Play room ideas for Brookfield colonials

We are thinking since the new house has a den of making the living room a play room. I want something on the main level, in the basement we are making 2 rooms - one will be DH's office and the other will be our gym so the kids won't be down there. Upstairs the 4th bedroom will be my office so that's out too. I recently got rid of my old den furniture when we made our basement den into my office, so I was planning on putting my 1 sofa sectional that is in my current living room in the den as well as the TV. That will leave me w/o living room furniture and with 2 under 3 I'm not sure I want yet more furniture to be bought only to have juice spills and crayon soiling it. I want the kids to have a place to play together. Only question becomes - how to enclose them into the room... as you may know this style colonial has a step up in the hallway (it's ceramic type tile too - that can be a big ouch for little one's) and up into the dining room and a step down into the den. We will put gates at the top and bottom of the stair case and use that plastic thing that wraps around for the upstairs railing. I thought about french doors, but when the kids are older, I don't see us keeping that enclosed look. Plus it may be too wide a space. Any ideas. Hope I even made sense. LOL. I had an idea for a playroom - to paint it white and have the kids hand prints all over, not sure that'd be the look I'd want since the living room is on the right as soon as you walk in.

Re: Play room ideas for Brookfield colonials

We own a Brookfield.

My neighbor has the living room as the playroom. She never gated off the room as there is a three year span between her kids. You could buy those long gates. Do you have the gothic arch cut outs btwn the LR/DR that are original to the house? That would be a problem to gate them off.

I just turned the den into the playroom. It's also where we watch tv. I gated off the entrance to the room, have a lock and fish eye latch at the top of the door leading to the garage. Up until recently I sectioned off the tv and fireplace with an opened play-yard. With twins pack and plays weren't really an option when they were little so I baby-proofed the den and that's where their toys are. The LR was less of an option for me because I have a second fireplace with a large stone hearth that would have been a major hazard under age 2.

I tried to find a pic of the gate extending around the tv and past the fireplace but I can't. The play yard con't past the fireplace. A toybox was in front of it so they couldn't pull it forward.

This summer, now that they are three their is playroom is moving to the finished basement.

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Message edited 5/8/2010 11:57:07 PM.

Re: Play room ideas for Brookfield colonials

I do have the gothic arch... I may try the open gate as we have that exact item... we have 8 pieces. The den was going to be gated off easily with a gate we use now to our basement, and the cat litter boxes will be in the basement, so we will use a gate there too and remove the door or something like that - we have a gate currently with a cat door. I may just buy more of those open gate things for the foyer entrance too. I'm basically designing the house based on childproofing rather than aesthetics, in about 5 years we can redo it to make it look pretty rather than safe - LOL.

Re: Play room ideas for Brookfield colonials

I also like the idea of putting the toy chest in front of the open gates... this way they can't pull it down. We want to put the TV in the den and for a few reasons we'd prefer that TV not to be where the kids will constantly be. We know toys will wander into the den, but what can you do. I really like that idea. If anything we can always just french door the foyer entrance and use the open enclosure for the DR.

How do you handle the stair case. TBH my mom has had a Brookfield that I lived in as a teen. I am VERY clumsy and fell down those stairs 3 times, the last time I almost killed myself, litterally. I prefer stairs that stop and bend and continue instead of 1 giant 13 stop case, but you can't have everything and if I could I'd work the rest of my life for it. Anyway, it is what it is and we wanted an upper level even though I'm a spaz (I even fell down my basement stairs recently and I live in a ranch, so it's totally just me). The foyer and landing are ceramic tile. I have an idea to cushion the foyer with foam mats (like what you can use in a playroom) with a cheap home depot area rug on top until everyone is old enough and I install an elevator for clumsy me. anyway, with LO's, what's the best way to handle? When do you teach them to use that type of stair case?

Re: Play room ideas for Brookfield colonials

I have a gate at the bottom and top of the stair case.

I'm not a fan of w/w carpet at all. Our entry way is slate, den is w/w, and the rest of the house is tile (bathrooms, kitchen) or hardwood floors. My stairs are hardwood.

To be honest, we still don't trust them to go up and down the stairs themselves. As babies it was my greatest fear. I always carried one down at a time. We spend the whole day downstairs. I don't keep toys in their bedroom, only books. I don't have to worry if they are recking my DH's home office or are running the hot tap in the bathroom. So I didn't have to worry about padding the entryway by the stairs.

I never had an issue with the one step in the DR/LR/entryway because with twins it's just easier not to let them have full run of the house until they got a bit older and more reasonable in their judgment. They tend to run in two different directions. I found kids master one step pretty quickly.

Mine have only had full run of the downstairs, keeping that gate open most of the time from age 2. I'm sure people might disagree but at the same time I never had random things thrown in the garbage/toilet or major messes/accidents. I'm lucky my kids don't even try to open the fridge... they only press the buttons on the dishwasher, but I have a lock to that. Ironically, at almost 3 and 2 months old we just took the den gate down this morning. I kept it up a long time because I cook a lot and was paranoid about them being in the kitchen as I cook.

I can't help you with the Gothic arches. When we gutted the house we removed them and opened up the entry way between the LR/DR. There are old pics in my house album.