While I had my own room as a child, I'm sure I wouldn't have minded sharing with my sister if we got a special play room!

My kids share a room and the 3rd room is just toys. Everyone loves it, and it makes cleanup easier to keep all the toys in one room. Someday we'll have to adjust since we'd like to have more kids, but for now, it's great.

How do playrooms work, really? I never had one, and I don't quite understand the concept--do you send your kids off to play there while you spend time doing your own thing? Maybe it's because my husband and I both work, but when we're home, we want to be WITH our kid. So, we keep many of her toys and activities easily accessible and neatly stored in our common space (living room/dining room). Right now we only have a 2 yr old (and a baby on the way), so we couldn't really send her off on her own to play anyway, but I think I'd still prefer the idea of the kids mostly hanging out in common spaces with us anyway, and going up to their room(s) if they needed some alone time/privacy/whatever.

FWIW, our baby on the way is a boy, so we do plan on the kids having separate rooms. I don't think a mixed gender room would be a problem at this age at all, but it seems it will be appreciated as they get older, so we figured it was easier just to set it up that way to begin with.

We didn't double up kids in a bedroom, but we did turn an unused formal sitting room into a playroom. For us, a playroom is about having adequate toy storage and a room that inspires kids and adults to play. It makes it possible for our living room to be a place where kids are welcome but toy clutter is not. That sounds crazy, but our family rule is that, while bringing a few toys into the living room is fine, when they aren't being actively played with anymore, they have to be removed. That rule and our lovely playroom keep me sane. ;)

We have a playroom. It is shared with my craft/sewing/desk area. We all play in there (adults and children). We were lucky enough to have a house with a nice space for it. It would ideally keep toys out of the living room/kitchen/husband's office, but it doesn't seem to work that way. Oh well, at least the toys have a place, even if they don't seem to stay in it! My girls (ages 3 and 1) share a bedroom and seem to love it.

Our 2 boys share a room, and our daughter has her own. This gave us space in what was once the youngest's room to have a playroom. We have bookshelves with kids books, toys, even a drum set, guitars on the wall, and a play kitchen. And a train table in the middle! It's not a big room; probably close to 10x12. But it works! And best of all, when friends are over, it's a great place to hang out, and it keeps the toy clutter contained to one part of the house.

where do i get that pink rug!?

hyzen, I don't think parents are pushing their kids into playrooms. Most of the time kids like having a space to wreck and bounce off the walls. I don't think you'd put climbing walls all over your house, but you might put one in a playroom. Or an art splatter wall. Or to contain toys. Or a game room for video games and foosball, air hockey, etc.

Open floor plan here. My family room and converted dining room are playspaces, and the toys are contained by cabinets.

We've tried twice to put our girls in one room so the other could be a playroom/library/homework station, but it didn't work out (no sleep for anyone). I still want to set that up, though, and it's been about a year since our last attempt so maybe we'll try again. Just wish I didn't have to disassemble a bed to give it a go!

stickyricemama, thanks for the response--I get what you're saying. I realized after re-reading my post that it seemed a bit confrontational, which isn't what I intended. I just always think a playroom seems like such a fun idea until I start thinking about when/how we'd actually USE it. Since the whole family is out of the house most of the day during the week anyway, there's not a lot of time at home where kid(s) need space to bounce off walls or be crazy. At home we make/eat meals, socialize with each other, relax, and get ready for the next day. So in our case, I feel like a playroom would mostly be wasted space, except maybe on weekends (and we don't really have space in our house for a weekend-only type room). If we were home more, I could totally see it--and maybe as our kids get older, too, my perspective will change. BUT, I do put a high value on having private space, too--I had my own room growing up, and I remember one of the hardest things about freshman year of college was the roommate situation, and never having a place that was my OWN, that I could go to have real privacy. It was kind of suffocating. SO, I guess I wish we had space for kids to have their own rooms AND a cute/fun playroom to share, but only in my dreams....

We turned our old study into the playroom. It has our books, a reading corner, a 4.5ftx2.5ft blackboard paint rectangle, activity table, craft supplies, building blocks and high shelf for the kids to put their creations safely on ;)
We put a big, cheap rug from IKEA down, and it's the room where the kids know it's ok if some paint spills on the carpet, or if pen marks get on the wall. They also know that no paint/pens/messy stuff are to leave the doorway AT ALL.
Soft, quiet and/or non-messy toys are kept in bedrooms. The girls have a dollhouse in their room, and the boys have a wooden garage and cars. In the lounge room is a train set, trucks, dolls, baby toys etc.
Our play room is off the kitchen/dining/living area, so they're never too far away. It works really well for us, and there's no sense of kids being "shut away".
What it does provide for us is extra play spaces, so the kids and I aren't on top of each other all the time and everyone can have space/time to themselves. We've only had it for six months or so, and the change has been amazing!!
As for room sharing, I can't recommend it enough! It has worked great for our kids, but there were definitely some teething issues, and room shuffling. We started off with the oldest two in one room and youngest three in the other. As it turns out, the boys sleep well together and the girls sleep ok together so that made it easy for us!

We did this as children, and I have fond memories of our playroom.

We tried this with our 2 children. It was a disaster. They have very different sleep habits and the end result was super tired kids for months until we moved them back into separate bedrooms.

our kids (boy and girl) share a room, and they have their toys and games in a separate room that serves as a guest room for our frequent out-of-town visitors. It works very well, I should add that our kids are 18 months apart and have always shared a room. I think we could do quite well without the guest room, even, it is a bit of luxury for the grandparents and uncles and aunties.
No need to bust the kids out into their own discrete cells, not that long ago we humans were putting all the kids in one bed.

Post script:

could you do a feature on shared kid rooms with mixed genders? that would rock. Ours looks very boring right now.

I'd like to know more about how to get very young siblings to share a room. I only have one one year old but when we do have another I'd love for them to share but curious as to how that works with a baby crying in the middle of the night. Do you just explain to the older child not to get up if he/she hears baby?

@akgreengirl Several years ago, all 3 of our kids shared one room. A 3 yr. old, 2 yr. old and a newborn. Most of the time the older two wouldn't even wake up when the baby did, and they very quickly got used to mom/dad coming in several times at night to take care of him and learned to go back to sleep when they did wake. I don't think it affected their sleep at all either b/c they never seemed to remember our nightly meetings or seem cranky from the interruptions.

Since then we have had several different sleeping arrangements with the kids and really, they all work out fine. Right now our situation is just like this post. We have enough rooms for everyone to have their own, but 2 of the kids requested to share for awhile anyway, so we turned the extra into a playroom. We all really love it. The toys still end up all over the house, but the "playroom" houses most of them, has a huge chalkboard and white board, and a private reading nook for when someone needs to hide out.

My 3 kids share a room despite our now having a 5 bedroom house. They want to be together (they are 5, 3 & 1yr old) so we will not separate until they request it. Our older 2 sleep together in a twin even though each has a bunk. I love that they are so close. We also have a playroom (in the sunroom next to the living room)--I really enjoy the separate playroom. I stay at home & all the toys are arranged, organized & together. The kids spend hours in there playing (I am a SAHM). It's convenient because with 99% of the toys in there their room only has beds, clothes & books--so there is plenty of room even w/ 3 kids (a bunk bed, crib, 2 dressers & a book case). And in the evening we just throw the straggler toys in the playroom & shut the door.

Ours will all share a room until one of them either requests a move or until there's some other practical reason for it. They can pry my office from my cold, dead hands.

thanks tmscott that sounds great!