Kids Playroom Ideas: A Whimsical and Fun Reveal

See how we transformed a baby nursery into a whimsical playroom for toys, books and fun activities. Your children will love all these 10 kids playroom ideas including toy storage, a reading nook and a hand painted tree mural!

Hey there! You’ll love all these whimsical and fun kids playroom ideas for a room makeover on a budget including toy storage and organization, reading nook and a hand painted tree mural! Your children will be thrilled to have a room like this where they can read books and play with toys.

Over the past few months, we’ve been transforming a few of the rooms in our house to make them work better for our boys at this age and stage of their lives. First we turned a Curious George toddler room into an outer space big boy bedroom for both of our boys. We decided once the boys were sharing a bedroom, we would convert the baby nursery into a playroom on the main floor.

Having a playroom on the main floor allows us to get the toys and kid clutter out of the living room. We do have a play area with toys for the boys downstairs in our basement as well as a castle playroom under our stairs, but they’re young enough that they don’t like to go down there by themselves to play yet.

Last week we shared what the nursery looked like before we turned it into a playroom. I don’t know about you, but when I see room reveals, it’s always fun and helpful to see the BEFORE photo side by side with the AFTER. So, here’s what the room looked like before….

And here’s the AFTER….

10 Kids Playroom Ideas

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If your nursery isn’t too baby-ish to begin with, it can be relatively easy to turn it into a playroom. We were able to create this entire playroom for our boys for $0 out of pocket because we had everything we needed already between the Curious George bedroom and the nursery. Here are 10 Kids Playroom Ideas to help you pull off a quick and easy room makeover like this too.

1. Leave the wall color the same. Since we were already doing a dramatic color change for the boys outer space bedroom, we decided to leave the pale yellow walls in the nursery. Thankfully we had a little leftover paint from when the room was initially painted so we just did some light touch up paint to spruce it up a bit.

2. Keep the features you love. When we created the nursery, my mother painted this gorgeous tree in one corner of the room. Although the chubby red bird from the nursery decor is perched on one of the branches, it doesn’t overpower the tree or make it look too baby-ish. I absolutely love, love, love this tree so it was an easy decision to keep it since we weren’t going to be painting the walls in the kids playroom anyway.

3. Create a space for yourself. Although this kids playroom is designed and organized for them, we wanted to have a space where we could sit when we’re in the room playing, reading or supervising them. We moved the big blue leather chair, throw pillows and baseball lamp that were originally across the hall in the Curious George bedroom. The side table with two drawers was in the closet of the nursery room.

4. Use wall decals to add to the decor. You’ll notice George made his way over to the new playroom too. It’s just a peel and stick Curious George wall decal so it was super easy to move him to the new playroom. I just didn’t have the heart to get rid of him yet.

5. Have plenty of shelves for books and toy storage. In our previous set up there was a very tall bookshelf in the Curious George room and a shorter bookshelf in the nursery. We put both shelves in the new kids playroom. We initially had them side by side on one of the walls, but one is more espresso colored and the other is more cherry. Putting the shelves on either side of the window makes that a lot less noticeable in the room.

6. Create a work area for the kids. This adorable KidKraft Farmhouse Table and Chair Set was in the corner of our living room near our mantel for the last several years. It’s great for coloring with crayons, assembling puzzles, playing games and eating snacks. It was my husband, Kent’s idea to put it right below the big window. I love how perfectly it fits there.

We put the fourth little chair on the far side of the smaller bookshelf right below the tree. The big fluffy lion doesn’t seem to mind. The round storage bins on that bottom shelf came from Ikea in case you were wondering!

7. Accessorize with stuffed animals. You’ll notice all around the room we’ve thrown in big stuffed animals (or “stuffies” as our three year old chooses to call them) wherever possible. They act as throw pillows and add a fun whimsical element that the boys love.

8. Have plenty of reading material. In our opinion, kids can never ever have too many books. Thankfully my mother-in-law is a retired elementary teacher who has blessed us tremendously by sending us boxes and boxes of books from her teaching days. Check out last week’s post for a list of some of our favorites.

9. Get creative with wall decor. In the nursery, we had the baby comforter from our bedding set hanging on a curtain rod on the wall.

If we removed the curtain rod, we would have needed to patch, repair and repaint over the holes in the wall. Instead, my friend Liz had the brilliant idea that we ought to hang the Curious George artwork on the rod using ribbon. I had two inch thick burlap ribbon in my craft stash. I just used my hot glue gun to attach loops of it to the back of the picture frames. I made sure to attach it in such a way that I can still remove and change the art out of the frames. As much as I hate to admit it, I know it’s only a matter of time before the boys really, truly and finally outgrow Curious George.

10. Leave room for future enhancements. We had a little collage of family photos above the changing table in the nursery. We used double sided tape to affix it to the wall so the boys wouldn’t kick it off while we were changing their diapers. Rather than remove it now and have to patch the wall, we’ve left it up.

I’m envisioning a gallery for that wall using the large marker board that we had behind the door in the Curious George bedroom, some art and a large clock so we can keep track of time in the kids playroom. A Gallery Style Map Wall like this one from Lori at Greco Design Company on our Creative Team would also be a really fun idea for a large wall in a playroom.

It also never hurts to have a large closet in the playroom for hiding away toys, puzzles and games. Some day perhaps I’ll share a peek behind those doors once it’s neat and organized!

How’s that for 10 kids playroom ideas to inspire your plans for your own child’s play space? What else should we add or do with this kids playroom? If you’re getting ready to start your playroom makeover, be sure to check out our tutorial on how to create an inspiration board to design your room.  Please comment below and share, we’re always looking for new ideas.

While you’re here be sure to check out other kids ideas on Ideas for the Home by Kenarry® –

• 10 Tips for Taming Toy Chaos
• Castle Playroom Under the Stairs
• Toy Storage: 19 Clean-up Friendly Ideas

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