Playrooms

This entry examines the development of playrooms, their connection to social class and labor, the eventual move to create spaces for children in the center of the home, and the role of children in selecting decorations for playrooms. Playrooms, nurseries, and children’s bedrooms perform overlapping functions in Euro-American contexts. Day-care facilities, schools, and orphanages also apply the term nursery to younger children’s spaces, while playroom, particularly after World War II, came to identify spaces for older children, teens, and sometimes even adults, such as billiard rooms or recreation (‘rec’) rooms. Sometimes rooms functioned as both study and playroom. By 1980, the term nursery had become somewhat pretentious. Indeed, the extent of provisions for children was dependent on class and more is known about upper-class practices ...