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BEST CHILDREN'S ROOM

BEST PLAY SPACE FOR KIDS

CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SATISFACTION

CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SATISFACTION

BEST DESIGNER OF INNOVATIVE CHILDREN’S PLAYROOMS

BEST USE OF SMALL SPACE

FINALIST IN WESTCHESTER HOME DESIGN AWARDS

Features And Press

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NBC Select

The educational value and learning aspects of a board game are also important when shopping because while games should be entertaining and engaging, they should also help foster growth of different developmental skills. “Look for games that incorporate learning into their mechanics,” says Smart Playrooms founder and CEO Karri Bowen-Poole. “This could include aspects like math skills, language development, problem-solving, critical thinking or social skills.”

Home Is Where the Art Is

And use this paragraph underneath: The Varets have a 8 year old son Julius and a 6 year old daughter Zelda. They reached out to Smart Playrooms design a playroom in their Los Angeles home on the historic neighborhood of Hancock Park. Kim Varet purchased EDesign 2 package called All Out which included a mural painted by Lana Gomez which added a burst of whimsy to the playroom...

Interview with Karri Bowen-Poole of Smart Playrooms

These big-budget playrooms will make you wish you were a kid again. Homeowners are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on luxury spaces that include rock-climbing walls, ball pits and tree houses.

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This Mom of 3 Has Designed More Than 1,000 Playrooms. Here are Her 8 Tips for Creating Spaces That Facilitate Independent Play.

Almost any parent will tell you they wish their children played on their own a bit more. Independent play isn't just important for mom and dad's well-being — it's also a key component of child development. As a mom of three and former teacher, I think solo and peer play goes further for teaching our children about the world than any adult-led playtime.

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Every Home Has a Story

How do you bring warmth and joy into a modern townhome in NYC? Interior Designer, Jennifer Morris will quite literally have you jumping off the walls with joy in this house. With a stunning not-so-formal living room, an artsy and open kitchen, and a playroom like you have never seen before. With unique art and an added element of nature, this home is the perfect balance between peace and joy in the big city.

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Here’s How a Professional Playroom Designer Turned Her Garage into the Ultimate Play Space

Karri Bowen-Poole has been designing play spaces for 13 years through her company, Smart Playrooms, but it was only recently that she created a dedicated space for play in her own home.

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Smart Playrooms on Inside Edition

Take a tour inside Karri’s garage with Inside Edition. Karri explains to Inside Edition how she converted her garage into a space where the kids could be physical and workout while her entire family was home during quarantine.

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Space of the Week: This Multipurpose Garage is a Home Gym and Hangout Space

A former teacher and the owner of Smart Playrooms, a design service in Rye, N.Y., Karri Bowen-Poole transformed her underused detached garage into a family-friendly gym and play space. Her three kids range in age from 12 to 25, so the area had to be flexible enough to suit everyone's need—and still leave room for the car on the few occasions that called for parking out of the elements. Here's how she turned this blank slate of a space into a multipurpose hangout zone for the entire family.

housebeautiful

Space of the Week: This Multipurpose Garage is a Home Gym and Hangout Space

“When building a playroom for a child with special needs, such as autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, developmental delays, or sensory processing disorder, each design choice should accommodate learning, therapy, comfort and play. Karri Bowen-Poole is a mom, educator, and interior designer who specializes in creating playrooms… by selecting furnishings, materials, and equipment that are developmentally appropriate, functional , and beautiful….

new-york-times

How to Create a Playroom That Appeals to Children and Adults

Thanks to an awareness that design affects children’s development, playrooms are no longer ‘the worst room in the house.’ You may even want to hang out there.

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Style Profile Design Port

We all want our kids to spend less time in front of a screen and more time playing and learning. Doesn’t it feel SO good when those two things are combined? Smart Playrooms designs innovative residential and communal play spaces that focus on child development. Her intentional and ground-breaking approach has landed her in the homes of A-list celebrities and families who are looking to change the way their kids learn and play at home.

Design Innovators

How to Make a Homework Space that Works

Experts agree that different age groups have different needs. So that homework nook might change as children age, advises Karri Bowen-Poole, founder and CEO of Smart Playrooms and Project Playroom, an innovative and educational playroom design service and online e-commerce playroom store. Her entire team has master’s degrees in education. Bowen-Poole herself has experience teaching and developing curriculums for children ages 3 to 12...

