If you're lucky enough to have a designated room for play, then go wild with it, have fun creating the perfect fun-brightly coloured room of your childs dreams. But if you're like me and you don't have a room that you can designate solely as a playroom, then no worries. We can still have great fun creating a little space for our babies/children to safely mess about in.
Here's just three ideas that I'd like to share with you..
1. Start with the flooring
I have laminate in my living room and one day when Ethan was around 5 months old it suddenly occurred to me that I just had no where soft to put him down when I needed to. Before then we'd used blankets on the floor and a baby play mat. But as he grew and began rolling off of the soft areas we'd put down for him, we decided to take out our rather large coffee table and put down a lovely soft big rug. It opened up the space instantly and it literally is the best thing we've ever brought. Now Ethan pays on the rug and the laminate is no longer an issue, in fact it's great because he has the option of the soft rug area to lay around on and also the laminate to pull along his toys and scoot around in his walker. So the first move in creating a successful make-do play space is to tackle the play area flooring!
2. Consider a bean bag
We we're lucky enough to win a lovely brown faux-fur bean bag from a blog competition a few months back and it's perfect for our play space. It lives on the rug in front of our sofa and it has many purposes. We used to put it behind Ethan as support before he was sitting up completely un-aided, he now lays on it for naps. We also use it to put our feet up in the evening. It's just the type of thing that will stay with us for years to come as Ethan grows. And there are some really modern looking ones about these days, that blend into your everyday living room decor.3. Toy storage
If you don't already have it, eventually you'll need to invest in some sort of toy storage solution. Babies and children have lots and lots of toys and in a playroom you can just shut the door on all of the toys but when their spread across your living room all through the day you'll want somewhere to quickly though them into when it's gets to the evening. If you don't want a bright blue/pink toy box in your living room.. try a trunk that blends in with your decor or a shabby chic basket big enough to hold all of the toys. We use a (very) small basket at the moment, but this is only temporary until we move and assess what works best for our new play space. Whatever you decide to do with your play space.. make sure that it works for you and for your child/baby. Oh and remember to stock up on plug socket covers and locks for your drawers - you'll need them ;)
Do you have any tips to share?
