The Playroom

I always enjoy seeing posts about toy storage/school supply storage, that kind of thing. Since I finally have our playroom exactly how I want it, I decided to do a little "behind the scenes" post showing off our little play space.

First off, I know we are really blessed to have an extra space that we can make into a playroom. This is our third place since the kids were born, and the first time we have had a playroom. It's so nice at the end of the day to have all the toys stored away and to have a normal, adult-friendly living room. But, it's always nice to have a pretty play space too, so I've spent the last several months periodically purchasing stuff to make our playroom a special and inviting place for the kids.

Here is our toy storage system, which I bought from ABC Distributing. I'll be honest and say that this product took about two and a half months to arrive at my home, so I wasn't too pleased with the customer service. However, each storage system, including the cloth boxes, was only $14.00's a piece (I bought two), so to me the wait was worth it. I do like this system because it is very compact; the boxes are pretty small and are perfect for storing all their small collections of toys--magnets, blocks, felt, foam shapes, cars, etc. One complaint is that it is a bit fragile, so I really had to warn my kids not to attempt sitting on it or climbing on it because I know if they did it would collapse. So far, it hasn't been a problem!

This is our kitchen set up close. This is on the left side of the room, as you come in, opposite the toy boxes. It's a KidKraft kitchen that we got at Walmart when Miss O was about 18 months. I love this kitchen. It's about the same price as the colorful plastic ones (or maybe less?), but in my opinion so much more attractive and durable. I also love that it has so much storage. I bought little cloth bins at Target that fit perfectly in the fridge portion, so I never have to see the play food when it is not being played with. :)

Here is the room as you come in the door. The frames were old frames from my room growing up that I just removed the glass from and hung. I hammered a few well-placed nails in the wall and then hung up their artwork with binder clips that hang from the nails. I *think* I got that idea from Let's Explore.

Following it around clockwise, here is the next wall. My husband installed these inexpensive shelves from Home Depot on either side of the window.

The curtains shown here were on sale at Walmart for $14.00's--I was lucky they went perfectly with the "theme" of this room. Below the window is a homemade felt board. I simply wrapped some inexpensive felt around a piece of thick posterboard and glued the back. To attach it to the wall, I used sticky back velcro.

This is the other side of the window. The white baskets were 40% off at Michaels Craft Store. These I picked up only recently.

Here is the third wall. It consists of a hand-me-down chair from my mom, our toy boxes, and art on the wall. To display their artwork here, I used two eyelet screws, a clothesline and some clothespins, all of which were on hand. Since I cloth diapered, I had my own clothesline in the backyard for a while. :)

And this is the last wall. There is only one narrow piece of wall here. It's sandwiched between a boxy closet, which is pretty much empty, and the doorway. Here, I used sticky back velcro to attach our magna doodle and a magnetic cookie sheet to the wall for magnet play. There is also a white rug with colored circles in the center of the room, which I also bought at Walmart.

So, that's our playroom! I'm really not much of a decorator--most of my home is blank walls with a few frames here and there, but I'll be honest--decorating this room brought me a lot of happiness! :) I love it when things look nice and organized, and I really love it when I can do that without spending an arm and a leg. As I said at the beginning of my post, this room was decorated over a span of several months. Each month I would add something new, and sell something old on craigslist in order to buy something new! I hope you enjoyed the tour. I'd love to see your playrooms or play areas too. If you'd like to share, please do leave a comment and share your room with me!