The time has finally come! The Saturday after Christmas we officially started the transition from formal dining room to playroom. It was a bittersweet day for us. We always loved having a formal dining room and hosting our family for dinners. However, it was time to move on. Besides, formal dining rooms are definitely becoming a thing of the past. We have quickly started to outgrow the room we have in this house and with two small children, we had to change some things around. Enter... the playroom.
I detailed some of the inspo for our playroom transition here if you want to check it out... but now that all of it (mostly) is done, here is our final product.
Tada! Okay, I'm sure this is more exciting to the 4 of us than anyone else. However, since when we mentioned we were making this transition, I had a lot of people ask me about it, I figured we would give an update now that we are so close to being done. The only changes left at this point are to change the light fixture and maybe find a small carpet to put under the table and chairs. That is still up in the air though. We also have a couple more pictures we are considering but they can wait for a while.
We realized quickly that we didn't have as much room as we thought we would because we lack the benefit of a fourth wall in this room. That means that unless we want random items placed throughout the room not against walls when the room is not in use, we are short on space. It's okay though, and we made it work.
We started with a couple of shelving bin unit things from Ikea. We were initially planning to go with one long one (4x2), but when we saw these, we thought they were a better fit for us. They are technically the same amount of storage space, but we could split them up or even move them around the room independently of one another. We priced out the ones from Target too, but for the size of these vs price, this was definitely a better deal. (Two of these were also cheaper than 1 of the larger units.) These bins are also much more sturdy so hopefully they will last longer with our tornado children. We had to go with black, unfortunately, because we knew we wanted fabric and our color options were limited. I think it looks okay though and you don't even really notice in the grand scheme of things. I just knew that I didn't want white and the other colors would have certainly clashed with the rest of the room. We got that awesome wall hanging on the right at Hobby Lobby. I have been eyeing some of those for a while and I love this saying. We decided to hang our family canvas on the left side. This was mainly done because you see it immediately as you enter the house, but the colors also sort of worked in the room so it all worked out. The kids love puzzles and legos so those went front and center for them. We moved some items from each of their rooms to add toys to the playroom and clear up some space in their rooms. I figure we will rotate some of those toys in and out as the year goes on. We also moved out a ton of books (and yet still left just as many in each room) as both kids love to "read" every day. They will both just sit and look at books for long periods of time. We also elected to leave Will's basketball hoop inside. It's not like they are going to be playing a lot of serious 1-on-1 anytime soon so I think this was an okay decision.
On Wall #2, we have the art center area on the right. I love the scatter frames and they are super cute for displaying artwork. We have a blank wall as you might notice. Our hope is to find a map we like one day. Then, either use stickers (there is one that we like that comes with them already) or cut out pictures of the family in the shapes of the states to attach to each state we visit as a family. There is a canvas I LOVE at Hobby Lobby... but if we got that (and we still might), I don't know if I can bring myself to cover the states. I figure I could do the pictures though and always remove them one day if we wanted to. That is for another time though.
Finally, on the last wall, we have a few of our bigger items. The dollhouse and kitchen take up most of the wall. It was so nice to move that kitchen out of the living room area. We are no longr constantly tripping over food items or banging our shins on small cabinet doors. We also have a cabinet that you will notice is tied closed... that's because inside it are all of our art supplies. I double knotted that ribbon so that neither kid can get into it. That's something that we do not want them messing with unless we are aware of it, but we wanted the art supplies close by the playroom and out of the laundry room where we were housing it all before. We also strung up some twine to display more artwork. We elected to use twine for a couple of reasons. First, it is inexpensive and if the kids hang on it, it will just tear down. I don't have to worry about them stripping screws out of the walls, which has occurred in other rooms of our house, already. Secondly, it is just attached with large push pins so it creates very small holes I might one day need to patch. We also put up our Playroom Rules that Santa got us for Christmas. Anyone within reading distance of this blog knows that I love my chalkboards so this HAD to happen once I saw it.
