Updated October 29, 2026
A playroom works when every kind of play has its own spot and every toy has a home it goes back to. Split the room into five zones, one each to play, create, read, store and display, and the mess always has somewhere to go at the end of the day.
That's the whole plan. Everything below is ideas for each zone.
Playrooms come in every shape: a finished basement, a spare bedroom, one corner of a living room behind the sofa. The square footage changes every time. The five zones don't. A room that has them stays usable for years, and a room without them turns into one big pile by Wednesday.
Below are 15 playroom ideas, three for each zone, with the prints I'd hang in each one. If you want the step-by-step for sorting toys and choosing bins, that's in my How to organize a kids' playroom post. This one is about what goes where, and how the room looks when it's done.
Jump to a section:
- How do you set up a playroom?
- What goes in the play zone?
- How do you set up a create zone?
- How do you make a reading corner in a playroom?
- What's the best playroom storage?
- How do you display kids' art in a playroom?
- What wall art works in a playroom?
- Where should art hang in a playroom?
- Questions parents ask
How do you set up a playroom?
I start every one with a rough sketch of the room and five circles drawn on it.
- Find the light. Reading and drawing go by the window. Kids reach for a book or a crayon where it's bright.
- Keep the middle clear. Floor play needs room to spread out, so furniture goes around the edges.
- Split the loud from the quiet. Blocks and instruments on one side, books and cushions on the other.
- Give storage the longest wall. One run of low shelves holds more than bins dotted around the room, and kids can see everything on it.
- Mark each zone with art. One print or one set above each zone tells everyone, even a two-year-old, what happens there.
That fifth step is my favorite, and it runs through every idea below.
Working with one corner instead of a whole room? Keep all five zones and shrink them: a basket of books, a lidded box of art supplies, one shelf, a small rug and a pair of prints.
What goes in the play zone?
1. An open floor with one big rug
Most play happens at knee height: train tracks, block towers, dolls lined up for school. Give it the biggest clear patch of the room and put one large washable rug down to mark it. The rug softens the noise, and it gives the zone an edge kids can see.
On the wall at the end of the rug, I like a set with some movement in it. Our Rink, Mat and Field Animals set is one of our best sellers: tigers, pandas and zebras playing ice hockey, judo, tennis and baseball, in a light watercolor style with plenty of white around them. For a brighter wall, the Bright Tennis Animals set has a lion tossing up a serve and an elephant umpire calling the score, in a bold colored-pencil look.
Colors: pale ice blue, grass green and sandy tan
Pairs well with: a building corner (idea 2) and a rail for their art (idea 13).
More game-day prints are in our sports wall art collection.
2. A building corner
Blocks, magnetic tiles and toy trucks want a hard, flat surface and a bin right next to it. I give them a corner of bare floor or a low play table, so building and cleaning up happen in the same three feet.
Two of our construction prints belong right here. Bouncy Bulldozer, a best seller, is a yellow bulldozer against soft muted greens and blues. Chunky Chassis Chuckle is a big wheel loader with its bucket down, in a watercolor style of sky blue and golden yellow. Hang them as a pair above the block bin and nobody has to ask where the trucks live.
Colors: bulldozer yellow, muted green and sky blue
Pairs well with: an open floor (idea 1) and low open shelves (idea 10).
If trucks are the big favorite, my monster truck bedroom ideas post has 13 ways to build a bedroom around them, plus a home for the toy trucks.
3. A pretend-play corner
A play kitchen, a dress-up rail with hooks at their height, a small tent or a puppet window. Pretend play takes up less floor than you'd think, but it does need a corner of its own, because the props wander everywhere else.
Art here can be pure fun. The Cool Shades Animals set is animals in bright outfits, most in sunglasses, in a playful crayon style. There's a spotted big cat dancing under a disco ball and a bunny riding a bike past giant flowers. Pet Shuttle, a best seller, is a bright yellow bus full of six pups and one patient-looking cat on a soft blue background. Kids make up stories about where that bus is going.
Colors: hot pink, cobalt blue and sunny yellow
Pairs well with: a music corner (idea 5) and one bright wall (idea 6).
How do you set up a create zone?
4. A low table that can take a mess
Look for a surface your child can sit at with feet flat on the floor, and a top you can wipe in one pass. A washable mat underneath saves the rug. Keep today's crayons, glue and paper in a caddy on the table, and the paint refills and glitter up high where you decide when they come down.
Hang the art above the table, high enough to stay out of marker range. Doodle Dino is a best seller and the obvious pick: a cheerful long-necked dinosaur painting a rainbow with its eyes closed. Meow Mood is a cat with folded arms and closed eyes in bold abstract pinks, blues and yellows. Both look like they belong next to a child's own drawings.
Colors: sunny yellow, soft pink and sky blue
Pairs well with: one bright wall (idea 6) and a rail for their art (idea 13).
For more color, our rainbow wall art collection is the place to look.
5. A music corner
Shakers, a small drum, a toy keyboard and a basket to hold them. Put this corner on the loud side of the room, away from the books.
The Woodland Animal Band set is one of our best sellers, and it's made for this corner: a wolf playing a French horn under a crescent moon, three squirrels marching with drums, all among colorful stars and music notes in a playful colored-pencil storybook style. The Savanna Animal Band set has a cheetah on a little stool with a violin and a lion at a grand piano under a shady tree.
Colors: honey brown, fox orange and brass gold
Pairs well with: a pretend-play corner (idea 3) and an open floor (idea 1).
There's more in our music wall art collection.
6. One bright wall behind the art table
If the playroom is going to have one loud wall, I put it here. Keep the other walls calm and let this one carry the color.
Jewel Tone Wild Animals is a set in a bold painterly style with thick, bright color: a gorilla sitting deep in thought, a purple hippo wading through turquoise water. The leaping ring-tailed lemur flies across a tropical scene in sunshine yellow, coral pink and deep leafy green with a glowing sun behind him. Either one turns a plain wall into the room's main event.
Colors: violet, turquoise and tangerine
Pairs well with: a low table (idea 4) and a pretend-play corner (idea 3).
For a whole room built on strong color, see my bold kids' room ideas post.
How do you make a reading corner in a playroom?
7. Book ledges with covers facing out
Little kids choose what to read by the picture on the front, long before they can read a spine. I'd put up two or three narrow ledges at their height, fronts facing out, before I'd buy a full bookcase.
Above the ledges, a set with books in it makes the point. The Book-Loving Bears set shows the same honey-brown bears in a soft storybook look: a big bear and a cub sharing a picture book, or the two of them walking down a forest path with a book under the cub's arm. Bunny Bookworm, a best seller, is a bunny lost in a book in a quiet forest, with fireflies glowing around it.
Colors: honey brown, moss green and cream
Pairs well with: a hideaway (idea 8) and story art (idea 9).
8. A hideaway to read in
A reading spot with a roof over it feels like a secret, and kids love a secret. A small tent, a canopy hung from the ceiling, floor cushions under a loft bed or the nook under the stairs all work. Add a soft light and a basket of six or eight books.
Two prints fit a hideaway. Wander Nook, a best seller, shows a child reading with a gentle dragon inside the hollow of a glowing tree, lit by lanterns. Forest Fables is a honey-colored bear on the rocks beside a little stream, deep in a book under a big full moon and a deep blue night sky. Both have that tucked-away feeling you're trying to build.
Colors: lantern gold, moss green and night blue
Pairs well with: book ledges (idea 7) and a window bench (idea 11).
I've gathered more corners like this in my Kids' reading nook ideas post.
9. Story art that starts a conversation
Pick at least one print in the reading corner that gives you something to talk about. Bearly Reading, a best seller, is a friendly bear holding a stack of colorful books that say "Be Kind," "You Are Loved" and "Dream Big." Early readers love sounding those out. Starlit Story Time is a white goose with a red gingham bow, reading with her back against an old tree while little stars dot a dusty pink sky. Ask what she's reading, then pick tonight's book.
Colors: warm red, dusty pink and butter yellow
Pairs well with: book ledges (idea 7) and a rail for their art (idea 13).
