15. A Little Bit of Sunshine for Rainy Days
Turn your child’s room into an outdoor paradise by painting the walls with outdoor scenes, setting up fun picnic tables and chairs, having a small slide in the room, and a nice little-suspended chair. Keep their imagination running all day long by putting them at ease in their environment.
16. Helping Your Kids Slide to Success
Combine sedentary comfort and active play by putting both nice, child-sized furniture in a comfy room and a nice big slide for something more active. Remember that kids want to always be moving and enjoying their time indoors and this is a great way to keep them active even when it’s rainy or cold outside.
17. Open, Airy and Ready for Crayon Scribbles
Take advantage of lots of daylight streaming into your child’s room by setting them up with soft, comfy cushions and reading benches, complete with lots of pillows and bookshelves. Take it a step further by creating a little three-walled mini-room of bookshelves around part of the window area.
18. Neat Kids Playroom Décor Will Encourage Tidiness
Giving kids smart, intuitive options for storing their books and toys will make cleanup so much easier. When children are expected to set things next to each other, they won’t always feel like this make sense. But when spaces are clearly defined like this shelf and rope caddy, they can easily and intuitively put everything back where it belongs.
19. Monochrome Musings from a Magical Room
Kids develop their black and white (and then red) color sense first, so monochromatic black, white and gray rooms help them to develop insight into different shades of color. This is a great room for babies and should be updated with color as the child gets older.
20. Showing Off Their Accomplishments
Help your kids feel like professional artists by displaying their best work in framed displays on a designated art wall. Art walls can be set aside for each kid in your family and every child can contribute to their own wall. Over time, save old artwork while replacing it with more mature works from the more mature artist.
21. Alice Says Hello
Give your kid a sense of unordinary things by painting different colored patterns on their ceiling, hanging magical draperies around the room, and creating magical and active places for reading, trapezing, and for testing their muscular strength. Paint messages and descriptions of their magical place on the wall. Pick their favorite colors for the decorative streamers.
22. Short and Sweet Does the Trick
Define open floor plans by posting simple, clear messages on the wall showing what to do where. A colorful bright “Play” sign is perfect for the corner of a room designated for coloring, pretending, and dressing up. A “Read” section can designate a reading corner.
23. Making Friends in a Magic Tree House
Whether indoor or outdoor, treehouses are some of the most fun things in the world. Setting your kid up with their own hidden area in the corner of their room is a sure way to win their heart. Painted walls and indoor tree figures and a nice, firm rope ladder can finish it perfectly.
24. Sailing Away to New Adventures
If you live on or near the water, get your kid in love with rivers and seas right away. Set up brightly colored boats throughout their room, have the walls painted in the same colors and using the same types of boats, and make sure there are plenty of flags and ropes to play with to help them feel comfortable with the setup. This is a great way to get your kids interested in boating and sailing at a very young age.
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