How to Decorate an Awesome Playroom in 3 Steps

Nana Kurrs
by Nana Kurrs
2 Materials
$10
1 Hour
Easy

A few weeks ago, after speaking with my kid's teacher at school and reading an article on play therapy on Anivda.com, I decided to revamp my youngest son’s bedroom/playroom in order to make it more effective for play therapy sessions.


I know that play is a really important part of their education in their early years, plus my son’s bedroom was long overdue a revamp, so I decided to make it into a space where he could go to have lots of fun and imaginative play.


DIY definitely isn’t my strong point, but I’m very happy with the result and my son loves it. I thought I’d share my process here to help out any other mommies or daddies that want to do the same!


The room started out very basic and empty. As you can see, there’s not much going on here other than a few splashes of paint on the walls. It’s definitely not very colorful or inspiring.

I decided on a ‘barnyard theme’ for the playroom and drew up a sketch of what I wanted. Here’s how I brought it to life



STEP ONE - Paint the walls

The first step is to paint the walls. This can be a great family activity so try to get your kids involved too. For example, I drew a picture for reference and then let my youngest son paint the basic shapes (like the sun and the sky) on the wall. 


I had my eldest daughter paint the trees, and then I painted on the more difficult things, like the animals. It helps if you’re good at art, but if not, you could always use stickers instead. 



STEP TWO - Attach the barnyard door

The centerpiece of the room was going to be the barnyard door, so I asked my son and my husband to attach it for me. We got hold of a textured piece of plywood and nailed it to the wall for a backboard, and then trimmed the bard into the right shape with a 1x4. We then did the painting, built and attached a hayloft window and nailed the fence to the wall.



STEP THREE - Add the finishing touches

Once everything was in place, I added a few finishing touches by painting animals in all the extra spaces. Here’s a chicken coup I painted under the window. I also added a few little surprises, like paintings and stickers of insects on the skirting boards and inside the storage areas. The goal is to include as many details as possible to help encourage imaginative play. 



STEP FOUR - Enjoy the new playroom


At this point, the room was finished. I bought some new barnyard-themed toys and figures for my son and put them in his room, then let him loose in there. He absolutely loves it and always sneaks off to play with his animal figures in there. I think it’s really helping him to learn and his teacher says she’s noticed a huge improvement in class. 


Good luck!

Suggested materials:
  • Paint
  • Door
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