Basement Playroom Ideas For Kids
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I remember when we bought our first house in 2014. While walking around the basement, I spotted the surround sound. I pictured the large TV in the corner. I could already pin point all the different framed jerseys and sports memorabilia that I could hang around the walls, filling every inch. This basement was going to make a great man cave. I had a few basement playroom ideas…for myself.
When I had kids, my perspective changed. I wanted to make this a basement that my kids would enjoy for years to come. Let me show you around our basement and how I maximized the space to create an awesome basement. These are a few basement playroom ideas that you can implement for your kids if you choose to do so!
A dedicated doll room
In our basement, we have a closet under the stairs that we only ever used to store junk. I cleaned out the junk and turned it into a cool doll room for my daughter. She stores all her dolls and accessories in there and I added awesome battery powered LED lights to give it some flare. It also provides light, since it does get dark in there.
Overall, it’s a great space and she loves it. Our one rule is to keep the door open as she plays. I could also take the door off and add a curtain or just leave the frame open as is. All of my kids can fit in this space and they enjoy playing babies together.
A LEGO creative station
When I was forced to work from home back in 2020, I used this room in our basement to work out of. It’s a smaller room connected to our basement and essentially acts as an office. However, I now work back in a physical office, so I cleaned everything out of this room and transformed it into a LEGO creative station for my son. He absolutely loves playing with LEGOs and now he has a dedicated space to use the desk and sort them out, or use the floor.
I bought a Giantex rolling storage cart to help store all of his LEGOs and it is perfect! This is the easiest way to store LEGOs, in my opinion. I tried sorting them by color, size, shape, and so on. It was neat for 10 minutes until I realized he didn’t care how they were sorted. He has his own way of sorting them and I am okay with that!
BONUS: I’m not stepping on them all throughout my living room floor!
A school space
On the other side of this transformed office is a space where my daughter loves to play school. She wants to be a teacher when she grows up. This is the perfect place to practice that. I bought this whiteboard from Staples and we bought a table and two chairs where my kids can sit and draw or color. It’s a room where anything they imagine can come to life. Whether it’s building something with LEGOs or playing make-believe. It’s a room that is suitable for all ages (2-6 years old, in my case).
A play house
You may think I’m crazy by this point, but yes, we built a playhouse and put it in our basement, instead of outside. We wanted a space where our kids could play make believe year round. Even when it’s raining or snowing outside, we can make full use of this house and it will last longer this way too! During the Christmas season, my kids love to hang lights on their house and they even have a small Christmas tree that they put inside the house.
My wife even went as far as making a pretend washer and dryer out of diaper boxes so they can pretend to do laundry. All three of my kids still play house together and it’s a great way for them to use their creative minds! We bought our playhouse from KidKraft and it is a tough choice to choose the right one!
A grocery store
On the other side of our basement, we have a pretend grocery store that my father-in-law was kind enough to build for us. This was built when my twins were 18 months old and they STILL play with this store every week, especially on the rainy days. They are almost 7 years old now! I can’t recommend this enough! When we finish a food item, we bring it downstairs and add it to the grocery store.
Cereal boxes work great for this store. Or what about old potato chip bags filled with cotton balls, taped the top of the bag and voila! We have a children’s cash register so they can play with play money as well. We also bought two grocery carts from Melissa and Doug. Now, they go grocery shopping and deliver the groceries to their play house.
It’s truly like a Please Touch Museum in our basement. But it is such a joy watching our kids grow developmentally and using their skills while having fun. Hopefully, this will give you a few basement playroom ideas so you can convert your basement into a fun space for your children!