The two hardest working rooms in our house are the laundry/pantry and our playroom. Alright, honestly you could argue that each and every room of our 2800 square foot house is hardworking but that doesn’t serve me as well for this post. THIS is about our playroom.

We have four kids. The playroom sits at the very front of our house, right by the front door. Most people with this type of floor plan use this space for their formal dining or living room but please. We are firmly informal people in this house. We decided years ago to use this space as a playroom.

The space has undergone many revamps over the years. The baby/toddler phase was full of plastic and wood toys and baby gates and color and craziness. Honestly, I don’t miss those days too much. Today the space needs to function for two little kids embarking on their first pages of homework, puzzle piecing, drawing, and the occasional doll hospital. It plays the part of “school” when my oldest daughter teaches her younger siblings. It is the arena where my older son wrestles with his little brother. This small room wears a lot of hats in the course of a day.

I purchased this white Kallax bookshelf from Ikea about a week ago. I am one of those really strange people who enjoy assembling things from Ikea. Anyway, it took just under an hour to get it together and it is SOLID. I love the glossy finish and generous cubby shelves. The clear baskets on the bottom row were purchased at Target. The transparency makes it easier for my kids to see what they actually have to play with.  The large painting of the world is from Home Goods and honestly, it was an impulse buy. I originally intended it for my kitchen but it was a better fit in the playroom.  My ball garland is fashioned from felted wool balls I picked up during my recent trip to Morocco. More on that here.

The big globe is a Goodwill find years ago. We have two children born in Ethiopia and globes have played a necessary part in understanding the journey our family went on to assemble all of us. There is something special about using your finger to trace a story on a globe. It never gets old.

The ball that looks like a colorful soccer ball is from our trip to Ethiopia a few years ago. We bought it at the orphanage where our children were living. See the blue cart in the background there?

This is the Ikea Raskog cart and it is worth its weight in gold. Although, it doesn’t weigh much at all so that analogy won’t really work…

This cart is command central for all four kids. I have a few chalk painted mason jars that were left over from another project corralling pencils and markers. The two shelves below are strictly for papers and coloring books. Having all of the art stuff in one simple cart has kept the playroom really clean. Like, shockingly clean.

I made the curtains out of some decorator weight fabric from Hancock Fabric. I always forget how much I hate sewing curtains until it is done and hung and I fall in love. These are the exact curtains that I could not find anywhere.

So that’s our playroom space. I have listed a few sources below. Do you have a dedicated playroom in your house? What are your methods for keeping it both fun and functional? I would love to hear them!