DIY Decorating with Kids: Felt Board Fireplace Screen

ByChristie Burnett

I love the features of older houses, the wooden floorboards, picture rails, ceiling roses and fireplaces. It’s these little things that show a house has been built with love and a sense of pride. The things that make a house a real home.

Our home has a fireplace in the main living room. I love it, though we don’t use it for heating. It did however initially pose a problem as it didn’t take Immy long to discover what a fun place it is to climb into. Yep, not an activity I was keen on due to the soot and dust hiding away in chimneys!

Image: Fireplace before

I wanted to make a decorative screen that would keep a curious toddler out but not look ugly or out of place. Then I had the idea that I could make the screen fun and useful as a play feature as well. How? By making a felt board fireplace screen.

Image: Fireplace after

I purchased a large canvas from a discount store and covered it with latte covered felt, folding the edges over neatly and securing them with a staple gun. I then cut out shapes from contrasting coloured felt to be used as the play pieces.

I deliberately chose colours that matched our living room colour scheme; we have a latte coloured couch, red cushions and accessories, and a floor rug in red and shades of brown. This way the felt board feels like it is part of the decor of the room. The felt board is secured in place with 3M velcro wall fastenings.

Image: Freeform leaves and branches

Felt boards are wonderful learning tools with the direction of the learning depending upon the felt pieces you include with the board. Characters and scenery entice children to use their imagination to make up stories, whereas colours, shapes, letters or numbers reinforce mathematical or literacy learning.

Image: Improvised pond

I love that the felt board can be so easily changed or added to over time. I am thinking of making a whole heap of houses and buildings, and letters and numbers, and jungle animals, and transport shapes, and…

P.S. The animal silhouettes I adapted by shrinking the colouring pages provided here at DLTK’s Growing Together.

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Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.

16 Comments

  1. katepickle says:

    Oh wow that looks SO stylish and so much fun! How cool!

  2. SquiggleMum says:

    I looooove this one Christie. We have a handmade felt board too, which we bring out at Christmas. You've reminded me to get it out early enough to have a good play with this year.

    PS – nice colour scheme for your place.

  3. A Spoonful Of Sugar says:

    What a fantastic idea!! Felt boards are popular with the preschool set – very practical and stylish.

  4. That is a wonderful idea! (shame mine's in use!)

    They sell "Fuzzy Felt" greeting cards at the uni co-op bookshop!

  5. Busy Brissy Mum says:

    Fun! Felt play is a favourite. Lovely that you've made your own board and pieces.

  6. What a perfect home made solution that Immy can enjoy. I like that it's versatile and you can change the scenes and activities whenever you choose to do so.

  7. Me? A Mom? says:

    Cute. How do you secure it to your fireplace?

  8. What a great idea! I used to have one made from an old shelf, but it was so heavy and awkward that we didn't often use it. A canvas is a great idea, as is using colors from your home. I don't mind living in a house that looks like kids live there; but it would be nice if it didn't look quite so much like they were in control!

  9. The Oz Material Girls says:

    WOW, how very clever – I am anyone with an unsues fireplace will find this tip extremely helpful

    Well done
    Louise

  10. bridgetroll says:

    alright, I usually just keep my mouth shut but holy crud, this is not a safe idea.

    As a child I cracked my head open on a fireplace just like that, on the corner, the stone part on the bottom where I'm assuming your child is either standing on or sitting on to play with that felt board.

    This is just my opinion but I don't think it's safe to allow a child to play around a fireplace at all despite the fact that it's not used for heating even if you're in the same room with the child bad things can happen fast. What if the child goes into another home with a fireplace that looks similar and tries to go play with it?

    Maybe I'm over protective and over think, no judgment, just comments.

  11. brilliant! If I ever have a fire place in the future I am definitely doing this!

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  15. You may have just saved my sanity! My daughter is 11 months old and will not leave our fireplace alone. We never use it and this is the perfect idea. It seems cheap enough and like something she would end up loving. Your idea is super cute. Your felt characters are too cute! ~ Jamie

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