Building a "big kid" play room

[apples and bananas]

I have the most exciting news! (exciting in my world at least)

I have a house that I thought I had maxed out. I couldn't find another inch of space to use. Then... we discovered last night that we can finish a small portion of the basement!

Now, this won't be a daycare room. It will be a big kids room... for my 4 big kids. It will have my boys race tracks and my girls special craft supplies. I"m so excited to have somewhere for my kids to go during quiet time where they won't bother the sleeping kiddies.

So, my question to you is...

Give me some inexpensive ideas...walls...floo rs...ceilings... the budget will be low for this one so I need to get creative!

[playfelt]

Floor washable if you are doing crafts so if laying down vinyl is out then at minimum you can put down the peel and stick tiles. I would stay away from the foam mats because of the girls and craft supplies getting lost between the tiles. Walls could be covered in cheap pannelling - in a light colour. Which could also be painted. I cheated in one house and made a sewing area nice by wallpapering over the drywall and putting a piece of molding where the seam was and screwed hooks into it for hanging stuff.

Consider getting shelves and putting them back to back down the centre of the room with crafts on one side and other stuff on the other and then a table for games or puzzles. Add a few old pillows for reading or sitting and playing nintendo or other hand games.

A monitor of video system so you can know what is going on even while you are still upstairs clearing from lunch etc.

[Momof4]

That does sound exciting. More space is always great. Drywall isn't that hard to put up, I have some friends who have done it themselves and yes, they are women! For the ceiling can you use a staple gun and put up some material from beam to beam instead of trying to put in an expensive ceiling? Check out carpet stores for big pieces of remnants of cheap carpet and make a mosaic pattern. It's really cheap to do it that way. Just glue it all down.

[Skysue]

http://www.bhg.com/decorating/storage/organization-basics/space-saving-home-storage-ideas/

You could get a few second hand cabinets from Kijiji.ca or the re-store Then paint them the same colour to streamline things.