Tuesday, August 12, 2014

the playroom


Welcome to our playroom!

To start, I want to share that we are renters. Steve is in his sixth year of post-college studies (working hard now on his doctoral dissertation), so we aren’t in our forever-home yet. We moved in last summer, just over a year ago, and we are in the unique position that we’re allowed to make changes and updates to the house while we are here to increase the house’s value :) Oh, and it was built in 1920, so it has a TON of character.

Here are a couple of photos before the last owner moved out. As you can see, the room is set up as a formal dining room, situated between the front door of the house and the kitchen. However, we didn’t come with dining room furniture, so we decided it would work nicely as a playroom—and it has!


For a year, we didn’t paint or do any updates to the room. At the end of July, we decided to give it a couple coats of gray paint. We used Olympic’s “Gray Marble," from Lowe’s. The old paint was dull, marked up, and looked yellowy in the sunlight, so this serene gray was a vast improvement. I swapped the navy curtains for some light blue ones that were elsewhere in the house. Steve and I absolutely love how it turned out!

Take a look! :)

 

The boys’ personalized Thirty-One utility totes make for great toy storage!

   
These white drawers were in my closet, but I realized they would make awesome toy containers. Nolan has TONS of Duplos, and now they all fit in the bottom drawer :)




In recent months, I’ve really begun to see how visual clutter affects my mood. Nolan has acquired many toys in his short three years. At the beginning of the summer, I could see that he was bored even though he had toys scattered throughout the entire house. I moved many of them to the basement and started a rotation schedule. When I pull out a toy he hasn’t seen in a while, he’ll play with it for hours! This has helped me with the visual clutter issue. And it shows how for Nolan—less is more :)

Thank you so much for stopping by! These are my favorite posts each month—I love a good before and after :)

I’m linking up with Andrea for the “Come On In” series. We’ve already done living room, kitchen, outdoor space, and kids’ rooms.

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10 comments:

  1. Just stopping by from the link up! I love how colorful the white bookshelves are! Very nice space!

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  2. I love the idea of utility totes for toy storage! I need to go measure my shelves!!

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  3. What great idea to convert the formal dining room to a playroom. We have a formal dining room and it gets used maybe once a year if we have Thanksgiving dinner at our house. We may convert it into a pool room when our boys get older.

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  4. That gray color is great on the walls! And boy is that room organized and clean! You would have a heart attack if Xavier was around. lol! We tried to designate a playroom but he just likes to play with his toys near us. So every room has become a playroom :/

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  5. I think it is a fantastic idea to do a toy rotation... especially during those long winter months! The bright colors really pop out with your beautiful gray walls!

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  6. Such a beautiful peaceful place!!! Love your milk glass, and the recommendation about switching the toys out!! Clutter for sure effects my mood. :) Your boys are so handsome!!

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  7. Yes to the toy rotation! My nephew has so many, so we have created a play area outside with dirt and sand because he LOVES mud holes. Wreckers and Tonka trucks, and tractors are out there. He and my other cousin play out there forever. And then, certain toys in the house. And some are in a chest. The colors and shelves are awesome!

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  8. I LOVE it, Rachel! It really looks great.

    I've had a similar issue with the toys, but my solution is to just get rid of them. We have a semi annual consignment sale where I've made serious $$$ in getting rid of A's things. I'm so looking forward to the end of September to make another large purge!

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  9. Great playroom space! And I love the personalized totes!

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Thank you so much for your comments! I enjoy reading each one!

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