Designing a Play Corner

We need a play corner! Our baba is taking over the sitting room completely and if I don’t take action now I will lose all that remains of my adult sitting room under the piles of baby stuff. I’m aware that it might happen anyway but fear not.. I will try and sort this issue somehow.

Here is what we have:

1)      2 tall, tired, adults who want to relax in the evenings in a cosy grown up sitting room.

2)      1 also tall, not tired at all, baby who wants to play, roll, pull, open, close, grab, shake, build, splash, giggle, kick and soon crawl, walk and run ALL DAY LONG…

Here is what we need:

1)      A cosy nook for us to be able unwind in the evenings and occasionally have grown up company in to share bottles of wine and home made cocktails.

2)      An inspiring play area for Rián with plenty of toy storage and a spacious play surface for him and his little baba friends. Also must bear in mind that his activity needs will constantly change along with the toys

And now comes the challenge. All this has to happen in our sitting room which is about 3.4m x 4.6m? Tiny, tiny, tiny!

The room is small chaos at the moment and I’m torn between ideas so I did a ton of research and created a mood board to help me focus.

Mood boards are not just for designers! Quite the opposite!! If you do a DIY interior design project I would really recommend you do one. A common problem is not having a clear idea in the head of what the finished room will look like. Taking the time at an early stage to decide on style and concept saves you so a lot of legwork and trouble at the end. You can be as brave as you want on a mood board. Try bold colours or unusual materials, patterns and shapes. When the design is coming together choose some images of furniture you like and than look for similar pieces until you find one that suits. That way you can avoid coming home with something you don’t love.

What you need are images, images, images. As many as your computer can bear. If your tech savvy there are design programs that can help you out but, like with most things, the old fashioned ways are still often the best... Get a big sheet of paper or big piece of cardboard box, print loads of images, take some glue and off you go.

Below are 2 mood boards for the play corner and 2 I did last year when designing the nursery. The one for the nursery is the last mood board when I already had some of the furniture, accessories and colors chosen. The playroom board is an initial concept, just get my mind going. Wish me luck and I will keep you posted on the progress. x  

                                                          Play corner Mood Boards: 

 

 

                                                             Nursery Mood Boards: