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Piglet
10-29-2007, 10:20 AM
We are getting SO close to finishing our playroom in the basement, but I am still driving myself crazy with all sorts of final details. I am trying to figure out what to put on the walls. The room is big, but has no windows (in the basement). It is going to be painted a light blue-gray-green colour. We are using the IKEA Trofast system for storage (with blue, green and white bins). Carpet is sand coloured. I would like to put something fun on the walls to make it more inviting and colourful. My options right now are:

1) book themed prints - i.e. Maurice Sendak, Curious George, Dr. Seuss, etc.

2) kid artwork - this one is the hardest since I have to find all the nice things DS1 has made, but they are all rolled up

3) cartoon/TV characters - i.e. Disney, Dora, etc. The kids would probably like this one best, but I like it least.

Any thoughts?

Masik
10-29-2007, 03:45 PM
No basements here in California, and our playroom is quite modest in size, but I found that Ikea simple prints brighten it up.:)
Also Costco has pretty big sized kids maps right now 2 per set (see just one, as I just do not have enough wall space to put it up). Another one is animals of the world. I wouldn't put any characters on walls, but your DC might want differently. My DS is just 21mo, so he has no say in it just yet :D
HTH a bit :)

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k197/Masik_Kolbasik/ourfamily-1.jpg

katydid1971
10-29-2007, 04:03 PM
Since you are asking, my vote is no tv characters, I personally hate them, but that's my thing I know. I loved PP idea of the maps, that is somthing you will be glad is there for years, "Auntie is coming to visit from California lets look up California on the map" etc. I think putting up DS's art would be great but finding frames that are the right size might be expensive. PP had a good idea about Ikea art, they have a bunch of different things and they all have inexpensive frames that fit. I've used Ikea art in lots of rooms in my house. Go onto Ebay and put in children art searches and you can find some nice stuff. I bought a cute sign for DS's door for $9 that says "Andrew's Room" and has a baseball theme like his room. I don't have a basement and use our familyroom as our playroom so I am jealous that you can do this fun thing for your child. Oh BTW, you might want to rethink the blue Trofast bins, they are too big for 2 1/2 year old DS to get stuff from the bottom, we had them and replaced them with the medium size ones and they work better. They come in red and white. HTH
Sarah

MarisaSF
10-30-2007, 12:22 AM
You did a great job! Very cute!

MarisaSF
10-30-2007, 12:25 AM
I agree about the large blue bins. While I like having a couple, I wouldn't get too many. I have two in our Trofast system -- right now, one is for train tracks and one is for large, soft toys.

brittone2
10-30-2007, 08:08 AM
Eeboo wall alphabet wall cards?

Barefoot books has some cool artwork from their books available as prints.

Sounds like a fun project!

belovedgandp
10-30-2007, 11:49 AM
Our basement playroom is only about 10x12. It is truly our sons' area to do what they please. With that, we allow ball throwing at the basketball hoop and all those kind of crazy things that are not allowed upstairs. Because of the rough play/ball throwing, I went with no frames/glass/falling off the wall. I just did some fun patterns with the wall stick ons (vinyl clings for walls) from Lowe's. Our playroom had basic beige walls and a muted multi-colored carpet, so I put up a combination of orange/blue/green and coordinating stripes.

If you are at all artistic, a friend of mine did really cute handprint art. Stretched canvases painted a bright color (muted red in her case) and then a set of handprints in cream with the kid's name on them. She did three - one for each kiddo. It looks really cute in the playroom.

brittone2
10-30-2007, 12:07 PM
I think the PP's point is a really good one if they are going to rough house play in there, especially.

Some other cool sites for wall art are www.dvider.com

mimi'lou for sale at:
http://www.zoebonline.com/

http://www.wallcandyarts.com/

fivi2
10-30-2007, 01:27 PM
We have one of these prints from oopsy daisy http://www.oopsydaisy.com/banners_viewall01.html

They are on canvas that you hang with nail/tack things they send - so no frames or glass. I think they are all adorable.

I also love the map idea and the storybook pictures idea. I think my girls would love looking at pics from their favorite books.

JdrKuhnert
10-31-2007, 06:15 AM
The walls in our playroom are a very blah white. I purchased some paper insect cutouts at the Dollar Tree. They are about a foot wide each and come in various primary colors. I applied them free form on the walls. They are extremely low maintenance and I can switch them out when my son is ready for something new. There are no frames to fall off of the walls, which happened with his caricature. I also framed some of his smaller artwork and have it sitting on the mantel out of his reach.

Piglet
10-31-2007, 10:17 AM
Thanks for all the great suggestions! I would love to find some wall decals to hang. We have decals in the kids' rooms, but they are characters - Winnie the Pooh has traveled from our old house to our new house and while I am SO sick of the decals, they look cute in the baby's room and Batman currently graces the boys' room until I figure out what to do for a real theme, LOL. I have been scouring Ebay and Etsy for cool wall decals. DH wants to use Space Invaders by Blik -
http://www.whatisblik.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=B&Product_Code=BL-106A
or Race Ya' -
http://www.whatisblik.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=B&Product_Code=BL-116YA

I also found the Eeboo wall cards and love the designs on them. I can see the point about not using frames, though.

So, here is my follow up question - what age do I target the playroom towards? DS1 is 6 and will love the Space Invaders or Race Cars. DS2 is 2.5 and will probably like the Eeboo wall cards more. Then there is DD, who probably doesn't care, but in a year will probably want something different altogether, LOL!

Thanks,
Marina

Mommy to
DS1 A 07/14/01
DS2 K 03/10/05
DD1 A 05/08/07

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Bean606
11-01-2007, 11:06 AM
Of the three options you noted, I like the book themed one the best, but if you are looking for something different, I ordered two posters from this website: www.abcs-of-art.com. I thought they were really neat and child-friendly, but educational and artsy, too.

squimp
11-01-2007, 11:20 AM
I was going to recommend these as well. They look so nice!

almostamom
11-01-2007, 11:59 AM
We have book themed prints in DS' playroom. I ordered them from the Eric Carle Museum. There are posters with artwork by Maurice Sendak, Eric Carle, Margaret Wise Brown, Leo Lionni, David Shannon, etc. http://www.picturebookart.org/Shop/Posters If there's a particular illustrator you like, you can also check ebay.

HTH,
Linda

pb&j
11-02-2007, 09:28 AM
We're also in the process of finishing our basement playroom. We're lucky that DH is a professional photographer, so we're making some poster-size prints of some of his pictures of bugs and animals. Kid-friendly - DS loves animals, and looks at these pics all the time on the computer - but "real art."

I'd go with the book-themed prints. I loathe the idea of putting TV characters on my walls. I'm not super anti-TV or anything, but it's not exactly a habit I want to validate and encourage, KWIM?


-Ry,
mom to Max, age 1.5
and my girl in heaven

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