Josh Hart's Children's Playroom, Mini Basketball Hoop Included

New York Times

23-05-2025

With the New York Knicks in a thrilling playoff run, player Josh Hart's nearly 1 million followers on Instagram are probably paying close attention to his each and every post.
Mr. Hart, of course, has his own favorite Instagram accounts to follow. And last summer, before the 2024-25 N.B.A. season got underway, one of those accounts belonged to Greenwich Play, a playroom design company.
Mr. Hart and his wife, Shannon Hart, wanted to design a compelling playroom for their twins, Haze and Hendrix, now 2, and they admired the company's take on development-focused play spaces awash in climbing structures, art stations and imaginary play areas. After moving into a house in Harrison, N.Y., in Westchester County, they decided it was time to get in touch.
'We wanted to build a space that was 100 percent dedicated to our kids, where they can run around and explore without us worrying about them,' Mr. Hart recently shared over email in between playoff games.
'We just wanted to make a really comfortable, cozy place that they always want to go to,' Ms. Hart said in a separate interview.
Mr. Hart got in touch with Greenwich Play with a direct message on Instagram, and Ms. Hart followed up with a visit to the company's showroom in Old Greenwich, Conn., which doubles as a space for play-focused classes for children ages 6 months to 3 years.
'I went to their showroom and just fell in love with it,' Ms. Hart said, so she and Mr. Hart hired the company to collaborate on their dream playroom.
They identified a 250-square-foot upstairs bedroom, directly across the hall from their sons' bedroom, as the ideal location, rather than using their basement. That way, it would be easily accessible to their children, and 'Shannon and I also have a place where we can relax and enjoy time as a family,' Mr. Hart noted.
The team at Greenwich Play split the room into different play zones, said Courtney Gault, the company's founder.
'They wanted some gross-motor movement, they wanted pretend play, they wanted general play,' Ms. Gault said. 'The biggest consideration for the Hart family, specifically, was that we wanted the space to provide organic moments for them to collaborate and play together, but also for the kids to independently work their way through the room.'
The resulting room includes a climbing structure from Brainrich Kids; an imagination corner that includes a play kitchen and costume wall; a section of magnetic wall with magnetic tiles; a child-size work table for puzzles and art projects; storage shelves and bins for loose toys; and, yes, a pint-size basketball hoop above padded wall panels.
Ms. Gault and her team also brought in a few new products Greenwich Play has in development. Across one wall, they installed a wallpaper-based mural depicting New York sights, including Central Park, yellow taxis and the Manhattan Bridge, which they developed with the artist Tess Ramirez. The wallpaper is scheduled to be part of a collection that the home décor retailer Pepper Home introduces this September.
In one corner, they installed a modular sectional sofa designed to be cushy and hard-wearing enough for rambunctious children but also supportive enough for grown-ups.
The modules that make up the sofa can be pushed together or pulled apart, and moved around the room, depending on how the family wants to play. Named the Coop Couch, Greenwich Play plans to introduce the sofa system as a product line later this year.
It took about four months for the company to design and make all the pieces for the Harts' playroom, and the final installation took about a week. It was finished this past January and immediately became Haze and Hendrix's favorite place.
'They are absolutely obsessed with that room,' Ms. Hart said. 'They can learn, they can play, they can climb. It's perfect.'