So, there you have it. We are loving the playroom. The other morning Kenzie woke up around 7 and came into our room. Usually she would ask us to get up, but we told her to go play in the playroom for a while and she did. She played until almost 8 when Will woke up (he slept in!!) and we got to get a few more minutes of peace. Steven was actually awake just in case anyone is concerned about her playing alone (which she does in her room all the time so really, it's no different.) Will and Kenzie spend hours in there. Very few toys are brought back into other areas of the house. The room is a disaster at the end of the day, but we clean it every night as a family and it ends up being one of the best rooms in our house. We are very happy with our decision to make this transition. It was well worth it.
I detailed some of the inspo for our playroom transition here if you want to check it out... but now that all of it (mostly) is done, here is our final product.
Tada! Okay, I'm sure this is more exciting to the 4 of us than anyone else. However, since when we mentioned we were making this transition, I had a lot of people ask me about it, I figured we would give an update now that we are so close to being done. The only changes left at this point are to change the light fixture and maybe find a small carpet to put under the table and chairs. That is still up in the air though. We also have a couple more pictures we are considering but they can wait for a while.
We realized quickly that we didn't have as much room as we thought we would because we lack the benefit of a fourth wall in this room. That means that unless we want random items placed throughout the room not against walls when the room is not in use, we are short on space. It's okay though, and we made it work.
We started with a couple of shelving bin unit things from Ikea. We were initially planning to go with one long one (4x2), but when we saw these, we thought they were a better fit for us. They are technically the same amount of storage space, but we could split them up or even move them around the room independently of one another. We priced out the ones from Target too, but for the size of these vs price, this was definitely a better deal. (Two of these were also cheaper than 1 of the larger units.) These bins are also much more sturdy so hopefully they will last longer with our tornado children. We had to go with black, unfortunately, because we knew we wanted fabric and our color options were limited. I think it looks okay though and you don't even really notice in the grand scheme of things. I just knew that I didn't want white and the other colors would have certainly clashed with the rest of the room. We got that awesome wall hanging on the right at Hobby Lobby. I have been eyeing some of those for a while and I love this saying. We decided to hang our family canvas on the left side. This was mainly done because you see it immediately as you enter the house, but the colors also sort of worked in the room so it all worked out. The kids love puzzles and legos so those went front and center for them. We moved some items from each of their rooms to add toys to the playroom and clear up some space in their rooms. I figure we will rotate some of those toys in and out as the year goes on. We also moved out a ton of books (and yet still left just as many in each room) as both kids love to "read" every day. They will both just sit and look at books for long periods of time. We also elected to leave Will's basketball hoop inside. It's not like they are going to be playing a lot of serious 1-on-1 anytime soon so I think this was an okay decision.
On Wall #2, we have the art center area on the right. I love the scatter frames and they are super cute for displaying artwork. We have a blank wall as you might notice. Our hope is to find a map we like one day. Then, either use stickers (there is one that we like that comes with them already) or cut out pictures of the family in the shapes of the states to attach to each state we visit as a family. There is a canvas I LOVE at Hobby Lobby... but if we got that (and we still might), I don't know if I can bring myself to cover the states. I figure I could do the pictures though and always remove them one day if we wanted to. That is for another time though.
So, there you have it. We are loving the playroom. The other morning Kenzie woke up around 7 and came into our room. Usually she would ask us to get up, but we told her to go play in the playroom for a while and she did. She played until almost 8 when Will woke up (he slept in!!) and we got to get a few more minutes of peace. Steven was actually awake just in case anyone is concerned about her playing alone (which she does in her room all the time so really, it's no different.) Will and Kenzie spend hours in there. Very few toys are brought back into other areas of the house. The room is a disaster at the end of the day, but we clean it every night as a family and it ends up being one of the best rooms in our house. We are very happy with our decision to make this transition. It was well worth it.
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