We have friends that have a really nice playroom setup in their basement (one story home, stay at home mom), they let their son play down there, he's about 5 and their daughter as well as long as he's there too, she's 3. 75% of their toys are in there, another 20% in their bedrooms and about 5% in the living room. It works but only recently did they let the kids go down there alone. Then there's my sister (one story home, stay at home mom) who got rid of her coffee table and just lets the kids (2 and 4) take over the living room every day. She has a little corner where she just puts all the toys at the end of the day. They have a playroom in the basement where they have about 70% of their toys but they never go down there because she never goes down there. They just play with what they have in the living room running around to their bedrooms and back and the basement toys rarely ever get touched. My other sister (two story home, working mom) had a formal dining room and converted that into a playroom which was very convenient, she had all their toys in there which was a bit crazy, wall to wall toys when the kids got going. They went from that room to the basement and have never really played much in their upstairs bedrooms.

What about you?

We're trying to come up with an open floor plan that has play space near the kitchen as well as more private space in the basement. Good luck with your home design. We'll stay posted for any other responses.

My sister permitted playtime for her two daughters only in the basement playroom.

We're evidently more lenient. Or more tired. They started out in the 600 sf playroom in the basement. When our eldest left, they took over his apartment, then my office because the computer connections are better and mrs. worthy's bedroom because they like her TV and bubble air better than theirs. Only the formal dining room, living room, library and garage are off bounds. For now.

The playroom is the one in he distance(you can see the top of the play kitchen against the wall on the right.

These are the toy bins I have (Land of nod). I have them in antique white and they match the kitchen cabs pretty well. I have 3 sets of 2 stacked lined up against the peninsula. Another option would have been to have kitchen cabs on that side of the peninsula for storage of toys. We'll eventually put barstools there when the toys are moved out.

Our kids definitely played wherever we were when they were young. Our livingroom was often a "fort" of some variety. We had big baskets (more like the size of a coffee table) in the livingroom where everything got put away at night.

As they got older, there were less "toys" and more electronics, which were mostly stored in their bedrooms at night. Their bedrooms were their havens, but we also had a converted recroom that had a lot of video games and such. That was a great place when they wanted to be with each other but not around the parents. It was also a great place for slumber parties.

Now that they are gone, I once again have big baskets where I throw toys at night. Dog toys, that is. I think they have more toys than the kids had!

If at all possible, it has always seemed to me that there should be a fourth "public" room on the main floor that is not a bedroom, regardless of what's in the basement or on the 2nd floor. It can be a possible formal dining room, or study/den/office/computer room, kids' playroom, or whatever. Ideally, it would be easily seen from the kitchen, but could be entirely closed off. That way, whether it's young kids' toys, teenagers stuff, or a getaway for the parents who may want some peace and quiet while the kids are in the family room doing whatever, everyone is in proximity to the rest of the family when that is desired, but there's still a way to avoid noise and mess when necessary.

My daughter and her 3 children (all under 7) live with us most of the time. They have the lower level walkout, and the 2nd floor bedrooms. The lower level setup is L-shaped, with the kitchen in the corner of the L. The TV sitting area (no windows) is on the short leg of the L, and the eating area and windowed seating area and computer are on the long end. Toys, art projects, building block construction, dinosaurs, castles, cars, puzzles, etc. are all over all areas every day. It works very well to have 2 different main play areas, since they all want to be near Mommy, but don't always want to play with each other or be on the same project. The guest bedroom is makes a square out of the L, and can be closed off if someone needs quiet.

They also have more "quiet time" toys and ones that have pieces that could be easily lost elsewhere in their bedrooms, which is where they play after dinner as bedtime approaches, and where they can be separated from each other as they get tired.

In your plan, could you add another multi-use room to the right of the foyer, and move the bedrooms further back to where the deck/patio(?) area is?

Anne

That would work well I think and would be a great addition that could grow with your kids (could become homework room with built in desks down the road, or a small office with a little TV, etc.). I have also seen sunporches in existing houses converted into playrooms, and don't know why you couldn't do the reverse (although I do think an office might be a more useful room!).

I would also strongly suggest a large downstairs closet. We do not have a play room but there is a closet under our stairs where most everything can go at night (the boys also have good sized closets to store a few things).

Whatever happened to good ole fresh air?

The playroom's nice because there are frequently up to 5 kids in it. They play, in order of frequency:

1) Outside;
2) Playroom;
3) Basement ballroom, which is treated by them as a kind of gym, too;
4) His bedroom

Inside toys are NOT allowed to be taken outside. When his friends sneak them out, I have them doing push ups and laps around the house in punishment, as they always ruin or lose his toys. He's learned to say "no " firmly, finally.

The last place is my least favorite place, since the other kids have a tendency to break things. :-( My son builds models, etc., so someone can wreak a lot of havoc in a short period of time, and not all children are very well behaved. Plus, with the books, there really isn't room for all the toys even in a fairly large room--it's floorspace more than wall space that's the problem, because by the time the 4th kid gets in there, they're hanging from the bunks.

A LOW bin system has been the most effective here--two bins high is as high as littles can reach. My eldest could now reach to 3 bins, if he need to. We used to use open baskets for storage, but as he got more dexterous and the youngest got more troublesome, we switched to modular plastic containers that work very well. They also do not collect dust the way open baskets, even ones that fit pretty well into a case, do.

Colleen--"not a good idea in this day and age" as opposed to WHEN, exactly? Do you have any idea what the rate of non-familial abductions actually is? You are exposing her to thousands of times the risk with every car ride. And childhood obesity will kill hundreds of thousands more kids prematurely as they age, and it's rooted in the sedentary lifestyles of the new "outside is a SCARY PLACE, children!" generation.

(As an amusing aside.... What's the chance that a child could get injured at home unsupervised versus injured or killed in a car accident? Looking at it from a simple standpoint of risk calculation, it'd be safer to leave a *TWO-year-old* locked in a childproofed bedroom than to take him anywhere in a car. The real basis for these kinds of laws isn't to make people safe but to make them FEEL safe, which are two very, very different things. I may follow such laws, but it's with a knowledge that they are stupid.)

And when there are multiple kids playing in there they need room to spread out.

My youngest has a 12 x 12 bedroom. It only has a twin bed. There is a chest, train table with drawers underneath, a large toybox at foot of bed, a small nightstand, a beanbag chair, and a large (20 x 28) french market basket packed with books. That leaves enough floor space for him and a friend to play.

Our sons played in their rooms some, but mostly they played in our main living area. When we had guests, the boys retreated to the bedrooms or outside.

I, too, am a huge proponent of 'go play outside.' Some research I ran across a year or two ago suggested that the rate of abductions was exactly the same today as twenty or thirty years ago. Just more publicized these days. Interesting. Still, as a parent, it's hard to get past the news reports playing in your head when you send the kiddoes out to play.

A basketball goal on the driveway is excellent addition to any home. (No glass on the garage doors.)