Do away with the livingroom?

[swellmomma]

Has anyone decided not to have a typical livingroom/familyroom and instead turn it into a learning/playroom? I am thinking ahead to the new house, and while it has many great features, 1 down side is losing the basement, and the dining area is much smaller, so I can not surround the table with my shelves and cupboards of homeschool stuff. I am thinking about making my livingroom there more play/learning space and not so much livingroom. I will still have a tv in there, and the love seat, but I am thinking of not putting the big sofa in there at all, and putting the kids childsized tables and shelves in for playspace and to use for homeschooling the 2 younger kids (the older 2 would still use the kitchen table). Has anyone else done this?

[Starr]

I think it's a good idea to figure out how you really use space. I've had many houses with rooms that are barely used. You can move furniture around as time goes by. Let us know how it works out. I would love it, my mother would not. :)

[OrganicAnn]

our dining room is the playroom.

 

Just make sure you will be happy with that choice all year round (like at Christmas or holidays when you might want to have people over and want to have your living room back).

[ChristusG]

I've come to the conclusion that you need to use your home however it fits best for your family. Yes, it could present a problem when you have guests over....but really, what percentage of the time is that? 2 or 3%? 1%? The rest of the time, your own family will be there.

 

We never use a dining room for its intended purpose. Right now it is being used as the computer area. Previously, it was used as a playroom. Our master bedroom was used as a playroom for a while. Do whatever fits best for your family.

[Aubrey]

Yes, I've done it, & I love it, but I rearrange furniture every other month or so. Upending the house & moving everything is par for the course here.

 

Currently, our "living room" is supposed to be a preschool/game room, but I got worn out w/ changing stuff before completely finishing. Still, I like it.

 

We converted one of the bedrooms into a playroom, complete w/ sofa & tv, w/ the idea that I wouldn't have to look at their toys everywhere. (haha) Their clothes are in there, too, so that they can get dressed, clean up, etc while babies are sleeping. All 4 beds are in one room. And the best part? Theoretically, if I've got a load of laundry on the sofa, I can close the door, & no one knows. :001_smile:

 

In reality, of course, everyone has kids, so of course the laundry has to be moved. :glare:

[Aubrey]

http://aubreylively.blogspot.com/2010/02/chasing-sunshine.html

[Melissa in FL]

We've done this in our last two homes. Our children are spaced out and I find it works best for us to have a dedicated schoolroom and a seperate dedicated playroom. The last two homes we've lived in our dining room is our schoolroom and the formal living room is our playroom. It has all the play kitchen equipment (including a small table), bookshelves full of toy buckets and small couch for the kids to use. It is used daily and the kids love it! Go for it!

Melissa

[myfatherslily]

Hmmm... I like this idea. As others have said, it really depends on YOU and your family. I think it could work for us. It's just me and the kids here now. The livingroom is end to end with toys these days. I do my best to clean it up each day, only to have the floor covered again the next day. I keep the toys in the bedrooms. Do they play in the bedrooms? Rarely. They bring everything out to the livingroom! My guests all bring children along. Where do they play? Everyone in the livingroom!

 

But when I get it all cleaned up and brief a big sigh of relief... do I want it all still there, albeit neatly on shelves?

 

Okay, this was my dream last year - a very wide bookcase with doors, deep enough for toys. Nice baskets (though durable) not ugly kid ones. Then they could have their kid stuff out here, but I could put it all away and feel grown-up about it.

 

So the questions are: Does it sound like something YOU would like? Would it bother you if you changed your mind later? (I move stuff around all the time, but I know my SIL likes to just get settled and leave it!) Can you still have a place to relax at night and feel like an adult who's not surrounded by kid stuff 24/7?

[Luanne]

... when my daughter and I moved into this small one bedroom apartment. We got rid of our couch and recliner ... we do still have the television and lamp in the "living room", but nothing else that makes it look like an actual living room. There just wasn't room for everything otherwise and I decided that our bookshelves, books, and long table were more of a priority for us than the couch and recliner. It has worked really well so far ... we moved in the middle of December.

[GWOB]

How often do you entertain? If entertaining is is important to you, then you may rethink your plan. However, if you rarely entertain, do whatever you feel like doing with your rooms. YOU, and YOU alone, can best determine the most efficient ways to use space in your home. I think as long as your home is comfortable, most people will feel welcomed in it. Remember, it is YOUR home. You can paint it hot pink if you feel like it! Enjoy! Hsing families tend to do things differently. That is totally ok. I personally give you permission.

