LOFT PLAYROOM & WORKSPACE

Project highlights

• Functional Solutions and Design:

  • While conventional space planning suggests keeping workspaces closed off and private, our experience during the pandemic taught us that working from home with young kids is more manageable in a space where we can keep an eye on them. Boundaries and privacy are still necessary if we’re going to be productive, but knowing that our kids aren’t causing trouble in an entirely different room can put our minds at ease and prevent anxiety-driven stress and interruptions.

  • Balancing the aforementioned needs, we set up the bookcase “wall” to give each party some privacy and boundaries for their respective spaces. We also placed a small kid-sized table in alignment with the adult-sized desk, to encourage mimicking the parents’ work with some quiet art time.

  • Budget-friendly Ikea bookcases provide ample storage for books, toys, and art supplies and form a room divider, making a cozy reading and play area.

  • A smaller bookcase dedicated to arts & crafts storage anchors the “edge” of the room to contain the energy of the space rather than letting it dissipate aimlessly into the stairwell.

  • A rolling cart next to the parents’ desk serves as dedicated parent-only storage for office supplies and personal items and creates an additional psychological barrier between the work and play spaces, protecting each occupant’s attention from wandering too far from their own space.

  • In the play area, a slide-top storage table is the perfect solution for blocks, legos, and other small toys. There’s a surface to build on and a roomy storage area where all the pieces can be swiped off and stored. And best of all: it minimizes the risk of errant dropped pieces all around the room! (Hurray for saving unsuspecting feet from Lego landmines!)

  • A pegboard by the children’s desk (and just out of the little ones’ reach) offers a place to store “adult-supervision” tools (like scissors and glue) and has clips to display their work.

  • Anti-tip restraints have been added to the bookcases to prevent climbing accidents.

  • And, finally, one of our favorite features in the whole house: we placed foam pads between the sofa and both nearby walls, creating a ledge to stop dropped items from disappearing forever behind the furniture. Both foam pieces are covered in kid-friendly fabrics that can be wiped and washed easily. (Maybe other people have thought of this before, but we’re not so sure, and Brittany feels pretty dang proud of coming up with this solution!)

• Use of Color and Pattern:

  • For this young family, we used a bold, modern color palette built on a clean, white foundation.

  • Using color to emphasize the focal points for each space, we brought the energy and attention low to the ground in the play area of the loft and high in the stairwell. Keeping the color in the workspace fairly evenly distributed and monochromatic helps our busy parents focus on the work itself (which is further encouraged by the low placement of bright colors in the play area, which is not as visible from a seated position at the desk).

  • The sea-glass-colored shibori patterned wallpaper balances the strong vertical panel of teal green at the other end of the wall and makes a statement backdrop for zoom calls for this cozy workspace.

• Custom Cat Climbing Wall:

  • This situation needs its own section. The cats of this house are FEARLESS, and because of that, there are literally deep scratches down the walls from when they’ve tried to jump from the stair rail to the window and missed. It’s truly remarkable. But they didn’t always miss the mark! (See photo below) HOWEVER, regardless of the better-than-expected success rate, we still felt it was important to stop them from risking death several times a day. Plus, it was leaving stains on the walls from the frequent swipes of cat bodies.

  • The solution: place barriers, in the form of steps and resting places, along the route-of-curiosity, as I never before now called it, but wish I had all along. (Just in case it wasn’t obvious, Brittany, herself (me) has taken over writing this information, which is why it’s suddenly so long-winded and entertaining. It’s not for everyone. She’s aware. (I’m aware.) But sometimes you’ve had a few too many cheese fries and the thought of trimming down the writing to spare word count while sacrificing the twists and turns and best parts of the stories just doesn’t feel appealing. Anyway… I digress…)

  • We found a selection of cool cat perches and steps on Etsy, and with much skill and determination, our handiest of handymen secured them to the wall, creating a fun little adventure park to replace the life-risking parcours the cats had previously engaged in in this space. Hurray!

  • To cover the marks on the walls from our daredevil friends, and also because it just looks cool, we added these dramatic color blocks of paint and a gigantic canvas art print to make sure everyone knows this house is where the cool people live.

  • Bonus fact: the peach color (Sherwin-Williams Chivalry Copper) was applied with a paint that actively purifies the air by breaking down VOCs as they come in contact with the wall surface. (Whatttt??? Yes. I know. It’s stupidly cool.) Second bonus fact: we wanted to use that paint for all of the places we painted, but it’s not yet available in darker tones. Bet you didn’t know you can’t make any paint become any color. (If you did, I’m impressed, and also wondering why you’re reading my project notes because you’re clearly already a pro.)