Our reading wall art collection has more bookish animals.
What's the best playroom storage?
10. Low open shelves along one wall
Cube units at your child's height, one kind of toy per bin, and a picture on the front of every bin. A child who can't read yet can still put the cars back in the box with a car on it. Anchor every shelf and bookcase to the wall (CPSC), because a shelf full of toys is a ladder to a three-year-old.
Leave 6 to 8 inches between the top of the shelf and the bottom of the frame, so the toys on top don't hide the art. The Vintage Carnival set fits a toy wall: painterly carnival and toy designs, like a striped big top with bunting and a tricycle with a balloon tied on, in coral red, teal and cream. Farm Truck Animals is softer, a smiling pig leaning out of a truck window and a calf behind the steering wheel, in a storybook style.
Colors: coral red, teal and cream
Pairs well with: a building corner (idea 2) and a closed cabinet (idea 12).
11. A window bench with baskets underneath
A built-in seat gives kids somewhere to read and watch the rain, with room underneath for soft toys or dress-up clothes. If you'd rather use a toy chest with a hinged lid, choose one with a lid support that holds the lid open in any position, take off any latch that closes on its own, and keep its air holes clear of the wall (CPSC).
Beside the window, sky prints feel right. The Hot Air Balloon Animals set has a bunny, a lamb and a duckling drifting in patterned balloons, plus a monkey and a giraffe in a stack of gingham ones, in periwinkle, blush and sage. Parachute Pal is a little fox floating through the clouds under a rainbow-colored parachute.
Colors: periwinkle, blush and sage
Pairs well with: a hideaway (idea 8) and a gallery that grows (idea 14).
12. A closed cabinet for toys on a break
I'd give every playroom one cupboard with doors. It ends up the hardest-working thing in the room. Half the toys go in it at any time and swap out every few weeks, so the open shelves stay light and the toys feel new again. The grown-up supplies go in there too: paint, play dough refills, anything with batteries.
How to choose what goes on a break, and how often to swap, is in my How to organize a kids' playroom post.
How do you display kids' art in a playroom?
13. A rail for their art next to framed prints
A picture ledge or a wire with clips at your child's height turns the playroom into their gallery. Theirs changes every week. Ours stays. I like the two side by side: framed prints up top, their latest work along the rail below.
Prints with a lot of white or soft color sit calmly next to bright kid drawings. Botanical Woodland Friends has 10 woodland designs in a soft sketch style with light watercolor-style washes, each inside a thin pink border, from a mouse peeking out of a flowered teacup to a raccoon crossing a stream on stepping stones. Lily Pond Friends is a quiet pond in a textured, painterly style, with a frog leaping between lily pads and a turtle resting on a mossy log, all in pale aqua, sage green and dusty pink.
Colors: sage green, blush pink and pale aqua
Pairs well with: a low table (idea 4) and a gallery that grows (idea 14).
14. A gallery that grows with them
Start with two or three prints from one set and add more later in the same size. The wall fills in as the kids get older, and it always looks planned, because every print comes from one look.
Sets with lots of designs give you room to grow. Little Astronauts has 12 painterly designs in deep navy, soft lavender and starlight silver, from a little one lying back on the moon under shooting stars to a pair sitting on a crescent moon. Space Suit Animals has 15, animals in white space suits and bubble helmets on soft taupe in a light sketchbook style, like a mouse holding a striped balloon and a raccoon peeking over a moon rock.
Colors: deep navy, soft taupe and starlight silver
Pairs well with: a rail for their art (idea 13) and one theme (idea 15).
Our space wall art collection has the rest of the night sky.
15. One theme that ties every zone together
Some families want the whole room to tell one story. Choose a single theme, then use a different print from it above each zone, so the room hangs together even when the floor doesn't.
Dinosaurs and dragons are two I'd pick for a playroom that has to last. Baby Dinosaur Family shows the same tan and grey dinosaur family among wildflowers in a watercolor style: the two long-necked parents curled around their little one, or the baby swinging from a vine they hold between them. Watercolor Baby Dragons has two little dragons splashing in a puddle and two more sharing a picture book, in cream, dusty blue and blush.
