In a playroom, vinyl flooring will be much easier to keep clean -- then you can always add a rug or two.

Like the idea of lots of shelving and/or closet storage, floor to ceiling, all along one wall and leaving a large open space in the center of the room for items that can be exchanged as activity interests change.

Alternately, a walk in closet beside and beneath the stairs is worth considering.

DO leave a large open space in the center of the room for items that can be exchanged as any children age and/or the family's interests change.

As a safety measure, you might consider ensuring those windows can be both locked but also opened from the inside and then, as you add your storage/shelves, either beneath the windows and/or along the adjacent wall, make sure the storage/shelves could be used as a means that STAYS IN PLACE to safely access the windows for use as an escape for any children in the playroom in the event of fire that prevents their getting out via the stairs. (Don't count on a step stool or ladder being handy in an emergency.) IF you can add a "cellar door" to make walking out of the basement easier, do that -- and do check ... local building codes may require/prohibit major changes under consideration.

We are also considering a basement play room semi finished. We were thinking of interlocking foam flooring. Or foam play mats over the painted concrete or lvp. I really dislike carpet in a basement and would do just about anything else.

Thanks for the feedback. Sammy - There is another room in the basement , right off of this room that has an egress window for evacuation in case of emergency.

Suezbell - the plan is to keep the shelving along the wall and keep the middle of the room free of furniture and open for play.

roccouple - Foam tiles are an interesting option. They wouldn't work on the steps though so we would have to have 2 different floorings in that room then. I'll explore a bit to see what kinds of foam are out there - thanks for the suggestion.

Any designers out there able to guide me on color choices - light floor verse dark floor and a paint color recommendation to compliment the wood trim and tone down the orange tones?

Thanks Beth! Those pictures are really helpful! Ideally I would love to paint the paneling, the only thing worse than wood paneling, is peeling painted paneling. My concern is that with the abuse that the playroom is going to go through, will the paint hold up on the paneling?

If you can, at this time, match the wood already in the room (perhaps from wood from the bar?) and use it to wrap the post, floor to ceiling, so the appearance of the room is finished and use of the room can evolve as your children mature, then do that; however, you also want the post to be useful now -- and, importantly, you don't want square corners that are a potential threat to small children that might absentmindedly bump into them -- so, add/build a removable table or bench or cabinet around the post.

Beth - If I did go the painting route and left the doors as is - what family of paint colors do you recommend on the walls to go with the wooden doors and the bright white trim?

From an economic standpoint, you should want this room FINISHED in a way that the use of it can evolve as your children mature -- not need to rip up foam or carpet and/or need to replace the flooring and/or remodel what you build every few years. Finish the room first and make the " children's play room " additions removable.

Finish the floor with quality vinyl expertly installed for durability (and finish the walls as if you were going to use it as a craft room or casual sitting room) and then add gel mats or padded rugs or foam squares atop the vinyl where it seems useful for a playroom.

Treat the wood on the walls ( and bench front) as if it were wainscoting. Add a chair rail atop that wainscoting and continue it the same height all around the room except beneath the windows where you will be building in storage. Paint all of the wall above the wainscoting the same white you have already used at the stairs and on the wall around the two wood doors and plan to use for the cabinets/shelves. You can paint all of the wall beneath the wainscoting your favorite bold accent color -- preferably something easily cleaned.

Now or later as is practical, budget permitting, you could actually add wood paneling or wainscoting beneath the stair rail to match the existing wood.

Would not paint the wood paneling. Anything painted will, inevitably, need to be repainted and begin to look awful as it gets to that point.

If you cannot match the wood to wrap the post now, you could always paint it a bright color. [Then reserve finishing it until later ... such as if you do decide to add wainscoting to the wall(s).] You could also use exercise mats to wrap the bottom up child height if it appears it is going to be a bump-into hazard.

If the post (painted as is or wrapped) isn't a bump-into hazard, you might even use that post to keep a record of the height of your children as they grow.

Try searching kitchen threads with orange oak cabinets, there are plenty that talk about paint that goes with orange toned wood. I believe greens/sage and creams are popular colors.

www.flor.com has tiles you lift up to wash if dirty... can rotate if some get more worn. I suppose you could choose rug color from art they've drawn, or play house they have already....

Cambium Carpet Tile in Geranium · More Info

https://www.houzz.com/products/cambium-carpet-tile-in-geranium-prvw-vr~504439

"Organic" lacebark - $12 a foot - with neutral you could buy stools or poufs as time passes, in any color....

FLOR · More Info

https://www.houzz.com/products/flor-prvw-vr~4094199

While I might not want a deep wine red burgundy for all the walls, if you do paint the upper part of the walls white but choose to paint the bottom half of the walls a darker color, it would be worth considering -- AND you could paint the entire wall with the that darker color as an accent wall behind white shelving.