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Scarsdale Living. Play Up the Playroom

Playroom designer Bowen-Poole observes an uptick of requests for natural woods, earthy neutrals and soft pops of color to prevent overstimulation and visual noise.

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I'm a Mom and a Playroom Expert: Here's How I Gave My Kids the Ultimate Play Area

I feel so incredibly grateful to have been able to pivot my expertise in child development and teaching to start creating educational playrooms. I literally woke up in the middle of the night with the idea to transform children's playrooms by designing and organizing them just like a classroom.

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Before and After: a Heavy, Wood-Paneled Family Room Becomes an Airy Playroom for Kids

“Bowen-Poole has created playrooms for many well-known New Yorkers, including Dylan Lauren, founder of Dylan’s Candy Bar, and Nicky Hilton. While many of Bowen-Poole’s clients have big budgets and space to spare, the philosophy behind Smart Playrooms’ designs can be applied to any place where kids play.”

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How to Create a Playroom Your Kids Will Love in Westchester

Karri Bowen-Poole founded Smart Playrooms and she has been creating award winning educational playrooms for over 12 years. The company’s goal: to create play spaces that parents and kids alike love.

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How To Get Your Kids To Play Independently (So You Can Chill!)

When you become a parent, you’ll do anything for a few minutes of alone time, even if it’s just to go to the bathroom in peace (please!). Unfortunately, getting your kids to play without you, for more than two seconds, is sometimes easier said than done. Good news: they can learn!

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Meet Karri Bowen-Poole: Founder of Smart Playrooms

Play is such an integral part of a child’s development. Karri Bowen-Poole and her team at Smart Playrooms are huge advocates of this that can be seen in their residential and communal playrooms that fuses educational principles, design and play-based activities for kids. This includes elements that evoke curiosity and motivate children by creating the ultimate play space for kids to learn, grow, and explore.

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Revolutionizing Playroom Design: Educator to Founder Karri Bowen-Poole's Mission

Karri shares how her intentional and groundbreaking business model has landed her in the homes of A-list celebrities and families who are looking to change the way their kids learn and play at home!

new-york-times

Protect Your Home Against the Onslaught

A former teacher and the owner of Smart Playrooms, a design service in Rye, N.Y., Karri Bowen-Poole transformed her underused detached garage into a family-friendly gym and play space. Her three kids range in age from 12 to 25, so the area had to be flexible enough to suit everyone's need—and still leave room for the car on the few occasions that called for parking out of the elements. Here's how she turned this blank slate of a space into a multipurpose hangout zone for the entire family.

new-york-times

Turning Your Backyard Into a Vacation Spot

With summer camps shut down and beach vacations seeming risky, homeowners are investing in ways to create a summer retreat at home…Karri Bowen-Poole, the founder of Smart Playrooms, a Rye, N.Y., play space designer. Many are diverting money that might have been spent on camps or vacations to purchases they hope will keep restless children occupied. “If you have kids who are whining and unhappy, parents are like, ‘I have to solve this problem.’”

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5 Fun Playroom Designs to Inspire You

The picture-perfect kids' playroom is the one in which your children will play independently for hours on end. Giving them all the exercise, stimulation, and fun possible is the number one goal. Yet, what is the perfect kids' playroom in reality? What features, toys and designs will achieve the goal? We’ve put together five fun kids' playroom ideas to help get you inspired to create your own

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Smart Playrooms: Putting Passion Back Into Play

We’re so excited to have Karri Bowen-Poole of Smart Playrooms with us today to answer a few questions about her INCREDIBLE, on-site design services. In addition to on-site design services in and around NYC and CT, they also offer 3 tiers of E-Design services for families that live outside of the area. They also sell their favorite playroom products in their shop @projectplayrooms Lastly, they promise that WE WILL CHANGE THE WAY YOUR KIDS PLAY!

