When I get an idea for something around the house I pretty much need to have it done immediately. A long time ago, like before Bo, my Mom suggested we turn our family/TV room off of our kitchen into a playroom. Since we have had Jake we hardly use it anymore. We always call it the Summer room, since we get afternoon sun in the front of our house, it is always a lot cooler back there. We have ANOTHER TV in the living room about 15 ft away so we were really covered there. I kind of dismissed the idea, but then Bo arrived and Jake grew up a bit, the weather was turning and it was time to get the baskets of toys out of the living room and create a kid friendly space that I could monitor without being trapped in the basement. Since I spend about 70% of my life in the kitchen preparing or cleaning up food, this seemed perfect. We knew we didn't want to sell the furniture we had, but instead just store it downstairs until we have a bigger house, someday. So once we confirmed that our leather couch would fit down the stairs, things started to roll. We decided to leave the TV, it is too hard to safely store and honestly, its kind of nice to have for desperate times too. I was able to repurpose several things that had been in our basement playroom. See more about that little project here. I still left some stuff downstairs for those heavy laundry days and just another play space for the winter. I decided it was a good idea to take both kids to Ikea with me to get what we needed. So here we are in line with a double stroller and huge cart with furniture. It would have been hard to do by myself, seriously I can't believe I did it with the two crazies. Further, how the heck did I get it all in the car with two carseats and a stroller. I really didn't think it through, but I wanted that damn playroom…so I made it work!
Everything turned out amazing. Here is the before picture looking towards the kitchen (old blue tile kitchen and all!) And the after pictures showing their easel, work bench, and reading corner. I used prints that I had hanging in the basement with quotes that I loved and a couple pictures in black and white from Bo's newborn shoot. All furniture and the rug are from Ikea. Vintage kitchen was from Amazon and the only big purchase. We needed a smaller, more masculine kitchen than the one he played with in the basement. This worked out great.
Here is the room looking towards the patio doors, before and after. Each cubby under the TV has some kind of theme, cars and trucks in one basket, musical instruments, puzzles in a cubby, construction gear and tool box are together, matchbox cars and tracks together, etc…
As seen on Pinterest, I got an oil drip pan to use as a magnet board for his letter and animal magnets too. We hang everything from the molding in this room so I just kept this one near the floor. The "super hero" sign is from Pottery Barn kids and the quote print from Etsy, all frames from Ikea. It might be the best thing we have ever done in our house. It is certainly the most cheerful room around. The perfect place for two little boys and their little friends to play, laugh, and learn.
The happiest room in the house.
