ROOM WE LOVE: An Indoor Obstacle Course
As a mom of three boys, ages 4, 5, and 7, Kiara Harlow wanted—and needed—a playroom where her kids could literally climb the walls. When she met Cassie Albergotti, co-founder of Wild Child, she knew she found a solution. Their sons were in the same kindergarten class, and Albergotti understood the importance of play for high-energy boys.
The Charlotte-based designers at Wild Child created a dream playroom at the Harlow’s new home in Steele Creek. The space includes a climbing wall, hanging cargo-style net, a swing, and trapeze, all connected by a series of monkey bars attached to the 10-foot ceilings to give the entire room the feel of a Ninja course. “This is a lifesaver for us,” says Harlow, who loves having an easy way for her boys to channel their energy on rainy evenings, or instant fun with neighborhood friends. “It keeps kids off TV.”
GO BIG OR GO HOME
Harlow started with some “Nugget” floor cushions, a rug, and a Pop-a-Shot basketball game that was a gift from grandparents. The walls were a neutral gray, and the cushions were blue, green, orange, and yellow, so she painted stripes in those colors to add pops of color throughout. “I wanted to make sure that this felt playful, but not so childlike that it can never be anything else,” Harlow says. She originally thought she’d dedicate one side of the 20-by-35-foot space to acrobatics and one to relaxing, but Albertgotti talked her into transforming the entire room into an indoor obstacle course. “She said, ‘This is a really good-sized space, I think it should just go all over’.”
FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY
Each piece of apparatus is weighted for 800 pounds, so adults can give the course a try, too. “I can’t make it across, but I’ve given it the good college try,” Harlow laughs. But more importantly, when it’s time for her boys to do homework, she can give them an obstacle course along the way to help settle them down. “I’ll tell them to climb this wall and then jump down, do five swings back and forth, then climb up, climb down, make two shots, then meet me in the homework room.”
FUNCTION AND FORM
The cushion covers on the sectional couch, which came from the living room in their old house, can be unzipped, removed, and washed. The three pieces of framed artwork over the couch are Velcroed to the wall, so it’s not the end of the world if they get knocked down. And all the toys are neatly organized into bins—one for games, one for action figures, one for dress-up clothes, and a shelf for floor hockey sticks—and stowed away in a closet. “People come in and they’re like, ‘Where are the toys?’ but the toys are away,” Harlow says. “I like that in this house, they don’t all have to be out.” And she’s got a video camera installed on the wall by the door, so she can keep an eye out, without hovering, and get dinner on the table, too.
CARROLL WALTON was a longtime sportswriter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and co-authored Ballplayer, the Chipper Jones biography, in 2017. Today she lives in Charlotte with her husband and three sons and continues to freelance for several media outlets.