[OnTheBrink]

I won't give up my living room, but I have seriously considered switching bedrooms with my dd. I'm only in my bedroom to sleep. She's in hers all the time.

 

I may revisit this with her and see what she thinks.

[swellmomma]

I have done away with it before but it was different because I was running a dayhome so my "livingroom" was the playroom and I turned what would have been a basement playroom into a livingroom. In the new place that just won't be possible. I am fine being down to just the love seat, both for watching the tv and for cuddling while reading. I very very rarely entertain. I don't like people coming into my space very often, so that should not be a huge issue. The garage is being turned into a playspace too but more for the bigger toys, air hockey table etc. Right now I have cubbies lining 2 walls of my livingroom holding the rest of their toys BUT I have not tried to use it for school too. In the new place there is no dining room, it is more like a breakfast nook that looks into the livingroom, which is why I was thinking of making the livingroom into a school/playspace too.

 

I don't mind moving furniture etc around, but I suspect with 5 of us in a 1000sq ft house that furniture wise once I decide that is where it will stay until we out grow that stage in life kwim. The smaller items are easily moved around but sofas, bookcases, cubby units etc are pretty much going to stay where they are placed for a long time to come.

 

I know when I did not have a livingroom before my family made a ton of not nice comments about it, but at the same time it never inconveinced them as they never come for visits.

[Peela]

Our main living area is off the kitchen upstairs, and it is a combined schoolroom and daily living area, with couches and TV, 3 large desks and computers. It's a fairly large room. It also has the piano and an art table.

Our dining room has two armchairs in it (as well as dining chair and tables), and we often use that for just hanging out, socialising and for dh and I to have communication time when the kids are watching TV.

I have found having the schoolroom combined with living area to work well for us, but dh doesnt use the room much- he watches TV in his own room. Its more where the kids and I hang out most of the time.

[MomtoCandJ]

We have a living room and den, the living room we have turned into Cali's playroom and when she is old enough her homeschool room. We rent but plan on staying in this place until we are able to move back to Michigan.

[rdolphingirl]

Wow ... lots of good ideas here ...

 

As I am preparing to move I have been thinking a lot about these issues, and enjoyed reading about what others are doing.

I am (at the moment anyway) planning to "give" the master bdrm with its bathroom to my 3 boys. This way we will have a bedroom to dedicate to being the playroom.

I have been a bit undecided though about what/where to put the schooling stuff. This coming year will be the first year that all three will be officially doing formal work so I will need to have something halfway setup for at least the little two.

 

My living/dining area is a pretty open large area that will likely turn into a mostly school area. Just not sure yet how it will all work.

 

I would love to have a basement, however since I also need sun its likely to be better that I don't.

[lllll]

We lived in a house which had a formal living room. I put all our dc's toys in it and called it the playroom. (I never put any toys in dc's bedrooms, because it was easier to get them to go to sleep at night that way.)

 

I loved it. They were downstairs near the kitchen where I could hear and see to head off any potential fights and such. It was at the front of the house where the sandbox and the hose were right outside the front door. (tiny backyard and huge front yard) It was easy to pick up since there was no furniture in it. I sorted things into laundry baskets which I lined up around the edges of the room, leaving the center of the room open for physical play, building big things, etc.

 

Our living room was carpeted, though, so they had to do messy things in the kitchen or outside - play doh, paint, eat, etc. But that was OK because I could watch them and make sure none of these things wound up on the walls. :)

 

I'm also not much of an entertainer and have never really cared what the neighbors or relatives thought about how I arranged my house ... especially since I was the one living in it and not them .... with 5 kids, ages newborn to 10yo ... I just did what it took to keep me sane. :D

[KidsHappen]

We rarely use rooms for their intended purposes but instead figure out what would work best where. Our formal living room is my hubby's office, the formal dining room is a library/game room, the family room is a music room, the dinette is the dining room, and the loft is the living room. When first moved into this house the loft was one of my dd's bedrooms so the living room was where the music room is not and the music stuff was scattered all about the house. I really like it the way it is now and think that it will pretty much stay that way until we downsize after the kids leave.