Okay, so the picture below doesn’t do this little room justice. I started to clean it up for you, but that would’ve been false advertising. It rarely looks better than this, and that’s okay, because it’s a secret room. At least it was, before I started telling you about it. 

This is Pops and Keggie’s Secret Playhouse. It was a closet before the grands started coming. Then they started crawling, and toddling, and the idea began growing with them until I had to make it happen. 

The hardest part was cleaning the closet. (Isn’t it always?) But once I had emptied the closet, the fun began. I created a wrap-around blackboard with a roller and $10 worth of chalk paint, added a toy chest, and imported their toys. BAM! Pops and Keggie’s Secret Playhouse was born!

I’ve called my grands The Fabulous Five for years now, but come Spring, that moniker will change. They’ll be The Super Six! And although, the bigger grands have outgrown their Secret Playhouse, I’m looking forward to the newest grand discovering it all, over, again!

If you don’t have a closet you can donate to a grand cause like this, there are other ways to adapt this idea. For instance, you could put a coat of chalk paint on a panel of sheetrock, prop it against the wall when they’re visiting, and behind the door when they aren’t. However big or small, designing a play space for your grands says, “I love you and you’re so welcome here!”