Best Ideas for Toddler Playroom: Our Montessori Playroom
Have a little one growing up and needing a playroom or just looking to revamp your playroom? Well we thought it was time to share our Montessori inspired playroom and give everyone a few ideas for a toddler playroom.
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Whether you have a small space or a space in your basement, it’s always great to have a designated play space or playroom for your child. Ours happens to be in our basement where there’s a nice corner designated as our little one’s playroom. As parents, we’ve always leaned more towards the Montessori style environment that encourages independence and learning in a clean, simple space. Our playroom is ever evolving, but we wanted to share ours to give others ideas for a toddler playroom!
Ideas for a Toddler Playroom
Our goal with our Montessori playroom was to create a safe space that our child can actively play on their own. It’s been working great and our little guy will happily play on his own in that space for an hour or more (when he’s in the mood of course!).
Variation is important in play spaces. We have found that it helps encourage our little one to make choices and think creatively on what to do. So we have contrasting types of spaces within our Montessori playroom: quiet space and active space. Below are all the components we have and can help you get ideas for a toddler playroom!
Montessori Toddler Playroom Ideas – Quiet Space
A quiet space allows our little one a place to rest and have quiet time whenever desired. A quiet space could have a lot of different configurations from a floor bed/sofa to a pile of comfy pillows creating a cozy reading nook. It’s good to have books accessible near the quiet space as it’s a great quiet activity for your little one.
Our quiet space is a cute Little Dove Teepee with some pillows and stuffed animals. We also have books placed nearby for easy access as reading is a great quiet time activity. Our little one’s favorite book right now is Baby Loves Coding. I’m being serious. He LOVES it! It might be because there’s a train more than the fact that it’s teaching about coding, but he’s still exposed to it all. Check out our list of our 10 Best Nerdy and Eco-friendly Baby Books for your book collection!
Accessible books nearby the quiet space- Comfy cozy teepee as quiet space
Montessori Toddler Playroom Ideas – Active Space
Contrasting our quiet space, there is also opportunity for active and independent play. I think we all know children love to run, climb, slide, swing, and balance, so having opportunities to do that in a playroom is key. I mean what kid wouldn’t love to have a swing or climbing wall in their house!?
In our active play space, there are several activities:
- Mountain Climbing Wall – Our little one has always been a climber, so we created a climbing wall as a safe place to encourage that climbing. Check out how to build your own DIY Mountain Climbing Wall here!
- Pikler Triangle – These are just awesome freeplay element that children find so many ways to play with for a long time. Our little one climbs it, slides down it, races cars on it, hangs from it and so much more. He’s been using it since he was around 7 months old too! We built our own, but you can also purchase a professionally made one like this one.
- Staggered Sensory Stepping Stones – We bought these to help encourage our little one to learn balance and jumping. But they’re also great for free and imaginative play! Our little one likes to stack them on his Pikler Triangle and I’m always wondering what he’s imagining. Again, we modified ours by painting them because we’re crazy and like to make everything match our aesthetic.
- Playroom Storage Shelves – Playrooms mean toys, so having a place to put them is obviously important. With our Montessori style approach, most of the shelves are for open storage of toys to make them visible and accessible. Additionally, we decided to have bins on the bottom to store more of the small loose toys. However, you could leave the bottom shelves open or use baskets.
We built these simple Playroom Storage Shelves (yes we have a problem and love to build things!). Check out our How-To if you want to make your own.
- Ikea Sensory Table – Child-sized furniture was important for us to have in Montessori inspired playroom as it’s all about freedom and accessibility for our child. We bought a little table with bins and stools from Ikea. It’s the perfect height and allows us to use it for so many different activities. We use it a lot when it’s craft time, especially in the fall and winter when we are inside more.
Montessori Playroom Toys
On the playroom storage shelves, we rotate through toys, but below is a list of some of our favorite Montessori toys as well as a few staples our little guy loves.
- Kiwi Co Toys Subscription Box
- 2-in-1 Adjustable Bamboo Balance Bike (both tricycle and balance bike!)
- Melissa & Doug Wood Puzzles
- Wooden Musical Instruments
- Wood Building Block Set
- Wooden Shape & Number Sorter
Our family is trying to reduce our overall footprint on the environment. We try to minimize the number of plastic toys and focus on more eco-friendly, sustainable toys made from natural materials (lots of wooden toys!).
FYI, simple, minimal Montessori playrooms make cleaning up so much easier in our experience. Everything has its spot and is mostly visible. We’re still working on getting our little one to clean up consistently, but when he does clean up, he already knows what goes on the shelves and back into the bins. It also allows for most of the toys to be seen instead of buried in the bottom of a toy box where it’s forgotten.
Every Montessori playroom is different!
We have found that there is no one true way a Montessori playroom is setup. But having a variety of types of spaces and toys as well as making it all accessible and safe encourages independence and freeplay. So hopefully our playroom gives you some ideas for a toddler playroom!
Need More Ideas?
Hopefully, you’ve got some great inspiration ideas from our basement playroom example! But if you need more ideas, then check Basement Ideas for Kids: How to Make the Perfect Playroom by Redfin. Redfin reached out to experts from Charleston, SC to Toronto, ON, including us, to hear the best basement ideas for kids.
What do you think of our ideas for a toddler playroom?! Let us know what you think or any other suggestions in the comments below!
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