The Playroom... in the beginning

We live in a rancher and the basement is almost the full size of the main floor (minus the portion of the house that was added on about 30 years ago). It's pretty much one large room, but there are a bunch of closets/smaller rooms coming out from it. I guess it has its pros and cons, one of the cons being how it was finished.

It's technically a finished basement, but paneling hung directly over the cinder block (no insulation in between) and peel-and-stick tiles right over the cement foundation is not exactly cozy!

We had been using a smallish room off of the kitchen as a playroom, but as the kids got bigger so did their toys! The basement was used as a dumping ground and my hubby had his desk with all his paperwork and miscellaneous items that didn't have a good home.

While in the planning stages for converting this to a playroom, I was also planning a 30th surprise party for my hubby. I conned him into going through everything, cleaning and organizing so we could prep for painting, but the party came first! It was a great open space to have lots of friends and fun before it became playroom. Boy, was he surprised :-)

We started out by taping everything and protecting the floor. My uncle is a painter and he suggested using Zinsser primer that was made for all surfaces, including the faux paneling that we have.

 

I don't know if you noticed, but there are SIX doors leading off of this main room. That's a lot of doors! We decided to use that fact as a way to bring more color into the room. We chose Behr's Fall Straw as the main wall color and Tropical Breeze as the accent color. 

Hubby hates painting but he was sweet enough to humor me and help out. This is a big room to paint!

Here is the room all painted. The walls are showing a little brighter than it really is, but you get the idea.

Then comes the fun part of bringing all the toys downstairs and figuring out how to set up and organize everything!