The Playroom

In my last post I wrote about the closet I turned into a creative corner for the girls.  But, as great as that room is, and it is, I am probably more enthralled with the extra bedroom that we turned into a playroom.  I posted before about how I have been waiting since before MadHatter was born to get my family room back.  I was so excited about the prospect of not having to clean up the family room 30 times a day, just in case someone dropped by and couldn't find my family room under the mass of toys that littered the floor.  And if I am being honest, it is also my own neat freak tendencies that must clean it every 20 minutes.  I have a place for every toy/book/game and each must be put back in their place immediately or I start to get a little jittery.  When we saw that our new house had an extra bedroom I knew just what I was going to do with it - a playroom.  

It wasn't a hard choice on which bedroom would be the playroom.  There are 2 identical bedrooms in the house, right next to each other and with matching bathrooms across the hall.  These would be the girls rooms.  That left us 2 more bedrooms upstairs and one would be a guest room.  We did think of turning the room closest to the girls rooms and the bathrooms into the guest room - for about 2 seconds.  If we had done that the playroom would have been on the other end of the house, down the hall and through the family room, from their bedrooms instead of right next door.  It just made more sense to give them their own wing of the house (I use the term wing loosely - it's a hallway that is all theirs).  Plus, the room at the end of the hall is a bit oddly shaped.  It happens to be the largest bedroom upstairs but with the way it is configured, and all the doors, it was impossible to get either of the girls bedroom furniture in here.  

The before pictures...
This room is L shaped (the room goes to the right also and ends in a sliding glass door onto a  balcony)

A view from standing in front of the french doors.  (They left us a lot of cleaning for the maestro)

First, the room was cleaned (and not by me this time!).  The nail holes were covered and I had the maestro remove the closet doors as we wouldn't be needing them.  I also had him paint the room, as he was already painting the rest of the house, and I just didn't have the time feel like it.  I asked MadHatter what color she wanted to paint the room but there was no way I was going to paint the room a deep purple.  We compromised on a bright yellow.  I convinced her that it would feel like the sun was shining on her every time she walked into her playroom.  Secretly, I just wanted something that didn't clash with the majority of her toys.

Room clean, painted and closet doors removed.

About 2 days before the packers came to move us, I started moving the girls toys out of the house.  I got about 85% of their stuff out of their rooms, my living room, the linen closet, the storage closet, the kitchen and the back yard (and no, I am not kidding about any of the locations of their toys) before they noticed that there was almost nothing left to play with.  I wanted to do it early, and without things being boxed up, because I needed to know what they had and where things were going to go (and I wanted to donate the things they no longer used without them noticing as I had already made them clean out toys of their own choosing.  Now it was of my choosing.  Sneaky, huh?).  I brought things over as they were needed and immediately set them in their new home.  It was a seamless process and am so lucky to have been able to avoid the mess.  I always hate when you open a box, don't know where a single thing in it goes, so you push the box aside and try another.  I end up with a lot of open boxes and nothing put away.

Two weeks in and I am almost completely finished.  The only thing left to do is hang the picture frames that hold the chalk board and white board. (Secret - I bought the largest picture frames I could find.  I removed the glass and kept the backing board which I painted with the chalkboard/whiteboard paint.  I then put the backing in without the glass and will  hang the picture frames.  I also painted the frames white since all the other furniture in the room is white but that is optional).  I know they have a creative room, but I wanted them to have a place to draw in here too.  MadHatter likes to play teacher and this way she can set up her school at the desk and teach her animals.  Other than that, I think it is complete.

I am in love with the fact that toys are not allowed to leave this room.  I love the fact that the girls no longer  go into their rooms separately to play.  There is no fighting over what is whose since it is all in one room (somehow if a toy got in one girls room, it became theirs).  They cannot watch the TV and play at the same time so there is a lot less TV time in our house.  In fact, unless it is right before Stinkerbell goes for a nap or right before bed, the TV is usually off.  They are just bored sitting and staring so they get up and move to one of their fun rooms.  I love that.  And they are playing with toys that they forgot they even had. Because now they are all located in the same place, all the time.  There is a bin, box, shelf or hanger for everything and I make sure they know what that place is.   It has worked like a charm so far, but I know it is still a novelty to them.  Check in with me in 6 months and I'll let you know how it's working.

I am enchanted by this room and truly wish I had one like this growing up.  I am so fortunate to be able to create a space like this for my girls.  

And there is one of the positive sides to this move that I so dreaded.

The reading nook and play table space.

This turns into MadHatter's school room (or tea party area).  There are also a lot of puzzles done here.
(You can see the two frames pre-paint/glass removal.  They will be up tomorrow)

Books, books and more books.

The dress up portion of the closet.  MadHatter LOVES the full length mirror.
She could play dress up for hours - and does.

The full closet.  I removed the doors and put in curtains to make it easier on them (and me).  I strategically placed anything they are not allowed to play with without supervision on high shelves.  Everything they can reach is fair game.

Stinkerbell's space.  This contains mostly her age group of toys,
but MadHatter strays here occasionally.

Hey Ken, how do you like our new hang out???
(Over the door shoe organizer.  Great for Barbies)