Colors: sand, sage and terracotta
Pairs well with: a gallery that grows (idea 14) and a hideaway (idea 8).
See more in our dinosaur wall art collection.
What wall art works in a playroom?
Art for kids at play can be brighter and sillier than anything in a nursery. I look for three things: a story a child can tell back to you, colors that hold their own next to plastic toys, and a set rather than a single print, so each zone gets its own piece from the same family.
Size the art to the furniture below it, not to the whole wall. I aim for the print, or the group of prints, to cover about two-thirds of the width of the shelf, bench or table underneath. Three setups work in almost every playroom:
- One large print above the longest piece of furniture, usually the shelves.
- A row of three matching prints above a bench or a low table. Leave 2 to 3 inches between frames so the three read as one piece.
- A pair above a smaller zone, like the music corner or the block bin.
When you hang a set, choose the same size for every print in it, so the frames line up and the gaps stay even. If two prints you love come in different shapes, hang them with their centers on one level and keep the gaps the same. Not sure what fits? Cut paper to the sizes you're weighing and tape it to the wall for a day.
Many of our gallery sets let you pick any 1, 2, 3, 4 or 6 prints from one look, all in the same size and finish, and the price covers the whole gallery. That's the easiest way to give five zones five matching pieces. Browse our gallery wall sets, or start with the playroom wall art collection. If your kids are little, the toddler wall art collection is worth a look too, and the kids' wall art collection has everything else.
Our frames come in natural oak, walnut, white and black, with kid-safe plexi or real glass. In a playroom I choose plexi every time. Balls get thrown.
Where should art hang in a playroom?
In a child's room I center wall art about 48 inches from the floor, and it can stay there as they grow. The 57 inches you'll often read is meant for grown-up rooms, where people stand (Architectural Digest). Leave 6 to 8 inches between the bottom of the frame and any furniture below it. In a playroom I hang framed prints above the bins and give the wall below to the kids' own art on a rail or ledge.
Use proper picture hardware for every framed piece, never tape or one small nail. Skip the wall above anything kids climb, like the back of a sofa or a climbing triangle. Anchor dressers, bookcases and shelves to the wall too (CPSC).
Playroom questions parents ask
What should be in a playroom?
Five zones: a clear floor for active play, a table for making things, a cozy corner for books, low shelves for storage and a spot to show off their art. Everything else is extra. Start with those five and add what your kids actually use.
How do you make a playroom look nice and not cluttered?
Fewer toys out at once, one container for each kind of toy, and walls that feel planned. A matching set of prints above each zone makes the whole room look finished, even on a day when the floor isn't. Keep the wall colors calm and let the art and the toys bring the color.
What colors are best for a playroom?
A calm base, like warm white, oat or soft sage, with color coming from the art, the rug and the toys. If you want one strong color, put it on a single wall behind the art table, as in idea 6. A whole room of bright walls plus bright toys gets loud fast. My paint colors for kids' rooms post has a set of playroom picks, from a tomato red accent to a two-tone color block.
What wall art is good for a playroom?
Bright sets with a story in them: animals playing sports, animal bands, vehicles, reading animals, outer space and dinosaurs. Gallery sets work best, because each zone can get its own print from one look. Our playroom wall art collection is the place to start.
How do you set up a playroom in a small room or a corner?
Keep all five zones and shrink each one. One shelf, one basket of books, a lidded art box, a rug and a pair of prints can be a whole playroom. Hang the art to mark where the playroom starts, so it reads as its own place in a shared room.
Can a playroom grow with my kids?
Yes, if you plan the zones and not the toys. The reading corner becomes a homework spot, the building corner becomes a table for bigger building sets, and the music corner gets a real keyboard. Choose art that isn't babyish, like animal sports, outer space or dinosaurs, and add to the same set as they grow.
Shop playroom wall art
More prints for every zone are in our playroom wall art collection. When the zones are in place, my How to organize a kids' playroom post takes you through sorting the toys step by step, and Kids' reading nook ideas has more ways to build the reading corner.
Pick the zone your kids use most, and start the art there.