Home & Garden Momma

Sammy's Montessori
Inspired Playroom

Currently we live in a loft. It’s industrial and unfinished with no walls other than those necessary to provide privacy when bathing. One grand open space with a mezzanine to host our bedroom. From the get go our space was not the most conducive to introduce our newborn, who soon became an adventurous crawler, now budding daredevil of a toddler and every stage to follow.

When Sammy was approaching three months old, we knew it was time to start thinking about a welcoming developmental space for him that he could call his own. We wanted to create an area where he could roam and explore. An area that would nurture curiosity and independence whilst providing safety and security. Most importantly we wanted his space to grow with him, enabling him to achieve those quintessential physical and mental milestones. With all that being said we also wanted to maintain an aesthetic that would work with our current loft decor and lend itself to being clean and well organized while clearly being a child’s play area.

Of the four spaces within the living area on the first floor, the kitchen and dining area were immediately ruled out.  We have our living space under our bedroom with a connected bathroom, and a space along 30’ of 20’ windows directly adjacent to the living room. We opted to create Sammy’s montessori inspired playroom in the open space near the exterior glass wall. It provides lots of natural light while the ceiling height gives a sense of openness as if he were not actually inside. Defining and containing the space was the next challenge, which we solved by laying down a large mat made from Skiphop Interlocking Tiles. They simultaneously defined the space and provided protection. From there, we focused on the following Montessori principles: freedom with limits, prepared environments and providing time and space for movement and learning together. Without delving too much into what Montessori means, that’s for a whole other blog post, its foundation is deeply rooted in empowering a child through independence and enabling them to grow into their own unique self versus molding them into our ideal. While we’re not hardcore purists, we try to implement these principles in his everyday activities.
My husband designed and built our son’s Montessori shelf using clear fir wood, sanded down to have soft, rounded edges. Here a selection of toys and/or activities are displayed close to the ground. Everything is readily available and accessible for our son to grab on his own terms. I try to keep 4-7 options available. This is to not overstimulate him and encourage him to focus. His shelves are adorned by several Lovevery play things which I cannot speak highly enough about. In short, Lovevery has done all the hard work for you by providing a monthly subscription service of Montessori inspired toys, designed by experts, to meet all your baby and toddler developmental needs. Not only are their products flat out beautiful, they are simple in their design, and functional in their purpose. They even send you a “how to” booklet with every subscription box to boot.

We used Ikea’s Elvari closet system to house additional toys (swapped on rotation), diapers, wipes, extra clothes, and all that good stuff. What’s great about these shelves is that they are extremely versatile. We designed the layout ourselves to include shelves, drawers, and a large counter area designated as a changing station. We used the changing station until our son was about five months old. Once he hit that five month mark, changing his diaper was comparable to wrestling a small alligator! Because of his uncontrollable urge to want to roll over, we stopped changing him on higher up surfaces and moved him to the play mat. Above what used to be his changing area, we hung two Mickey Mouse posters I found on ebay. This was a very conscious decision! I learned early on that when babies are born, they only see black and white and in short distances (15”). We chose these posters for their hard lines and minimal use of colors. When he was itty bitty, I’d change him laying there, and he would look up, completely enthralled by those posters. Now they serve as cute and timeless wall decor.

I found these 22″h x 20″d bins at Home Goods to store extra toys and musical instruments. I try my best to keep the bins organized by toy type. Of course there are days where it seems like all the contents from the storage bins are out on the mat, and that’s okay. I let our son lead the way. Since everything has its own place, cleaning up our playroom when it’s messy takes less than three minutes!

Last but not least, we are brought to our Montessori bookshelves. I bought these Steffy Wood bookshelves on Amazon, and they’re fantastic. One major pro about them is that they come prebuilt. I think we can all agree that after putting your child to sleep for the night, the last thing you want to do is build furniture and wake them up. These shelves are practical and sturdy. They keep his books organized in a beautiful way and stand just 2’ tall.  He can grab any book when he wants it. Our son first saw these shelves as the perfect opportunity to work on his climbing skills, but most recently they’ve brought me the true gratification I was looking for. There are several moments throughout the day when I’m busy in the kitchen and I haven’t heard a peep from our son, and I know he’s in his playroom. I’ll glance over and see him sitting quietly, picking a book one by one, and “reading.” I watch a little closer, and I see the expression changing on his face, and then I’ll hear the oohs and aahs. Warms my heart. ❤

Find more playroom essentials on my Amazon Storefront!:)

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