Unused dining room could make for perfect playroom
When Alexis Cosinuke moved into her house in Lexington, Ky., a couple years ago, she knew she’d have to get creative to give her three kids a place of their own. Because the home didn’t have a basement or designated playroom, she turned to a space with an intended purpose that often feels too stuffy for young families: the dining room.
The expert DIY-er and design content creator handled much of the work herself. Out went a builder-grade chandelier and wall-to-wall carpet; in went a subtler light fixture, hard-wearing vinyl plank flooring, and builtin cabinetry that Cosinuke customized to suit her children’s interests. “For instance, the shelving behind the cabinet doors had to be wide enough deep enough to fit bins that house my kids’ art supplies,” she says. The space got two coats of Clare paint’s “Dirty Chai,” a warm brown: “It’s as if the room is giving you a bear hug when you walk in.”
For parents like Cosinuke - who are short on space and working within a limited budget - the dining room is an obvious candidate to turn into a playroom for a couple reasons: Outside of holidays and special occasions, it often doesn’t get much use. And it tends to be located close to the kitchen and other main arteries of the home, making it a convenient spot for grown-ups to keep an eye and ear on the little ones.
“It’s one of the first places we consider if there isn’t a designated space for play,” says Courtney Gault, founder of Greenwich Play, a family-focused design firm in Connecticut. “Especially today, they’re pretty formal ... so it’s the perfect location for a playroom for little kids.”
If you’re planning a dining room transformation of your own, consider this advice from Gault and other experts.
Repurpose — but retain — existing features
Remember that one day, either you or a future buyer may want to turn your playroom back into a dining room. So be sure to “maintain that genuine character of the space,” says Gault. For example, she suggests keeping the chair railing if you have one, but adding a mural or fun wallpaper above it so that it doesn’t feel so formal.
When Gault repurand
posed the dining room in her own first home in Connecticut, she also took an inventive approach to the fireplace. Obviously, she didn’t want to get rid of it, but she sought to give it a new purpose in a room that would now revolve around her son’s interests. Her answer: make it a book nook. “I took a dog bed that we weren’t using and put it in there, and even bought padding so no one would hit their head coming out. And we had like a little book cart right next to it with blankets and pillows,” Gault recalls. “It totally took
this unused little space in the house and made it this purposeful magical place with twinkle lights and fluffy pillows.”
Storage, storage, storage
In a space designated for kids, storage is, of course, crucial — and probably not a feature that your dining room already has much of.
Cosinuke designed her built-ins “based on the dimensions of the largest toys and storage bins we had, so I was certain they would fit,” she says. “Doors are your best Please see ▶