Playroom Complete (for now!)

And now for a picture-overloaded post about the playroom. Just to keep in mind, this project was done before I started blogging and most definitely did not take just a week to complete. But with the magic of the internet, here it is.

Just to remind you, this is what it looked like before:

And standing at the same spot now:

Now I will take you on a tour around the room. I think I kept pretty close to the original design and floor plan.

As you first come down the stairs, you turn to your left and see the trofast storage system. We keep the bigger, bulkier toys in the blue bins on the sides, dolls and their accessories in the medium size white bin, and all the little toys that don't seem to have a good place in the smaller white one.

On top, we have a box (from Target) for instruments and my son's tool boxes. (Yes, that's plural!)

Coming up next is the dress up area. The outfits and dresses are hanging on hangers from Ikea and the miscellaneous hats, wands, etc. are in a basket below. The mirror is hanging right next to everything so the kids can get a good look at themselves :-)

To zoom in on the shelf, there's a hand-held mirror, crown and a small jewelry box.

Turning the corner, you'll get to the "house" area - baby swing and stroller, shopping cart, and kitchen.

We have too much play food and dishes to fit in the cabinets and drawers so these containers help control the clutter. They also make sure that we only keep whatever fits inside.

Around the corner is the arts and crafts area. We repurposed our old kitchen table and got two chairs to go with it. All the coloring "stuff" is above it. You can see it's starting to get out of hand, but every so often we go through it and get rid of stuff that we no longer use. I got a lazy susan and glued little buckets from Target's dollar spot on top to hold markers, crayons, colored pencils and more. There's an easel in the corner - one side is a chalkboard and the other a white board (from Ikea) that we can just slide out whenever someone wants to use it.

A close up of the coloring chaos. (Say that ten times fast!)

Right next to the table is the designated toy closet. We've got board games, and tons of bins for various toys. The top shelf is play-doh and some of our board games (most are upstairs in the living room).

The next shelf has Polly Pockets, My Little Ponies, and Handy Manny.

 Next shelf has Crystal Climbers, Barbie and Lego.

And the bottom shelf has cars, Thomas train tracks, and Little People. The big pieces of the Little People stuff sits on the floor around the shelves.

There are a few shelves on the side of the closet that hold other various toys and games that aren't used as often.

There's another storage closet to the right and in between the two we have a magnetic board to display any recent drawings.

Turn the next corner and you'll find our book shelf and stereo (we're still old school!). The kids love to dance and listen to music while they play, and we also have a few story CDs that they can follow along with the book. The bottom two shelves have books and the top shelf and above have puzzles.

And you've all already seen how we organize our trucks.

The couch is next to the truck garage - perfect for story time and snuggling. You can see a bit of the rug in front of the couch that is perfect for car and truck driving!

On the other side of the couch is a small play table, right now holding a cash register (that wasn't staged) so the kids must have been in the middle of playing store.

Last up is the ball corner. I got a pop-up hamper from Ikea for holding all the balls and the mini basketball hoop sits here, too. We don't use the closet behind it too much but it's no problem to move the hoop when we need to.

And finally is hubby's office nook - file cabinet, book shelf and crazy desk. Not that he can actually do his work here... (Luv ya, hon!)

Phew! We came full circle. I'm glad you stuck around to the end! Let me know if you have any questions about anything. I'll do a more detailed post in the future.

Linking up here: 

               

The Playroom... the plan

After we finished painting the playroom, it was time to come up with a plan. Here is a mostly-to-scale floor plan of the room with my proposed set up. This was definitely not the first configuration, but it is the one that seemed to make the most sense. The right side of the room would be reserved for the hubby - his desk, bookcase and file cabinets. The rest of the room would be free reign for the kiddies.

Each of the bold lines you see represents a door - most of them open into a closet, the bottom left opens to a storage room that is under the porch, and the bottom right and bottom center both open up to different parts of the same room. It's where the sump pump, furnace, hot water tank, work area, and crawl space all live. That part of the space is unfinished, except for the peel and stick tile floor.

This is the design board I came up with - note that most things will be altered in some way and not appear in the final design as they do here.

























1. An no-longer-used mirror will now be in the dress up corner in the lower left of the room. It will be painted Behr's Tropical Breeze (our accent color for the room).

2. Play kitchen that we already own (got it as a gift) will be just across the door from the dress up area so all the imaginative play is near each other. There is also space there to park a shopping cart, stroller, and vacuum cleaner.

3. A row of hooks (not these exact ones) on the wall as a place to hang all the dress up clothes. I found an unfinished wood one with a little shelf that I will also paint Tropical Breeze.

4. & 5. Wooden shelf and brackets to hang over the arts and crafts table (not this exact one, but a close replica of our old kitchen table). The shelf will be painted and will be a storage place for all the coloring books and arts and crafts supplies.

6. Little Tykes play table which we already own. Perfect for doing a puzzle, playing restaurant, and much more.

7. Klippan couch from Ikea - its low profile (and low price), not to mention washable slipcover are perfect for a playroom.

8. Bookcase that we already own will also be painted. Besides for books, it will also hold puzzles.

9. Trofast system from Ikea for bulkier toys that don't fit neatly on a shelf.

10. Herman chair from Ikea - two of them for seating at the arts and crafts table.

I also set aside the closet next to the table for more toy storage. This will be for board games, playdoh, and other toys with lots of pieces that are contained in storage boxes (ex. lego, polly pocket, my little pony) I wanted to get a big rug for the middle of the floor, but the size I wanted was out of stock so I ended up getting two smaller ones to put next to each other (which actually ended covering up more space). I also got the Lekplats play mat for the little guy to drive his cars and trucks on. It will go right in front of the couch.

As you can see, this room is being done on a major budget - using mostly things we already own or budget-friendly items from Ikea. I know that as kids grow, so do their toys and therefore their storage needs so I don't want to spend too much on things that are liable to change in a few years.

Have any good playroom ideas? Please share!

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!