Kids' Play Room Makeover

Our new kids' play room is finished! It's a big step in readying our home for Baby #2's arrival which goes something like this:

#1 Disassemble home office, sell hardly-used desktop computer, remove furniture DONE

#2 Move play room (currently upstairs) to downstairs' old office space DONE

#3 Decorate Baby Boy's nursery (formerly upstairs play room)

#4 Move crib and changing table from Tory's room to Baby's nursery; replace with new "big girl" bedroom set

Sixty days remaining on the baby time clock. No sweat, right?

BEFORE

Old Office

AFTER

New play room

(Pardon the iPhone photos ... I didn't want to trouble Andi to take wide-angle photographs with his good camera.)

Andi's mom and dad volunteered to paint Baby Aden's nursery one weekend while we were at the cabin and it was just the kick in the pants I needed to get started. The first step in the play room remodel required moving Tory's toys to the basement, which then meant we'd actually have to start playing in the basement. Truthfully, that's been half my hesitation. I know that's where our new play room is located so we'll have to play down there eventually but our basement is cold and it's a basement and I don't wanna....

The other part of my hesitation in starting this whole process is that once the play room is moved and the nursery is finished, Baby Boy's impending arrival is REAL. I can't wait for him to arrive - to meet him and smooch his little cheeks - and yet, I'm really nervous about the ways our lives will turn upside down when he does. By not having a nursery, it's almost like having a second baby is this wonderful fantasy and we can go on living our lives just as they are while we "plan" for him to join us. Completing the nursery means there will actually be a real baby who uses it. Hold me!

Also, also? I am not looking forward to moving Tory into a new "big girl" bed. Sleep transitions are scary times and her move to a big girl bed at the cabin has not gone well. 

Nursery painting day was this past Saturday which meant everything had to be moved out of the old (upstairs) play room and Baby's future nursery needed to be taped and ready for my in-laws. I'd rather have a root canal than have toys scattered all over my house with no assigned "home," so the painting date gave me the oomph to finish the kids' new play room last week.

Andi painted the old office space (which is now the new play room) when we moved into this house two years ago, so the walls were still in good shape. Three of the walls are a light gray color (Ashen Gray) and one wall is a darker color (Urbanite). I wanted the play room to be colorful and cheery, but I also dreaded the idea of painting over the dark wall. So, I decided to buy a large IKEA EXPEDIT shelving unit in white to contrast against the dark wall. We'd need toy storage anyway, so I thought this would be the cheapest / easiest way to kill two birds with one stone while avoiding painting the room all together. I used colorful storage bins I already had to fill cubbies within the shelves.   

I purchased this wooden See You Later Alligator sign to tie the bright, cheery colors together. I love how the sayings give the room a fun, playful vibe.

My lovely husband arranged to have the IKEA EXPEDIT bookshelf delivered and since he asked me for a list of "anything else I needed," I decided to throw a bunch of other stuff for the play room onto my list. So, I also got this artist's easel, a white kid's table with bright-colored chairs, and these wall hooks to hang backpacks and bags. (The colorful kids chairs weren't in at time of purchase, so I need to go back to IKEA to pick those up).

Lastly, I wanted a gallery for the kids' artwork, so I bought these frames on sale to make a wall collage. I selected various colors of frames to match the "see ya later alligator" print and the storage cubes in the room. My big idea was to glue clothespins to the tops of each frame so I could easily add/remove artwork from the frames, but for some reason no glue on Earth will stick to the frames I purchased. For now, I put pieces of scrapbook paper in the frames to give them color. I'm planning to take the glass out and fill the frames with cork board so I can just tack up artwork as needed.

Since there's a window in the room (which is lucky since we're in the basement!), I also added yarn above the window to hang pictures or artwork as well.

Shout out to my husband who put the bookshelf together and hung the frames, hooks and wall art for me without one complaint. I excel at dreaming up ideas for room makeovers, but I definitely couldn't have pulled the play room together without his help.

... and, that's it! This was a fairly simple room makeover since no painting was required. It's the addition of small details like the frames and storage cubes which really pulled the color scheme together. In all, we spent around $250 for the IKEA shelving unit, wall art, kid's play table, easel, picture frames and wall hooks (the shelving unit and wall art being the two big ticket items).

I'm happy to report, Tory and I have played in the new play room a few times and it hasn't been that bad being in the basement. I "suited up" in a hoodie and Tory insisted on wearing her fleece jacket (which was overkill because it's not that cold downstairs but whatever, kiddo). It was nice to spread out into the downstairs living room space to play and I forgot how comfy our sofa is down there. Plus, there's a TV and a fireplace so that'll come in handy this winter. On top of all that, I'm close to the laundry room so maybe my "Mom Productivity" will be off the charts now that I can play and knock at chores at the same time.

New play room = complete. Now, onto the baby's nursery!