A friend of mine is working on designing a playroom for her little boy (and one on the way). She asked me what I would suggest doing. Since she's a few states away, I figured a design board would be the simplest way to show her. Here's how I came up my design: The playroom is going to be in the newly refinished basement (aka man cave heaven), so I didn't want to overload it with a lot of super bright colors and super-themey (too much of something can be a bad thing) decor. Plus, by giving the space a bit of a more mature look, the kids would be able to grow into it and use it for years to come. {click to enlarge} I used a lot of different materials in the room to give it depth-from the metal barn light and wire letter art to the wooden accent wall and woven bamboo shades (no draperies to pull down!). Aside from varying materials, I wanted to have a lot of big features to balance out the large space. If you're working with a large ...