For one layer of lighting - this type? using electricity high on the wall -- doesn't look pretty, but some can be turned to face light up, or down.

Entry with Barrel Vaulted Ceilings and Glass Block · More Info

https://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/cameron-wall-storage-system/?pkey=ckids-storage-wall-systems&isx=0.0.4874

Just a thought to consider where bit of sun shines - do you want that light to shine over them as they sit at table? and have wide system on adjacent wall?

Lots of food for thought, thanks for all the ideas.
Everdebz - I love the Cameron storage unit and had it in “my cart” last week when it was on sale. With all the IKEA hacks at a fraction of the cost I didn’t feel like it provided a big enough advantage over the IKEA storage solutions to justify the price difference.

I will check out the options on the carpet tiles.

Can carpet tiles work on steps? Would it be weird to have one carpeting in the stairs and then a different carpet in the floor?

starterhouse...I disagree about the paneling not being pained. (anything painted will have to be repainted??? lol)

Here's how to paint paneling and make it last:

sand off the current finish with 80-150 grit, finishing w/220. you don't have to completely sand it all off, but you want most of the glossiness gone. Plus, the primer and paint will look smoother. (you could do a deglosser and use a good bonding primer, but I can't guarantee how the paint will adhere)

wipe off all of the dust and grime after sanding with mineral spirits.

Prime. I like Zinsser oil based primer. It comes in a spray can for easier application, or you can get a can and roll or brush. When that is dry, fine sand with a 220 to knock down any rough spots. Wipe off all dust.

Now you can paint. I like a good trim paint like BM Advance or SW Pro Classic. Use the White base straight from the can (no tint) if you want a fresh, bright white. otherwise, pick a color.

Do two coats. you can spray, roll or brush.

(if you do all of this before you get your flooring, it's a lot easier because you won't have to tape off everything)

Follow those directions and your painted paneling will look great and hold up just as well as your wall paint.

In cold climates I prefer to see laminate (with 6mm - 12mm cork underlay) or carpet used as flooring. A vinyl plank floor is cold in a cold climate. And adding area rugs usually does not help with the air temperature. Which means a cold basement is not going to get used. Which makes it a waste of time and money (who wants to spend thousands of dollars renovating a basement only to have it sit empty 99% of the time).

The other option for kids play rooms is a cork floating floor. In one fell swoop, you can have the comfort of carpet with the clean-ability of vinyl with the warmth of the 6mm cork underlay. It's kinda like a 3-in-1 product.

I've had dozens of cork floors installed in cold Canadian basements. And they have all increased the temperature in the basement, reduced the noise escaping from the basement and have all stood up well to kid's playing in the space.

All for the same price/effort of a high-end laminate. A click together cork floor is as easy to install as laminate.

Those are my three favourite products to use in a cold climate basement.

And just to be clear, cork is wood so it has the same TONES as wood. That means you don't have to paint out the doors or trim. And cork can be used on stairs. You just have to find some generic stair nosings and you are done like dinner.

Here are my "budget favourites" with links to icorkfloor.com (USA) or cancork.com (Canada):

10mm Desert Arable:

https://www.icorkfloor.com/store/cork-board-floor-desert-arable/

https://www.cancork.com/store/floating-cork-flooring-desert-arable-10mm/

10mm Golden Beach (boring but gets the job done):

https://www.icorkfloor.com/store/cork-floors-golden-beach-10mm/

https://www.cancork.com/store/cork-floors-golden-beach-10mm/

If your budget allows for it, one of the toughest floors you will ever encounter:

https://www.icorkfloor.com/store/cork-floors-golden-beach-10mm/

https://www.cancork.com/store/product-category/luxury-vinyl-plank-cork-flooring/

The cork fusion is well worth the price. It is stunning, tough and can still have the insulating factor your are looking for.

How old are the kids that are going to be playing there?

Borrowing your thread to ask if cork fusion, etc... is good choice over concrete slab in San Diego for most of the house?... wet rooms I wouldn't.

When it comes to your playroom you'll want kids (of any age really) to be comfortable and to enjoy the space. Most people end up considering two categories for their comfortable space: carpet and hard flooring (with an area rug). We went through the benefits of the two very different options for comfortable flooring in this blog post. I hope this helps weigh your options and narrow your choices!

https://blog.kermans.com/2017/10/advantages-of-carpet-over-hard-floors.html

No problem with Fusion over anything. It is treated like laminate = vapour barrier over the conrete (6mil poly sheeting + red duct tape at the seams = $0.12/sf). This is normal for ANY floating floor over concrete BTW.

Once the vapour barrier is in place you simply install it like laminate. T-mouldings through doorways, 10mm expansion gaps at all walls/vertical surfaces. Can be used in kitchens and entrance ways (use a seam sealer in the 'splash' areas). Bathrooms need another surface.

