Thursday, July 21, 2011

Playroom: Before and After

I am finally done with the playroom. There have been a few outstanding projects in that room for a while now and I am so glad to have them done. I love how it turned out...just exactly what I wanted....a fun, colorful room that can be changed to suit our family's needs as the boys grow.

So, here is a shot of the final product:
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And here is what it looked like before we moved in (this is how the room looked when the previous owners of this house lived here):

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And this is what the room looked like after we moved in but before we did anything other than move in our furniture and toys. Well, I did add those Ikea Expedit shelves, which I wrote about in another post:

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And the new room, again. Right now this room is perfect for our boys and for a workout room. I know all the furniture and stuff is pushed up against the walls, which is normally a no-no, but in a playroom (and even a workout room), floor space is valuable real estate. So, it works.

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We did not buy any new furniture for this room, but I did recover the couch in a navy slip cover from Sure Fit. Casey loves it because it is so soft. I love it because it is a great color, I can wash it, and I am not committed to a navy couch forever. (PS - those pillows are all outdoor pillows. The blue ones are from Target and the red striped ones are from Ross. And they were each a steal.)

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That alphabet wall was such a fun project. I did not come up with this idea on my own...I was inspired by the alphabet walls on these two blogs: Ohdeedoh and A Time for Everything. When I saw those, I knew I had to have something similar in our playroom. Ethan loves letters and when he saw this up on the wall, he was so excited.

And the alphabet wall, along with the other wall art I had in mind, really influenced my decision to go neutral with the wall color. Normally, I think a playroom is a great place to use some playful color on the walls...what do you have to lose? But, I knew I wanted to have a lot of color in my wall art, so I gave it a neutral back drop. Also, as I said before, I really wanted this room to grow and change as our needs for it change. And a neutral wall color makes that really easy.

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You can see in the photo above, the curtain wire and clip hardware (from Ikea) that I am using to hang Ethan's (and later, Logan's) art projects. Ethan loves seeing his stuff up there and I really think it brings in a lot of color and texture to the walls. An obvious benefit is that I can very easily change out the art pieces. Plus, a long display like that really fills in that space above the two shelving units on that wall.

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In that corner behind the leather chair is the bin with dress up clothes (yes, boys like to dress up too!) and a mirror. I did not anticipate just how great the mirror would be until I saw Ethan checking out his costumes in it. The magnetic white board is fun for letters and numbers as well as all those magnetic toys you normally put on your refrigerator. (Especially since I don't like things on the front of my refrigerator!)

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I put the play kitchen next to the table because Ethan likes to "fix" dinner and set out food on the table. The window treatments are actually fixed roman shades that I made by loosely following a tutorial by Centsational Girl. It was not a hard or expensive project by any means, but I totally would have bought pre-made treatments if I could have found anything I wanted. But, I really love that apple green color so I guess it worked out.

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That wall between the TV and the treadmill was perfect for a trio of photos. They are 16x20 gallery wrap canvases and I love them so much.

I thought about hanging the TV on that wall instead of doing the canvases, but ultimately, I knew we wanted to be able to see the TV from the treadmill and the couch. In the before photos you can see our big box TV that we sold. There were a couple of reasons behind that decision (and neither of them relating to picture quality, although the upgrade is nice)... 1) I didn't want the TV to fall on the boys while they were playing. That thing was super heavy. And 2) Being able to mount the TV on the wall really cleared up some valuable floor space.

The closet over there holds so many random things right now...our home server, bins of the boys' clothes, board games, boxes that I save to wrap gifts, more workout equipment, etc. I'm just glad that is all behind the doors. That's what closets are for.

This space is so useful for our family and I love going up there with the boys. (I don't particularly love going up there to work out, but I am thankful that I have a place at home to do that.) I love the room even more now that it looks more fun and colorful (and put together) than it did before.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Cute! Where did you find all the differently shaped letters?

Christina said...

Rachel, I love this room! The alphabet letters are my favorite, along with Ethan's artwork. I, too, want to know where the letters came from...did you make some of them?

Christina said...

It looks absolutely perfect! I'm in love with the alphabet wall and gallery wraps (of course). You did a great job! Also, I've thought of how to display Ashton's art and may have to "borrow" yet another idea from you with the clip on art. Love it!

Anonymous said...

You are a decorating genius! I love all the things you have incorporated into this room! Including but not limited to: 1) Alphabet Wall 2)Ethan's art display 3)Accessible (but not on your refrigerator) magnetic board 4)Awesome photos of your kids...

Lindsay said...

And we did not even play in this new awesome room. :) I would have loved to have seen it in person. Ok - must reschedule soon. :) Had a great time. The boys did awesome.

Mary said...

I love how the apple green shades turned out! Do they lower? I like that they add some color to the top of the windows! Very cool! :) Can't wait to finish our room too!!!

Unknown said...

What a great room! And I love, love, love how your alphabet wall turned out! :)

Wooden Wall Letters said...

Those turned out great. It really adds a lot to room.

I was looking at this wooden letter set on amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Unfinished-Wooden-Alphabet-Letter-Set/dp/B00B0ZWAK2