Soft Play Centres and Play Barns - Hand
Painted Mural Schemes
New Soft Play Centre - Safari MK,
Milton Keynes
The Project: I have worked very closely with Gordon &
Fiona Forster on their new venture of a top class children’s soft play venue in
Milton Keynes. The vision of Gordon and Fiona was to not only provide a
fantastic place for children to play but also provide specially designed spaces
for children to develop there learning skills and use their imagination.
I created a jungle
based design concept for the soft play venue and put together a series of
designs based on the ideas and budget Gordon & Fiona provided.
Design Concept /
Working Drawings
Once the designs were agreed – I also then provided a
complete colour scheme for the rest of the soft play centre to compliment the
murals that were going to be used throughout.
Main Soft Play
Centre Murals
I developed a bespoke collection of Jungle animal characters for the new play centre which I painted in
the main entrance to the play barn so the animals greeted you as you came in, and
I also painted the characters on boards across large areas of wall within the
main play area. I also created a
colourful lively tropical palm design for the large areas of wall above the
imagination huts. This transformed the
whole feel of the space from a blank, bland industrial unit into a bright, exciting
inspiring space for children to play.
Imagination Themed
Play Rooms
5 exciting 'Base
Camp' role play rooms were created using my murals to illustrate each
environment.... so the children could use their imagination - whether they
wanted to fix some things in the Builders' Yard, cook or shop in the Supplies
& Mess Hut, or have a dance on the Dance Mats in the Entertainment Hut, each
room was equipped with masses of theme related toys, and bright and friendly murals to invite the children in.
Party Rooms
No soft play centre or play barn is complete without Party
Rooms, and Safari MK has five fantastic ones. Glow in the Dark which I designed
with a City scene mural using Glow in the Dark paint, and this theme really
appealed to slightly older children as well. Then the other rooms included a football
themed room, a Pirate themed room and a Princess and Knight party room. By the
time Safari MK opened the party rooms were already extremely booked up, which
just showed how much theming the rooms with murals worked.
Celebration / Craft
Room
Safari MK had a large room which they wanted themed to
appeal not only to children but also adults as well – so the space could be
used for children’s parties and also adult group meetings and functions. I came
up with the idea of a “Sunset Hut”– which combined the gorgeous colours of an
African sunset with silhouettes of jungle animals – creating an inviting space
for all ages, and also still incorporating the main centres theme – Jungle /
Safari.
Safari MK Video
Click the link below to catch a glimpse of inside Safari MK
soft play centre – you can see both my animal murals and also see towards the
end of the video my tropical palm murals high up above the themed imagination
rooms.
