The loft photos are killing me. It's rekindling my love of brick wall lofts in the City that we totally cannot afford to buy but would do in a heartbeat if we could (despite loving farmhouses too). A lot of these homes are very well done. I don't want my kids thinking they are strangers in their own home so we design with the flexibility for them to play in the home as well. Sometimes you just can't fight the toys. They find their way out of the toy box after midnight like Gremlins.

It's definitely easier to be kid-friendly when it's a gazillion-square-foot loft, haha. What about the city dwellers with tiny living spaces? That's the REAL inspiration!

Is that a swing hanging from the water pipe? Water damage to you and your neighbors in 3,2,...

The swing and the antlers . . . could be a bad collision :)

Good ideas in this post, though . . . .

totally, seawhitney. Inspirational ideas though and sometimes the kid stuff was subtle which I quite like - like playing a game of spot the toys. I'm just trying to contain everything!

I'm quite surprised that first photo was even included in this post. When it was originally posted a year or two back, there was so much furor (rightfully so) over the idiocy of that swing on the pipe, I believe all the comments were disabled, and/or the entire post itself was deleted. They must be gluttons for punishment, hah.

we have a treehouse in our living room and I love it :)

Curious as to the experiences of parents of young kids who have used blackboard paint: Did your kids love it and stick to that area -- or love it and become more likely to draw on other, non-blackboard walls in your house? Because I can see that being a very fun thing, or a way to teach kids something you really wish they wouldn't learn.

Red Zinger, my kids have never been tempted to stray off the chalkboard, and we've had a painted wall since my youngest was a baby.

Related to the picture of the trapeze bar: we recently hung a swing (from the joists, not a water pipe) in my kids' room, and they love it. It's not a huge room, and sometimes the swinging gets pretty wild, but no casualties yet!

Whatever you do...don't hang the swing set from the pipe for the fire system. Break it and set off the fire system in your entire building and get a bill from the fire department for coming out. Has got to be the most idiotic thing I think I've ever seen.

I hope the people in the first photo live on the first floor. Wood furniture, running people, no insulation, no carpeting = bad bad neighbors.

Jeez, bad enough if it is a waterpipe... if it is a gas line you'll blow the whole house. Least kid friendly idea I have ever seen.

It's a sprinkler pipe. It's actually illegal to hang ANYTHING from a sprinkler pipe, due to reasons mentioned above. While I generally close my eyes on Xmas lights and such hanging on sprinkler pipes, adding a weight of a child seems downright criminal.

Yeah... water pipe swing...

Red Zinger, I was afraid of the same thing. My son is 20 months old and I just gave him chalk for the chalk board wall in his play room for the first time last week. So far, he hasn't strayed off of that one wall. However, until he is older, he doesn't have access to the chalk, markers, paint or crayons with out my getting it for him (IE only supervised). Once he is a bit older, it'll all go in the art cabinet for him to access on his own.

@Red Zinger and jcbd: we have a chalkboard wall in our daughter's nursery. She isn't quite old enough to use it yet, but all of her cousins love to write and draw on the wall, and none have marked up any of their walls at their own homes. I thought about using the Martha Stewart trick to make regular paint into chalkboard, so all the walls would match, but in the end just used black paint from Rustoleum. I think it helps that only the chalkboard wall is black; the kids know that they can draw on that one and no others.

In several of these, the kids' books are up on shelves that are eye-level for adults, but out of reach for little ones. Neat and tidy, but not so accessible for the kids.

anyone know where to get something similar to the wire-and-hanging-clips art gallery set up in picture 14 (third row, second from the right)?

jaanittava. I think that's an Ikea dignitet.