Decorate Your Toddler's Play Area

If you had the extra room your toddler would be delighted to have their own specially designated play area, decorated and equipped specifically for the purposes of play. Their bedroom or part of it will do but it's even more fun if you have enough room in your house to have a play room. For some ideas on decorating your toddler's play room or space, read on.

Storage - start by making the room as orderly as possible. This is not purely for aesthetic purposes but for your child's safety as well. Without clutter, your toddler can play and run around all he wants without stubbing his cute toes or stepping and sitting on something that might cause him pain. Moreover, instilling cleanliness early on is a discipline that he will carry up to adulthood. Make use of cabinets and shelves as storage. There are also plastic containers in all sizes and colors for keeping toys. It is also a way of teaching your child to play with one toy at a time and return it before getting another one. This will prevent clutter in the room and maintain neatness.

Liven up the walls with some pictures. These don't have to be expensive, just some posters, or pictures from magazines, and of course the child's own art work, are perfect. You might also want to add a bought frieze or stickers, and perhaps something with the alphabet on it, just for an educational touch! Don't forget the ceiling, especially if it's a bedroom, because a nice idea is to add some glow-in-the-dark stickers, maybe of stars and moons.

Decorate the walls with fun wall hangings such as colorful pictures, your child's photos, educational materials (an alphabet board is nice) and stickers. Your child will enjoy looking at all the visual treats on the wall, while learning some things. Children at developing stages have an amazing memory, actually far better than adults have, so start right by exposing your child to numbers, colors, pictures, letters, etc. way before pre-school starts.

A comfortable chair and some plush beanbags will give the room more accessories, especially the colorful ones. You can also have a small bookshelf for keeping the storybooks, art materials and coloring books. A table and chair make a good furniture set for the drawing and coloring activities.

Toddlers love to dress up, so find room for a dress up box. It is a good idea to have a small table and chairs, too, which the toddler can use for sitting down and drawing, or for tea parties.

Color - we've been talking about decorations and furnishings and we should not forget color. Because your toddler is still too young to pick out a color for his playroom, choose something that your child seems to like. Is he fascinated with water and loves swimming? You can go for a blue motif and add painted artworks like fishes, ocean waves and boats so the room will look like a beach. Is your baby more drawn to colorful balls and playthings? Then a rainbow color will fulfill his taste for multitude of hues. If he's already into the adventures of nature, then opt for a green and brown color scheme and add photos of mountains, trees, birds and bugs to complete the forest look.

Your toddler at his young age will appreciate the beauty of his very own playroom by feeling ecstatic to be playing there. As he grows up, he will learn to notice the details and learn from them. Later on, you would have to redecorate to meet his requests and change in preferences. Nevertheless, decorating a playroom is uber fun that doing so a hundred times is not a problem. What do you think?