I've sold this to owners with $1.2M dollar homes in Whistler BC and they LOVE it. It is solid feeling, easy to care for and takes a ton of abuse without any issues. They added 12mm cork underlay because they wanted the thermal insulation AND the noise insulation and they are SUPER happy they did.

Cork fusion is NOT vinyl. It is Polyethylene = super tough plastic that is INERT. That means no off-gassing - ever.

Get a nice carbide fine-toothed blade to cut it. That's the only thing special needed to install (other than the seam sealer for the kitchen/entrance areas).

As someone who’s presently finishing a basement reno, and had kids who grew up, please let me offer advise.

We just installed allure vinyl floors in our basement. You can only get this at Home Depot. It’s an upgraded peel and stick that you can install yourself. You only need a blade to cut. We did use a jig saw for weird cuts that weren’t straight. We initially used this same product several years ago, but had to rip them out due to the midwestern floods this summer. Easy clean, maintenance and installation.

We also had carpet on the stairs and this time I said no more. Carpet on stairs with kids gets stained, you can’t clean it properly. It sucks. So this is what we did with our stairs. We just put the carpet pads in last week because our dog wouldn’t go down the stairs. We are in the home stretch of our basement with trim and ceiling work.

I attached a pic of the box, as we haven’t even packed it away yet. The color is English Hawthorne.

Would a good flooring store be the right ones to install it? what qualifications do I look for if employed by a store?

Upvote for that link from Kermans Flooring.

Borrowing this thread to ask:

Bamboo looks really good; is it durable?

We have carpeted stairs to our lower level and then LVP in basement level. It’s great, kid proof, awesome when they come in/out from outside and east to care for.

High-end bamboo is amazing stuff ($12-$15/sf). Anything else can be hell to live with. I would never put bamboo in a basement. Even if it is the high-high end stuff ($15 - $17/sf) I would not trust my basement area to be controlled enough to keep bamboo happy.

Bamboo is tricky to live with. It is tricky. And right after that, it is tricky. And just after you go to bed, it gets tricky. By that time it becomes a PITA.

SJ McCarthy

Appreciate the information. I'll need to consider something less tricky than bamboo.

While I wasn't thinking of putting it in a basement, I do have some moisture issues in that I don't use the heat pump for air conditioning, even in hot humid weather. [Shade trees. Fans. Personal reference for not going in/out and changing from really cool to truly hot. Electric bills.]

Absent a serious blowing rain, I begin opening the windows in the early spring and, usually by early May, they're all open all the way and left open until late fall. My stove doesn't have an exterior vented hood so boiling water for an extended time can mean condensation on the windows while the windows are closed.

Thank you for responding.

I have to agree with Beth that I would paint out the paneling or replace it with stock bead board. It might be cheaper and sure would be a lot less work. We have commercial carpet in out basement playroom (although not a play room anymore as kids are grown), and we love it. We are in the Northeast and we are very happy with the choice as it is warm and nice underfoot. It has the added benefit of being able to use it on stairs that may not be the best (as they're in the basement). I also find it easier to vacuum than to mop. I chose BM white sands for the paint color and we've been very happy. There is enough contrast with our white trim and built ins while still lightening and brightening the space.

We installed Coretec in the basement and we are very happy with it. We actually had a water leak and found out about it a month or so later..the flooring was not damaged...we took apart what was wet and let it dry, cleaned and reinstalled it

Is that a dehumidifier in the corner? Any issues with water?

If kids are going to be down there a lot, any carpet or rug will eventually show the results. But kids like to play on the floor, so having a soft surface is almost a necessity. I did an inexpensive Berber carpet when my son was young, and replaced it once he was midway through high school with something nicer.

The shelving idea sounds good, although if they are open shelves it will probably be chronically messy with kids.

Thanks for all the comments. To answer some of the question posted - We rarely have an issue with water, sometimes in the summer the dehumidifier needs to go on, but there is not an actual water problem.

The kids playing in the playroom range from ages 5 to 10.

While I know there are many out there who would paint the paneling or get rid of it, we have decided to embrace it. The paneling is staying as is. We have put in some work over the last few days prepping the walls and patching the damage from where the bar was. We are just about ready to paint.

We are still undecided about flooring. I love the concept of the FLOR carpet tiles, but they are a bit pricey, are there other companies that offer a similar product? I will do some research on the cork floor option SJ McCarthy suggested.

If we end up going with traditional carpet, anything specific I should be looking for?

@SJ McCarthy or any people who have cork. How is it with moisture? I am interested in cork if it would work in a mostly dry but not perfectly so basement. Also I wouldn’t want to install myself. How do you find someone qualified to install a cork fusion floor below grade? Do manufacturers have recommended installers?

