I knew this space would be full of multi-colored toys and lots of bright accents, so I decided to ground everything with lots and lots of white. The walls and trim got several coats of Sherwin Williams' "Snowbound". Then Justin and I built a platform for a twin-sized mattress, and I upholstered the front panel in an awesome orange and white fabric that I have been holding on to for the last 3-4 years (it's called "Dawson's Dot" from Hancock Fabric's long ago discontinued Laurie Smith collection). Then came a plain white blanket and lots of pillows (more on those later). Now the kids have a place to read, and we have an extra bed for guests.
Next came storage, because this little room would need a lot of storage. One corner of the room already contained a tall, built-in cabinet unit and a small nook with some wire shelves. I repainted the doors of the built-in unit with chalkboard paint and Justin helped me add new shelves inside so the kids' toys would fit. Then we removed the wire shelves and built wooden ones in their place. We also added hooks below the lower shelf so the girls would have a place to hang their dress-up clothes.
Since 3 kids use a lot of toys, we knew we needed to add even more storage. We bought a 9-cube organizer and a 6-cube organizer from Martha Stewart's line at Home Depot, and then put them beside each other on the open wall (and since my kids often think they are monkeys, both shelving systems are securely attached to the wall). Then a storage bench we built a few years ago got a make-over with some striped scrapbook paper and found a new home under the window.
Finally, we needed to add some color to our extremely white room. I originally wanted to use wooden letters to make the alphabet border that runs around the top of 3 of the walls. I realized that $6/letter multiplied by 26 letters equalled major bucks, and decided to find another option. I found a set of "This Land Alphabet Wall Cards" from Land of Nod, and couldn't be happier with them!
Next came the fabrics. I wanted short curtains (because of my little "monkeys"), so I chose to make them myself. I picked a really graphic Thomas Paul print ("Silhouette" in turquoise) and added a little orange rick-rack trim near the bottom and some orange grosgrain ribbon ties at the top. After curtains, it was time for pillows for the bed area. I found two really soft, fuzzy cream colored pillows at Target. Then I made two large 18" x 26" pillows from the "Dawson's Dot" fabric, two smaller 20" x 20" pillows from "Silhouette" in kiwi with purple pom-pom fringe. It still didn't look inviting enough so I made 2 more pillows: a 20"x 20" from some cream-colored cotton that I added stripes of rick-rack trim to the front of and another smaller one made from the curtain left-overs with yellow pom-pom fringe. Finally I covered some of the cubes we'd bought for the shelves with more of my left-over fabrics and a coordinating color of rick-rack trim.
I started filling the shelves with toys and books. The things that the kids played with everyday went into the fabric-covered cubes. Then some of the girls' stuffed animals, Noah's cardboard books, and an assortment of tin lunchboxes filled the open cubbies. An awesome "Bulletin Board Lamp" (also from Land of Nod) went on top of the cubbies, along with a globe and a Fisher Price "Roly Poly Chime Ball" from my childhood. Noah's cars and trucks went into the empty spaces on the storage bench. The shelves above the dress-up hooks hold more books, a basket filled with chalk and erasers, and one of Maddie's old "Madeline" dolls. The openings above our new chalkboard hold a few more sentimental toys: my old Fisher Price telephone, a baby-doll sized Radio Flyer wagon, a couple more stuffed animals, and 2 sets of nesting dolls that Justin bought in Russia during his Navy days.
After looking at the playroom for a few days, I decided I wasn't quite finished. The corner that held the built-in cabinet and shelves still looked a little bare compared to the rest of the playroom. I started with the empty, white wall that ran behind the room door and next to the chalkboards. Since was a fairly small wall, and most of it was hidden while the door was open, I decided to try wallpaper. I checked all of my local home improvement stores but couldn't find any in stock wallpapers that I liked. I had pretty much given up on the idea until I found some Hobby Lobby wrapping paper in the exact same striped pattern as the scrapbook paper I'd already used on the storage bench. After one roll of wrapping paper, a jar of Mod-Podge, and a lot of patience, the wall was no longer bare or white. The small wall on the other side of the chalkboard cabinets got a trio of clocks. One is labeled with our time and the other 2 are for family members who live in other time zones. The final addition to this area is a growth chart made from a wooden, folding carpenter's ruler (found on clearance sale from Pottery Barn, of all places) attached to the wall so I can keep track of how fast the kids are growing.
This room is definitely tiny, but we've managed to pack a lot into the space (I think I forgot to mention that it's only about 70 square feet). It's bright and fun and welcoming and my kids absolutely love it. I think it may even be my favorite place in the house, too!
Ashley - this is amazing!!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
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