Where's your playroom?

[Tink]

Good morning everyone. Me and DH have been having a move round this weekend and have decided to make a designated play room for the children, so we can have all the toys etc in one room, which will be easier for them to self select their toys etc...
We are going to convert one of the big bedroom's I know I have to check it out with Ofsted first and get the room registered for use, but do any of you use an upstairs room for a play room?
I know I will need to risk assess the room etc but it will be brilliant for us all to have everything in one room instead of all over the house, what do you guys think? xx

[birch24]

I have mine in my conservatory which is open plan into the house so they come and go as they please, it does mean the toys spread themselves back into the house during the day, but get put back after they have left.

I suppose it depends what works for you. You would have to think about stair safety and whether you would want to spend most of your time upstairs.
It would also depend on the childrens ages.
What would happen if you were preparing lunch or dinner, would you have some toys downstairs so that the children could play where you could hear/see them.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

[blue bear]

I have the conservatory as the playroom, all on one level as we have a downstairs bedroom and loo and the children can freely access the garden.

Personally I would love an upstairs lounge and keep play areas down stairs that way when dh is off work he could relax in piece in front of tv and my work wouldn't disturb him.

You will need to risk assess practical things like answering the door or getting all the children downstairs for meals and outdoor play etc but can't see why an upstairs playroom couldn't work with careful planning

[Minstrel]

Persoanally upstairs wouldn't work for me as there are times when some children want to be outside and some indside. Also meal times and sleep times (they go upstairs so its quiet) would mean that weare constantly up and down and with three under 3's i don't think i could cope!

[Mamma4Ya]

I was thinking about making our spare room upstairs that we use as a gym into our lounge as we spend most of our time in the study upstairs anyway. That way I can have the living room downstairs as a play room for the children. Once we get established we will then be moving to a bigger house with 2 sitting rooms

[sweets]

I considered using my spare bedroom as a playroom, but decided against it for the practical reasons people have mentioned about going outside and cooking but also because i think i would go a bit stir crazy 'trapped' in one room. i like to potter about downstairs while the children are playing.

[angiemog]

I have thought about using an upstairs bedroom as a play room. For me it wouldn't work at pickup/drop off times. I would have to bring all mindees down each time. The same with snack and meal times. My dream is to have a house with an annex. I saw one recently with 2 big rooms, very small kitchen and a separate bathroom. And a lovely main house. The only problem was the location. It is set back on a VERY busy main road and getting in and out would be a complete nightmare. SIGHHHHHHH. It was in our price range too One day............

[miss mopple]

I used to have an upstairs playroom. I spent a fortune on it and it was beautiful. However, its really didnt work as it meant having some kids in the garden if others wanted to play inside tricky and I didnt like being confined to upstairs in my own home. If making lunches etc the kids had to come down to be in my sight too.

In the end I converted my dining room and made my lounge into a lounge/diner and that worked well

[sarah707]

The children use my dining room and I added a conservatory.

I have a table in the living room for everyone to eat and luckily there is enough space.

I would think the getting outside issue would be the trickiest to sort. That and welcoming parents - you'd have to bring all the children down with you.

Hth

[The Juggler]

my whole house

[Monkey26]

We have rejiggled our house so the front room is the playroom (can close the door at the end of the working week!) and the previous dining room is now our living room (freeflow into the kitchen). We are lucky enough to have a big enough kitchen for the dining table to be in there and our, now, living room is actually bigger than the playroom so we don't feel that we are missing out on any vital space xx

[Mrs Pootle]

My playroom is in the basement so I have the same issues you would have in terms of having to take children when I answer the door, want to cook etc.

I am lucky in that all mine are walkers over the age of 2 and generally just follow me to the bottom of the stairs if the doorbell goes, and then wait there whilst I answer. As the door is within sight of the top of the stairs I can see/hear the children and they get a nosey at who has rung the bell.

Meals is trickier, and so I generally have to take all the children upstairs to the ground floor with me, and they then read or watch tv in my "grown up" lounge whilst I quickly make lunch. As I don't do a full cooked meal this works ok, but if I was having to spend time peeling veg etc there might be an issue.

It does become a case of everyone having to do something at the same time, eg we all go out to play. This works ok as long as all the children are prepared to share activities. As mine have been used to this way of working from day one it is ok, but if your's currently have freedom to wonder in and out of the house and this is suddenly stopped you may have problems.

[Bananabrain]

In my dreams

[fatima]

I live in a very large bungalow which has 2 rooms upstairs and one I use as a playroom/childminding it is one of the largest rooms in my home plenty of room, I have a playarea, reading corner, telly area plus plenty of floor space to play, CSSIW was happy with me using the room, did have to have the Fire Brigade round to have a look and they were happy to. I like the fact that at the end of the day I can close the door and go down stairs and we have our own family space.

[Tink]

The added bonus is I work with my husband so there is two of us and at the moment if some of the children want to go outside and some stay in, me and DH do one or the other, thanks for all the replies xx

[mandynunn84]

i have a playroom upstairs. we are not going to spend all our time up there but i dont have much choice as in an army house and we dont choose where we live! x

[khlwomitchell]

free flow play inside and out will always be a bonus as far as oftsted is concerned x i love my conservatory work room x

[marleymoo]

[QUOTE=Minstrel;974983]Persoanally upstairs wouldn't work for me as there are times when some children want to be outside and some indside.

this would be a problem for me too. we spend most of our time outdoors actually, so much so that we don't really have an indoor play room as such, just a room where we can come in to play if it's too cold outside. i have had the area to the side of my house paved and covered with a clear UVA/UVB roof. there's lots of clearly marked resources boxes there with continuous provision equipment, where children can self select. we can build and draw there, read books on rugs and cushions, hang lovely voiles to separate areas, play with sand and water, pot plants, build dens - everything in fact. the kids walk straight through my front door and straight out the back door! you have to bear in mind that a lot of my kids don't have a garden of their own so this really is something that they look forward to here. i have an outdoor light in this covered area and i'm thinking of replacing it with one of those heat lamps so we don't have to come in if we don't want to.

[mushpea]

mine is my conservatory,, but i still take most of the toys out at the weekends and store them in the shed, toys do float in to my living room but i refuse to have them in the kitchen and dinning room,,mainly cause i wil trip over them! and partly because the dining room has paper and
crayons, puzzles, fuzzyfelts etc that the children can self choose so dont need any extras in there!
I do like the idea that my living room becomes mine at the end of the day when we have tidied and also we have a reasonable sized garden where the children like playing,, we had it block paved so its usesable all year round.

[kel1983]

we have a freeflow ground floor with front cosy room where the little ones sleep and storage, then a large dining room that flows through to the living room and out onto a large decked area covered over with plastic roofing. The children are allowed to play in the dining room, living room and the garden. We also have a downstairs toilet so no need for the children to go up the stairs (until their parents arrive and they mess around on them )

Upstairs we have a small spare room where we keep all the toys. It is a bit of a pain taking them up and down the stairs but the the house becomes a home again in the evenings and the weekends