Appearance wise for our basement I’d prefer tile or linoleum look cork. i also really like the cork look cork, where it looks like a large bulletin board underfoot. However it seems like the best quality stuff is wood look? anyway appearance is not as important As toughness to me for a basement so I’d want the tougher stuff regardless

Our Coretec is cork based and I can tell you that water did not damage it. A booster pump had a leak and that caused the water issue for more than a month. Ours looks like wood on top. The installation was done by our contractor..no previous knowledge..just following the instructions given by the manufacturer.

as for wall color, I might consider doing the back wall with the two windows in a chalkboard paint. it will be great for kids to draw on and have fun with. think of it as the art wall that will have tons of color. i then would paint the other two walls in a white. it would be above the panelling and would keep the room lighter feeling and not compete with chalkboard paint wall. I would probably choose a carpet on the lighter side with a pattern of some sort in it, like a herringbone, if you choose to go the route of a wall to wall carpet. a couple pics of walls with chalkboard paint

Courts Design · More Info

Shelter Island fisherman's cottage · More Info

Just to show their room -

Contemporary Kids · More Info

https://www.houzz.com/hznb/photos/contemporary-kids-contemporary-kids-new-york-phvw-vp~10855

roccouple...If you like the cork-board look, then go for the best darned cork floor you can afford in that appearance. In fact the 'cork board' look is the ONLY cork floating floor on the market that is "massive". That is to say the pattern is the same TOP TO BOTTOM (that's the definition of a "massive" product). Everything else is a veneer on top of cork.

Oddly enough the ground up cork (cork board) pattern is the HIGHEST QUALITY you can get without moving to $25/sf type of product (no I'm not kidding!).

Congratulations! You get the 'cheapest' floor with the HIGHEST QUALITY just for liking the cork-board look! Way to do you shopper you!

A click-together cork floating floor = cork laminate. If you bring it down to the nuts and bolts of it, the cork is glued to the TOP of the fibre board and to the BOTTOM of the fibre board. The click system is just like laminate. And I mean JUST like it.

What's even better is the cork floating flooring HAS TO PASS European standards! Has to! Why? Because 90% of all cork floors are sold in Europe. If a producer wants to be successful they have to produce to European Standards. And those standards are the toughest in the world. Even CARB has a hard time keeping up.

Anyway, a floating cork floor in a basement is just like any other floating floor in a basement. You need a vapour barrier (6mil polyethylene sheeting = $0.10/sf + Red duct tape = $75/roll) and you are ready to go.

Of course, being the smart homeowner that you are, you will fix the seepage issue before renovating your basement.

And not all CoreTec products have cork. The original CoreTec (1) does NOT have cork attached. It is happy sitting on water for a little bit. Anything that has cork on the bottom should not get wet. Cork may be water resistant but the glue that holds it to the bottom of a plank is NOT....which means any product with cork on the bottom is prone to mold if it is sitting in water.

Hence the need for both a vapour barrier AND moisture mitigation BEFORE you install ANY floating floor in a basement....ahem. Any floor.

SJ, we've had the Coretec for some time and the seller here had a piece of the floor in a fish tank full of water for years..nothing came undone or damaged. The floor has the water barrier installed..it's part of the instructions for installing the Coretec..We just happen to have a leak and the floor in one room was flooded for a month or so..the floor is intact..no mold, no damage

Thank you @SJ McCarthy our basement is old (1930s) although our house is new. Will look into cork floors. and a pro to evaluate our floors.

While we continue to contemplate flooring, we are moving on to the paint.

We have decided to paint the back wall (below the two windows) black, the shelving will be white, topped with a stained board to pull everything together. (See inspiration picture from Bless ‘er House below) We’re going with Sherwin Williams Caviar black. Will paint that same black on the banister. Anyone have a coordinating white color recommendation to make for the walls and the spindles of the banister? I was thinking high reflective white - will that be too white for the walls?

Painter due to come on Tuesday. Any input is appreciated!

Like the black wall with white shelving w/wood top idea.

In a playroom, make sure the wall paints are easily washable.

Thanks suezbell!

Paint is done! Next step is flooring...still have to make it to the flooring store to get some samples.

If I go with carpet - anyone have a color suggestion to make? The other option is vinyl - happy to take color/pattern suggestions on that too.

Thank you!

I really like the paint and how it works with the wood. how do you like it so far? I think a vinyl composite tile would be a good choice and it can be done in a pattern with multiple color tiles. see the pic below. it's a plaid pattern in neutral colors and I think this would be a great option. I have VCT tiles in my laundry room and really like it. Armstrong makes them in a bunch of colors

Laundry & Craft Room · More Info

Thanks Theresa. I am very happy with the paint colors!

Do you think square tile like that will work well on the steps?

dont think I would use them on the stairs. what is under the carpet on the stairs? if wood, maybe paint it black??

or, another thought...maybe a runner over the wood on the stairs