PART 1: Identifying the heart of play (and making that space work for you)
Unlike a lot of the amazing #playroomroom inspo I see floating through my Insta feed, we DON’T have a playroom! And that's OK!
The layout of our house means I can be cooking in the kitchen, putting on a wash load or sitting down having a cuppa while my babes potter around independently playing or running around outdoors. That being said, when we first moved houses last year, it was manic, unorganised and my main focus was to make the transition smooth for the kids and our home feel like a playful, fun place - i.e one massive playroom! Well, the transition went amazingly but I was left feeling like we were living in a daycare centre (and not a pretty one at that)! So I started to daydream how to tweak our playful living space to be somewhere that I would enjoy too.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll share some of the few key points that are helping transform our playful living space into (dare I say) a pretty space too!
Step 1: Identifying the heart of our playful living space.
(i.e. the space where my children gravitate most to play…because even though I may set up the toys in one area/room, doesn’t mean they stay or are played with in that space!)
For us, it is alllllll about the rug! I really felt we needed a bigger and prettier rug to redefine our couch space. We had originally used a rug from our tiny apartment (note: me thinking this would be the “chill out space” for snuggling and reading, versus reality that my kids mostly like to play on the carpet! So this is where they would drag all their toys to! (and with our smaller rug, it quickly became a very cluttered, crowded area!)
So I started to do a LOT of googling and researching before choosing what style and where to get our rug from. I found that Cheapest Rugs Online had one of the largest ranges and best prices! (don't be fooled by the name, cheap price does not mean cheap quality! Cheapest Rugs Online stock high quality and beautiful products). So you can bet your pretty bow that I was enthusiastically contacting them to see if they’d like to partner up!
What was I looking for in our playful living space rug???
Well, once I got over my reallllly strong desire to have a gorgeous textured rug, I put on my practical thinking hat and considered what would survive children and be easy to maintain. Our living room also leads to our backyard, so is not only a high foot traffic area, but often a muddy boots one at that! On top of it all, our previous rug was rocking a nasty tomato sauce stain…so that was also at the front of my mind. In a nutshell, our new rug needed to be:
Easy to vacuum/wipe clean
Stain resistant
Durable
After narrowing down my choices based on style, this key descriptor sold me on the Centaur in Silver and Ivory rug we ultimately chose
“This little work of art is power loomed of 100% polypropylene materials for perfect durability and stain proofing.”
And yep, we’ve sure tested this statement out! The other day I spilt hot chocolate all over it! Shock! Horror! BUT a quick wipe clean and all evidence of that happening is GONE! Plus our daily reality of children running around in muddy boots. So, after what I feel has been some rigorous testing, I’m both surprised and super excited to report that there is not one mark on our rug yet!
While I wish our whole room was covered in this gorgeous rug, increasing our rug-covered floor area to what we have has been a game changer! My babes have more space to play and I don’t feel like I’m tripping over all their toys (we can even have both our Pikler Triangle and Play Cube climbing frames out, with plenty of room for trains to chug through, children to roll about and this mumma to relax)
It’s safe to say I am very in love with our new rug from Cheapest Rugs Online (and am possibly a tad addicted and now want a new rug in every room!). To top it off, they have excellent customer service and prompt delivery with regular order status updates.
If you are also keen to get a new rug and like their collection, Cheapest Rugs Online are kindly offering a discount code: Today.our.children11
(note: this is not an affiliate link or anything, just spreading the love, because I know I love me a good discount!!!)