The playroom Clayton, Thomas and Caroline McWhorter romp and crawl in today has been designed to see them through their teenage years when they are hanging out with friends or battling algebra at their workstations.
The large and sunny space their mother and father built for them is designed to grow with the children and serve as an inviting, entertaining and creative place – whether they are 2 or 12 or 20.
“We planned on being here a long time,” Leigh Anne McWhorter says as her two oldest children watched a DVD with two buddies.
“I wanted it to be functional for them now, but to also work for them when they’re older,” McWhorter adds. “Later it could be filled with a pingpong table and arcade games.”
The playroom for the children – ages 4, 2 and 4 months – has different play areas, art space, computers, a television, a kitchenette and a bathroom.
The bathroom tile has a fun bug design, and the kitchen drawers have frog pulls. The playroom walls are painted with murals of planes and castles and trees. The window seat that overlooks the backyard, and a large closet, provide storage for toys.
At the moment, the kids most love the indoor jungle gym and slide.
As the children grow, the space, and what goes into it can change, but the bones will continue to provide a foundation that provides flexibility, McWhorter says.
If you’re building a custom playroom – or creating one in a spare room – the key is making it simple, accessible and filled with plenty of storage, designers and educators say.
The playroom Leigh Anne and Stuart McWhorter built in their Franklin, Tenn., home provide some up-to-date tips on designing the perfect space.
Designer Catherine Richie says to look for furniture and storage that will work for the children for several years. Comfortable seating makes the space inviting for all ages, and entertainment centers and shelves with doors can serve to hide the television, DVDs, books and games.
Richie’s playroom doubles as the family’s media room and a place to entertain. While her sons, Liam, 3, and Mac, 2, have full run of the room, “everything is contained,” she says.
The full wet bar is stocked with drinks for children and adults.
The wallpaper is decorated with circus animals, which the boys love, while being whimsical and sophisticated enough for adult sensibilities.
Montessori educator Heather Dennis, mother of 11-month-old Mathias, created a space for her son that follows the Montessori tradition of “a place for everything and everything in its place.”
The room is simple and modestly filled with wooden toys that he can shake, rattle, twist and sort. A framed mirror is hung at Mathias’ height, and just above it, a bamboo wind chime hangs from a plant holder. Mathias loves to watch himself in the mirror while he bats at the chimes.
Low wooden tables and chairs in the kitchen and playroom are from a company called Community Playthings (communityplaythings.com) and built for toddlers. Toys and books are kept in baskets and boxes of all shapes and sizes.
Dennis says she always tells parents to get on their hands and knees and look around the room before they plan a room for a child.
That exercise will show them that things such as art, shelves and mirrors really need to be at kid-appropriate heights.
“If it truly is a space dedicated to the child, then you decorate it for the child so they can enjoy those things,” she says.
