A Place To Play

One of my goals for this year is to organize, update, and decorate my house. This month we have lived in our house for four years and I am realizing that in four years I haven't done a lot of work on our house. I did have two babies, work full time, change jobs, and keep up with the rest of day-to-day life as we know it around here! So, I decided now I should get to work on making this house (that I LOVE) organized! I started in several different rooms and would get one thing done and then do something somewhere else and the projects never got completed. I am forcing myself to be diligent and get one room done at a time!

I finally finished the kid's playroom yesterday (ok, it's 95% done, but the rest requires other work that I can't do right this minute). I love this play area, because it is hidden from the main parts of the house and so it can be messy without being so obvious! The playroom is upstairs and it is a loft area that overlooks the living room. Once I finished it, I realized that there is more space in their room then I thought! So here is what I did....

I got these shelves and bins from The Company Store and they are great for storage! You can't see in the boxes, so it doesn't matter what kind of organization you've got. When it is picked up, it still looks clean! Andrew and Madelyn LOVE the Little People so those are displayed on the top of the shelf. I spray painted (which has become a new favorite hobby!) the shelf above blue and put Jason's Dr. Suess books on it from when he was young. The Harry Potter books are mine! The moose I got in Canada when I was pregnant with Andrew before I knew he was an Andrew! The bear was given to Andrew when he was in the NICU and it stayed in the hospital room with me since Andrew couldn't. I have a special attachment to that bear!
Here is a close up of the shelf...my spray painting ability is not perfect yet!

This set of shelves I have grown to love! They came from Wal-Mart and actually are really great. The colored boxes came from Land of Nod and the buckets and baskets came from Hobby Lobby. The baskets have a chalk board on them so I can draw what goes in them. I haven't gotten the kid's rooms organized yet, so a lot of their toys aren't in the playroom yet!

I made these bookshelfs using a rain gutter. When I say made, I mean sawed, hammered, made a hole for the screw, and screwed these into the wall. All.by.myself! I love the way that the books are displayed! When kids can see the books displayed vs. just the spines or having them in a box it encourages them to read.

And just another picture because of the hard work I put into these shelves...and the fact that I accidently put it in twice and it won't delete!

This is one of my favorite things! I got two curtain rods and the rings with the clips to hang artwork on. I still need to go through my piles of saved art work and get them displayed, but that is another project!

Here is a larger view of the room. I got the curtains from Land of Nod and I just think they are perfect for this room! The other set of shelves with bins has a picture that I painted in third grade that is blue, yellow, red, purple, and green that will go above it. I just have to get it from my parent's house next time we are in Conway! The wall to the left is going to be where we will put their kitchen...after Santa brings it at Christmas!

This was my table from when I was a little girl. It was white, but Jason spray painted it blue. I need to put another coat of paint on it, but I think the blue looks really nice!

So, this is my first project that is pretty well completed! I am going to try and do at least one project each week of the summer and I will update as I go. I have already done the kitchen, so that will be my next post!