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Interview with Karri Bowen-Poole of Smart Playrooms

“Karri took an idea and after a newspaper ad, her idea took flight! I find her story absolutely inspiring. Not only is she doing something amazing for kids and their families, but her dream came true. Should inspire anyone to follow their heart!”

rookiemoms

Make the Playroom of Your Dreams A Reality

“What does your dream playroom look like? Does it have a rock wall, monkey bars, or a special crafting zone? I am going to let you in on a little secret, Smart Playrooms can help make that dream a reality. They specialize in creating epic playrooms that are perfect for both play and learning. We had the chance to chat with the founder of Smart Playrooms, Karri Bowen-Poole, to learn a little bit more about how these special spaces are created.”

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Meet Designer Karri Bowen-Poole of Smart Playrooms

“Longtime schoolteacher and mother of three Karri Bowen-Poole has started Smart Playrooms, a firm that helps children develop and learn by applying school-design principles to family playrooms. Here, she explains how layout and organization influence children’s behavior, independence and creativity.”

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Can Your Playroom Affect Your Childs Brain?

Playrooms must be well organized with learning centers where everything is in place so that when kids want to create, build or pretend, they have everything they need right at their fingertips. The Smart Playrooms team, Karri Bowen-Poole and Chris Simpson, share these four reasons why a playroom encourages success in school…

new-york-post

These NYC Tots Have Playrooms That Rival Some Apartments

“Karri Bowen-Poole, a professional playroom designer who founder her business, Smart Playrooms, in 2012, started off mostly as an organizer who sorted and labeled toys, but in the past few years, she’s been working with clients who ask her to create permanent, indoor playgrounds for their kids, with outrageous features such as monkey bars, trapeze rings and rock - climbing walls.”

new-york-times

Too Customized to Sell?

“In addition to a 20-foot-wide rock-climbing wall, monkey bars and a mini basketball court, the new playroom has an arts-and-crafts area with a walk-mounted chalkboard, a media lounge with hanging-pod swing chairs and an under-the-stairs reading nook with string lights and a beanbag chair. There is also a hanging trapeze, as well as a built-in ladder, a climbing rope, swings and plenty of brightly colored floor mats for worry-free frolicking.”

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Westchester Home

This bright and bold playroom not only accommodates children of different ages and with different interests, but it is also pleasing to the eye, something every parent can appreciate. Designed by the team at Smart Playrooms and Project Playroom led by founder and CEO Kari Bowen-Poole, this was designed in a home in Scarsdale for boys ages 4 and 7 and a girl aged 12. The task was to create a vibrant and colorful space that all three kids could play in no matter what their interests were.

Moffly Media

When Karri Bowen-Poole designs custom playrooms, her room concepts begin with her musing about how a room will engage and nurture young minds. Of course, paint swatches and whimsical kid-centric themes are part of her detailed design process, but the founder of Smart Playrooms believes play and learning are interconnected. “It’s the teacher in me,” says Bowen-Poole. “But the first thing I look at when I walk into any playroom is what’s in there to encourage good, sound, emotionally stimulating old-fashioned play.”

New England Home Magazine

When Karri Bowen-Poole is at work, all she thinks about is play. It goes with the territory, though: Bowen-Poole designs one-of-a-kind children’s playrooms for a living. The former educator designed this multi-space, multi-functional, multi-fun playroom in collaboration with a Greenwich mother of three. The client wanted it to be bright (a big ask since it’s in the basement), gender-neutral, and tailored to her very active children, ages four, eight, and ten.

Dwell

For playroom designer Karri Bowen-Poole, founder of New York–based studio Smart Playrooms and its sister store Project Playroom, the emphasis on incorporating more active forms of play into children’s spaces was a response to something she noticed around her, having worked in education for a decade prior: kids were increasingly over-scheduled in extracurriculars like competitive (and rigidly organized) youth sports, and in turn, were getting fewer opportunities for unstructured, movement-based play.

Wall Street Journal

Ashley George commissioned Bowen-Poole to design a playroom in their new house with monkey bars, swings, foam pits, a climbing wall, and a slide. Now the children run into the new playroom each day after school. Ashley George’s 5 years old loves challlenging herself on the monkey bars. “She is so proud of herself” said George.

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MiniStyleMag

The idea of Smart Playrooms came to me in the middle of the night, when I was brainstorming other ways of using all of my educational and teaching experience outside of the traditional classroom. I am the innovator of the term “Educational Design” and really started the movement of designing playrooms from an educator’s viewpoint and including challenging physical play kid gyms inside, like monkey bars and rock walls etc…