Advice on Setting up a Play Room for Older Girls

Bright colors will allow them to grow up in the room and make it nice for an office too. Make one wall a focal wall in a different color than the other three. I've even painted the ceiling the same color as the 3 walls. Decals are available on Etsy.com as well as Target (look by the lightbulbs). Or, paint dots (trace a plate, use 2 different sizes, with a pencil, then paint it in) or stripes (use masking tape) on the focal wall. Dots and stripes also look good together, ie. do the opposite design on the curtains. Add colorful organizers you either paint yourself or purchase.

One must have is a table and chairs (4 different colors is fun) where they can do crafts, homework, etc. A lounging area with large pillows with a bookshelf is nice too.

If you are handy, you may want to spend some time here at Ana White's Knock-off Wood:
http://ana-white.com/2010/08/behind-closet-doors.html

I would start with a color scheme and do any painting or window treatments etc.
to organize the room, picture a kindergarten room, one area for crafts-- maybe a kid sized table and chairs and a rolling cart of art supplies, another area for listening to music, another area for barbies or ponies etc.

There might be webites you could google to look at other playrooms maybe the DYI website?

We got a professional organizer to help us turn the downstairs into a playroom (we are hopeless in the organization department). We already had built in bookcases to store the toys on, but my husband's treadmill juts out into the center of the room. He refused to move it, so we had to work around it. We have the toys on the book shelves in categories and we have stations, like dress up, art, etc. We put a bullitin board for each of them to display their art work.

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Look at the Pottery Barn Kids/Teen and Land of Nod websites/catalogs. I know the prices are outrageous, but their rooms are gorgeous and might give you some inspiration. Take their ideas and then head to Ikea and Target to buy similar products.

Real Simple magazine also has good tips sometimes on putting together a new space to make it seem brighter, less cluttered, etc.

My almost 16 yr old has the entire upstairs. She uses the room which connects via jack and jill bath as her "entertainment" room. We have a trundle bed in there as a couch, plasma tv, wii, keyboard and one of those big comfy chairs from Pier 1.

Our real game room has a couch, pool table, plasma tv, aquarium and her sewing machine.

I didn't go with a "theme", she pretty much did it all herself.