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Autumn Play Room Tour

What's in our Play Space for September /October

As my children grow older, I find that we do fewer play space rotations. Instead, we focus on doing a small world theme on top, with plenty of open-ended materials on the lower shelves.

These themes are fully embraced by the children and based upon their interests. They absolutely love the start of the new seasons - and Autumn especially with all of the nature treasures that can be found. My daughter (6) always helps put our featured displays together.

Today, I’m sharing what the space looks like for Autumn. As you know if you’ve already read the Autumn Family Rhythms post, we place a big emphasis on seasonal rhythms.

Read on to find out what’s included in our space. Since I have an international audience, I’ve mentioned brand names rather than specific shops. Brands usually have a worldwide map with stockists that should hopefully include your country.

To note, whilst I’ve used the word ‘display’, these toys aren’t ‘for display only’!

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Featured Products on Autumn Shelf Display

  • Mice and camping set - all from Maileg

  • Wooden Rainbow from Grimms Wooden Toys

  • Wooden trees from Grimms Wooden Toys

  • Woodland animals from Tender Leaf Toys

  • Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn by Kenard Pak

  • Autumn by Gerda Muller

  • ‘Pompom’ lights from Flying Tiger

  • Fairy lights in jars from IKEA

  • Pumpkins - all the real deal from a Pumpkin Patch on the outskirts of Vienna.

  • Conkers - from the local park

We use battery operated LED lights in the play space - for safety, choose ones where you need a screwdriver to open the case.

Autumn Cafe

  • Ikea Duktig Play kitchen

  • Coffee machine from Le Toy Van

  • Weighing Scales from Le Toy Van

  • Mini Pumpkins - all real, see above

  • Basket from Flying Tiger

  • Sunflowers - real from the local florist!

Books

We have a small Flisat bookstand with seasonal books on display. Rather than solely featuring Autumnal books, we also include nature books too.

On display here:

  • Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn by Kenard Pak

  • Autumn by Gerda Muller

  • Usborne Outdoor Activity Book

  • Usborne ‘Peep Inside’ Night time Book

  • The Usborne Woodland Book

  • Nature’s Day Out and About by Kay Maguire and Danielle Kroll

About building a collection

I always have mixed feelings about sharing play space inspiration on social media and my website. It’s easy to look at collections like mine and think that you need to fill a play space with expensive wooden toys immediately.

But I want to share that I’ve been slowly building up a collection of toys over a period of 13 years - that’s a lot of Christmases and birthdays!

I’m going to be sharing more about my approach to toys in the November paid subscriber email series.

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If you did have any problems with the video, please email me sian@thisplayfulhome.com

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