A Room for Playing

You may remember the office I showed you not too long ago.  Well, it's life as an office was short lived because in reality, we're not office people.  We don't need an office, we don't want to sit in an office, so we decided to get rid of the office....

Now it is a........

PLAYROOM!

Since all the bedrooms are upstairs and the toys were starting to overflow in the living room, the office was the perfect room to create a kid space.

I told Justin about my idea and he rolled his eyes.  You see, I'm changing things... all the time...  I can't help it.  I get bored with things and need to switch it up.  So he reluctantly agreed to me changing it when I told him I would do it all for free.  I promised to use only things I have and that I wouldn't buy anything.  

This made the whole process pretty easy since everything I needed I had on hand.

The bookshelves used to live in Cru's room. I loved them there but I thought they would be better utilized in the playroom, especially when he get's older and wants to read more throughout the day. The chest is an old (beautiful) chest from Japan that a great uncle brought home from WWII.  I threw in all my old dress up clothes and costumes thinking that maybe in a few years they would all get used again by little ones. :]

The couch is the same one that was in here while this room was an office.  I put a quilt that was made for Cru on the back of the couch and threw on some brighter throw pillows I had on hand for some color.  The curtain panels were given to me a long time ago.  I only had two panels so I cut each one in half and hemmed them up to create four panels.  It worked out perfect and now the room is so much brighter than before!

One of the great things about this room is how central it is.  Whether the adults are gathering inside or outside, the kids are close by and can be seen.  I really love how this room came together!

When it came to storage for this space I knew I wanted an IKEA Expedit shelf for toys.  In my promise not to spend any money I asked my sister-in-law if she wanted to do a furniture swap!  I gave her the two bookshelves that used to reside in this room in exchange for this one and it was a win-win!  My shelves fit her decor better and hers mine! 

I also did another photo wall...  Justin told me it makes no sense but that was kind of the point.  I wanted it to be random and just full of kid-like things.  The needle point of the black lab is cool because of our Abu and Ace.  I've had that for a while and paired it with cru's 20-week foot prints, a map of the US, a vintage Disneyland attraction poster, a Walt Disney quote, some knitted shoes and a couple other random things.  

We don't have a ton of toys, but I know they will accumulate in the coming months and I am so happy that we have a space to put them as they come.

My plan for this wall is create a space to display homemade art.  I'm not sure exactly how yet but that is my plan!

I feel like this room came together perfectly! The best part is that it didn't cost a dime! These are my favorite kind of makeovers. Many times furniture pieces find new life just when moved into another space! 

Time to host a play date!