As any parent with small kids will tell you, kids are messy; fun, – but messy. Keeping the mess contained is about all a parent can do to keep from going mad. The average parent of one or more 1 to 6 year olds will have their tender foot impaled on Optimus Prime’s pointy shoulder or some other beloved, yet annoyingly hard and pointy toy, several times a week and sometimes several times a day.

One way to keep all these toys in one area, and also provide a safe place for your children to play in, is to make a kids playroom in your home. You can turn just about any extra room in your house into a playroom; even unused garages and basements can be refurbished to be excellent play spaces.

Deciding to make an extra room in your house into a playroom is probably one of the best decisions you will make in your early-childhood-parenting career. It will give you peace of mind knowing that your children are having fun in a safe environment, and it will also keep the toys out from under your feet, between the couch cushions, in the oven etc. basically everywhere that toys ought not to be.

It will be easier to picture your completed playroom if you first decide on some sort of theme or color scheme for the room. If your child is still a baby or toddler, this will be mainly your decision, but if your kids are a bit older they will probably have their own opinions, which may be well worth paying attention to; it is going to be their play area, after all.

Your children may surprise you with how creative they are, and you might even want them to come along with you to the hardware to pick up the paint and other supplies, and to the department store to help chose furniture and decorations. The more they are involved with the decorating and planning of the room, the more excited they will be to play in the room when it is completed.

The more personalized you can make it, the better. Make sure to include pictures of you and your child, and other family and friends on the walls or tables. A cute sign on the door with the name of your child will make it even more special.

When you are designing the room, it is extremely important to prioritize the safety of the child. Keep the age of the child in mind, and childproof the room accordingly. Do not double up and use the room for another purpose as well. People often think they can go halfs and also use the room as a study or power room. This is a big mistake. In fact, one of my friends at playgroup did just this and used the room to store all her beauty products e.g. her no no hair removal kit, her makeup, her epilators and foot spa etc… To cut a long story short, her 3 year old got into the draw where all of these were kept and cut himself with the epilator. Lesson learnt…

Older children may really benefit from having a bookshelf in the room, but toddlers might try to climb on it and it could fall on top of them. Toy boxes that look like treasure chests are extremely charming, but heavy wooden lids could slam down hard on tender little fingers, so having some safeguard in place is a must.

No matter how you decorate your playroom, just keep in mind the child’s safety, and have fun. A playroom should be a fun place where you and your children can play and grow, and decorating it should be fun too.