Our Playroom is one of the first rooms you see when walking in the front door. Not Ideal I know! Playrooms are intended to be tucked away some where you can close the door to the mess! Our current playroom was intended as a formal living room, but who needs one of those when you have three kids? When we bought our home, we decided we would make that into a play area. The kid’s rooms are upstairs, and we needed a space the kids could play downstairs with us. I threw up some letters that said “playroom” and that was the extent of my decorating at the time. With that being said, over time we collected a lot of toys and books. When we welcomed our third baby, we added swings and play pins and all things baby to that room too! It kind of turned into an ugly storage room of all thing’s kid/baby. We did not have adequate storage and things were piled in boxes or on the floor. When we would organize the room, it would consist of stacking everything against the backwall. It was an ugly room to say the least and it gave me anxiety every time I came in the front door. So eventually I decided to invest in that space and make it functional and beautiful! Here is a picture of the room before we started. Like I said things piled in boxes and stacked against the wall.
I didn’t really know where to start at first! If you are in that same boat or maybe just want to get more use out of your current space, jot down what you want to be able to do in that space first! I knew we needed the room to function for all three different age children. We needed an area for my teen daughter who loves to write music and play the piano and guitar. We needed an art station for the boys to be creative and for my preschooler to do his homework projects. Lastly, we needed ample toy storage that was accessible to our newly walking one year old as well. A lot for one room, right? Of course, I browsed Pinterest for inspo and saved some ideas I loved. The one thing I couldn’t find was how to incorporate a space for a teen in a kids play area??? So, I just kind of winged it and figured that part out as I went. I was on a tight budget for the room, so I tried to incorporate things we already had as much as possible such as our play rug, play sign, and some hand me down floating shelves. First things first, we decided to do a fresh coat of bright white paint to brighten up the space! We used Behr white paint in the color Night Blooming Jasmine YL-W10.
The bright white really made the dark walnut shelving and primary colors used to decorate pop. Next up was storage!!!! This was perhaps the most important part of this room refresh. Without proper storage playrooms become chaotic! We went with the IKEA Kallax shelves for storage. They are around $80. We were able to fit two side by side in our space for a total of 16 shelves. This was the perfect fit and I highly recommend these shelves! They can sit vertical or horizontal depending on what you prefer. We sat them horizontally so our One-year-old at the time could easily pull out a bucket of toys and play. I grabbed a few cheap grey bucket inserts at IKEA as well, but I had seen some really pretty wicker baskets on a Pinterest post by @randrathome and just had to grab some. You can find them online by Best Choice Products . They came in a set of 5 for around $65 at the time. They are higher end, but they are pretty and well made! We have packed some baskets pretty heavy and two years later we have still not broken a single one! These shelves and baskets are great and are able to hold most toys from blocks, to cars, to puzzles, you name it! While at IKEA I also found an oversized map picture that I fell in love with. It was around $100 which is a huge splurge for me, but I needed a statement piece for that back wall. The primary colors in the picture, as well as the learning aspect, and inspiration factor to see the world, sold me on the piece! My son has been into Dinosaurs since I can remember and had started quite the collection. I decided to display them on top of the shelves for two reasons. One because they are bulky and take up a lot of basket space. Two I wanted them to be inspired to play in this room and what better way than to have your favorite toys displayed? You can display whatever your kids are into here or whatever larger toys you need. Here is the main wall of the Playroom all done. As you can see toys are easily accessible!
Next was adding the desk area for art, reading, and homework. I was inspired by this area from a Pinterest post I had seen by Shades of Blue Interiors. They had created a great desk space in their sons bedroom using a shelf. I wanted something similar using a shelf rather than a desk for the space. My original plan was to make some DIY floating shelves with my husband. However my sister-in-law ended up passing me down some floating shelves she had already made. They were already stained in a Dark Walnut that matched the existing built in. They ended up working out perfectly for the space. I found the hanging baskets at IKEA for all the markers, crayons and color pencils. We were able to fit all of the books into the built in that was already in the room and easy for the boys to reach. Since we didn’t need the large shelves for books we used them to display some portraits their Grandma had painted of them, lots of bright colored objects, and some kid artwork to really make the space pop. I found some battery operated puck lights for under all the shelves on Amazon for $16. They really elevate the space when they are turned on in the evenings. Voila their own little homework/artwork/reading station was created!
Next, we needed a space for our teen daughter. How do you add teen space without a TV or social media you ask? Well, she has a really awesome bedroom with her own desk for homework and art, a TV, and laptop and things of that nature, but we wanted her to have a little space in this room that was geared towards creativity. She loves to sing, play piano, and play guitar. So, we set her side up as that. Her piano faces the window where she is able to play while looking outside. She has her guitar, and a comfy chair she can write her music or play guitar in. We used some letters we had previously to write out “PLAY” in her corner which is really fitting for the whole room. Whether they are in there to play music or play with toys, we just want them in there away from electronics using their creativity. We are working on getting some wooden music notes hung next to the window to further define the space.
We revamped this space over 2 years ago and because it’s functioning, we get a lot of use out of it. It’s not only functioning for the kids, but also easy on the eyes. I no longer cringe when coming through the front door. It’s a fun space for neighbors and cousins to come play too, and easy to clean up after everyone is done, because of all the storage options. This room refresh was budget friendly, but money very well spent. You CAN make a big impact with a small budget! Some of my best Saturday morning memories are me cooking, my husband relaxing, and my daughter singing at her piano while my boys play with their toys! Here is the room as a whole.
Follow me for more room refreshing on a budget at http://jasminejonesdesigns.com,
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