First, here's the final product:
And here's the room when we first moved in, as a blank beige canvas (with an awkward Captain cameo):
Since this is one of two living rooms in the house and we knew we would use the other one as the TV room, I jumped at the chance to add lots of bookshelves to this room. It was one of the first things we did after moving in: we painted the room and then filled the car with IKEA bookshelves.
The bookshelves made a dramatic impact in the room, and this is what it looked like for the first year and a half:
Yup, that big Maine map was propped up against the couch in two of the pictures. Unfortunately I can't go back in time and retake the pictures (facepalm).
When we acquired my grandparents' dollhouse a year and a half ago, we shifted the furniture around in the room to accommodate it.
Clearly I am a professional blogger with professional photography skills. Since then, some side tables, a coffee table, and a whole lot of whiskey bottles have been added, but other than that this is pretty much how the room has looked. It was a really nice room and everyone always commented on how it was their favorite - mine too! - but we never ever used it. We pictured lots of family time in there in the future, but for now it was pretty much wasted space.
Meanwhile, all of Charlotte's toys and stuff was in the (much smaller) family room. It was okay at first, but her birthday and Christmas happened and the toy inventory grew, and I started to lose my mind a little. We moved the coffee table into the library to open up more floor space, and we even tried moving the toys to the back corner of the room.
But in the end, we had a major light bulb go off around New Year's when we realized that maybe it was time to utilize this huge, nonused room for her toys instead. Once we decided how to shift the furniture around and moved the dollhouse to the nursery, it wasn't too much of a leap to make the playroom come together. A couple toy storage units from IKEA later, this is Charlotte's finished-for-now playroom!
We ended up splitting the room into two unequal halves: the playroom side and the library side, using the couch and the toy storage as the room dividers. It was a gamble, positioning the couch facing away from the playroom, but so far it's worked well. I can sit on the couch and still see her well enough while she's playing, although not as well as if it was facing her obviously.
Here are some closer shots of the playroom side:
We decided to go with IKEA's TROFAST storage system. I was really attracted to the plastic bins rather than cloth ones, and I also loved the look of them. After I organized all of Charlotte's toys, I labeled the bins with washi tape and a sharpie because I knew that if I spent a lot of money on fancy sticker labels, she would tear them off and I'd get upset. Turns out that was a good call, because I think only one or two washi tape labels still survive. But it's also okay because very few toys are in their original bins, anyway. ;)
We also got this tent from IKEA, and it was one of Charlotte's Christmas presents. We stuck some throw pillows and blankets inside, and she's taken a while to warm up to it but every once in a while she does crawl in and play for a while. I'm hoping over time, as she gets a little older, she will enjoy it more.
By far the coolest thing in the room: this activity board my parents built for Charlotte for Christmas. He took a cheap, plastic-filled Pinterest idea and turned it into this amazing piece of art that she absolutely loves. She plays with it constantly, and when she sees bouncy doorstoppers at other people's houses she sits and plays with them every time. It's so cool to see her figure out all the knobs, wheels, doors, and locks.
The fireplace hearth is a nice little natural bench for mommies to sit on while babies play, so I threw a couple cheap seat cushions on there. We have since added a white rubber corner guard all the way around the hearth (and the family room hearth), so have no fear.
The blanket hanging on the wall above the activity board is from Modern Burlap, and it's simply hung on the wall with tacks. They offer several scripture blankets and I couldn't decide which one I wanted, so I handed the phone to JT and he picked this one. We love having it hang in the playroom and in such a central part of the house, and we think it adds such a fun element to the room.
The giraffe pillow pet was one of Charlotte's birthday presents for us and is one of her favorite things she owns; I thought it was a cute little play on an animal rug in here. The sheepskin rug is from, you guessed it, IKEA. It was kind of an unexpected investment but it's the coolest little rug ever.
The other half of the room is simple but comfortable as a little adult retreat. I've used it countless times while Charlotte naps or after she goes to bed to read and to write, surrounded by my beautiful bookshelves and removed from everything in this private little pocket of the house.
We love how this room has turned out, and we can't wait to see how it will grow and evolve as Charlotte's needs grow and evolve. I'm already plotting the next addition of a kids table and art station...
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