Tag Archives: playroom

Playroom Reveal

13 Jan

This may be my favorite room ever! I’m so excited to share the finished photos of our new playroom.

As a reminder, here is what the room started as, it was a weird den/office that we hardly used.

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After we built a wall dividing the space into a seperate playroom and mudroom, removed the fireplace, patched and re-stained the hardwood floors, added/moved some electrical, removed the wall paneling and finished the drywall, the room was looking like this.

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Today, it looks like this.

playroom wide good

We painted the walls a dark teal from Benjamin Moore called Shenandoah. It is such a fun color, I love it! We built the chalkboard using reclaimed barn wood that we had leftover from our living room beams.

chalkboard vertical

We just framed a sheet of plywood painted with magnetic and chalkboard paint with the barnwood. The buckets at the bottom hold chalk, an eraser, and magnetic letters. It is the Fintorp system from Ikea.

Above the chalkboard are these marquee letters from Pier 1.

marquee letters

The gold and white striped teepee was Kate’s big present from Santa. “He” got it from Land of Nod. And then we hung these ledges from Target next to it for easy access to books.

teepee vertical

The rug was my inspiration for the room. It is this one from Rugs USA, which I got 80% during a Black Friday sale. I love that is fun and playful, but not too kiddy. It is a great quality rug for the price.

rug

The table was a hand-me-down Winnie the Pooh table that I painted Peak Point by Behr. The chairs are the Sundvik chairs from Ikea.

table vertical

I love these little buckets to hold art supplies that I found in the Target Dollar Spot.

crayon buckets

On the other side of the room is Kate’s play kitchen (a hand-me down), a comfy couch, and Kate’s art projects.

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I got these green and blue throw pillows and blanket from World Market. The couch is the Ektorp from Ikea. It used to live upstairs in a spare bedroom, so we were happy it fit well in this space.

couch good

The art holders are made from more of the leftover reclaimed barn wood. I stuck pushpins through clothespins and pushed them into the wood to hold the art. This way I’ll be able to move them around as needed. I’m still contemplating spray painting the clothespins.

art holder

The wall art is a free printable I found here (it’s available in four colors). Then I just printed it at Office Max and framed it with an Ikea frame.

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On the last wall is a big wall of cubbies to hold all of Kate’s toys. How do they accumulate so much?

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These are Ikea’s Kallax shelving unit. We put two 8 cubby units and one 4 cubby unit along the bottom, and then two 8 cubby units framing either side of the window.

shelves wide good

To conceal and organize a lot of the toys, I purchased these gray/white striped bins from Land of Nod. I have things like legos, playdoh, stickers and coloring books in them. Honestly, a few up top are empty so we have room to grow into them.

shelf close new

Here’s a look at the room from our foyer. We installed the french doors a couple of years ago after we removed a hall closet that used to be here.

playroom entry way

Finally, here a couple before and after shots. This space is unrecognizable!

I can’t tell you how nice it is to get all of Kate’s toys out of the living room and rest of the house. We’re really enjoying have a dedicated playroom and spend so.much.time in here. Heck, Ben and I find ourselves hanging out in here even when Kate isn’t home or sleeping. Plus, we figure the room can easily turn into a cozy hang out/movie space or office down the line.

I hope to have an update on the mudroom in the next couple of weeks. It never ends….

Creating a Playroom & Mudroom

21 Dec

We are smack dab in the middle of an exciting project at 12 Oaks— creating a playroom and mudroom from what was a weird den/office.

This is what the room was looking like before we started. We hardly ever used it and it is basically the last room in the house we haven’t renovated.

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We had a desk in one corner (that we never use), and Kate had some toys in there, and that is about it.

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The fireplace takes up half of the room, it’s dangerous for little ones and would need to be re-done anyway, so we decided to cover it up (GASP!) Some may think that is a crime but it just didn’t work for our family and our needs. We still have a much nicer fireplace in our living room, and could always open it back up down the line if we wanted to.

Here’s the other side of the room, the door to the garage is on the right, the laundry room and powder room are in the center, and the doorway on the left leads to the kitchen. So this room was basically a pass through as we came in the house and took off our shoes, coats, brought in groceries, etc.

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We decided to put up a wall here to make a nice mudroom off of the garage, and then it closes off the playroom to make a cozy little room for Kate to play in.

So first things first we cleaned out the room, ripped out the fireplace and removed the paneling from the walls.

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We were happy to find drywall (unfinished) behind the paneling, so we only had to hire drywallers to finish it rather than hang new stuff too.

Next Ben built the wall….

Then we had an electrician come in to add some can lights in the new mudroom, center the light in the playroom, and add some outlets. Then Ben hung drywall on the new wall and over the old fireplace.

Next we had the drywallers come in to tape and finish the drywall. And then Ben primed all the walls.

Unfortunately we also had to re-do the hardwood floors because of the old fireplace hearth that left a big hole in the floor. So the flooring guys patched the hole, sanded all of them back, and re-stained them to match the rest of the house. You can’t even tell the fireplace was there.

Here’s how the mudroom is shaping up so far.

We are building floor to ceiling cabinets in here, but it is already so much better! Ben threw together a hook rail so we can hang all our stuff as soon as we come in the door.

Here is some of my inspiration for the mudroom cabinets. I cannot wait!

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We’ve already painted the playroom and have started putting it all back together, so I hope to share a finished reveal before the end of the year.