Directly opposite our front door is my daughter’s playroom. I think originally it was a separate sitting room… more like a casual family space. It would be a perfect office and probably will be someday. For now, it’s more of an activity space for playing games and doing art projects.
This project began at the beginning of the summer with a HUGE purge. Sweet Girl was motivated to update it into a “big girl” space and so, uncharacteristically, she was willing to part with many of her things that she doesn’t play with anymore. There were many trips to Goodwill.
The “old” playroom had an IKEA couch that folded out into a bed. It took up a lot of room and was also super heavy, so I was happy to donate it to a family that needed a couch. That new space really opened up the room.
Another bonus is that we took out the little pocket door that connected this room to the guest bathroom. When we were looking into wallpapering that bathroom (next post!), I realized that we were losing about 1/2 the wall space to this silly door we didn’t need. On the playroom side, I’d painted it with chalkboard paint, so we ultimately created something similar on the drywall.
The large set of shelves and drawers (IKEA) we kept because it really is excellent storage. What we added was a desktop and set of drawers, also from IKEA.
This is a new create space for SG and she loves it. She spent hours organizing her drawers! In fact, when I was putting them together, she was beyond excited and it was great motivation for me to keep going (especially since I’d already built two other drawer units for the craft room). We got two chairs from IKEA so she could do projects with friends (or her momma).
You’ll notice we put in a TV. The idea here was that it’ll be a fun hang-out space for when friends come over and as she gets older to watch movies, etc. Right now she isn’t using it much. The tv came from the master bedroom… I was against having a tv in the bedroom, but we put one there about a year ago. We never turned it on! So no big deal to move it to a different room.
The little cubbies (originally from my craft room) were stacked in the hallway one day because I was thinking of donating them to Goodwill. SG immediately knew she could use them. Originally she had them under and on top of her desk, but that was very crowded, so I put them behind her.
The final touch was to put a display area for her artwork. When we put up the row of shelves, she was doing a few weeks of summer art camp, bringing home all kinds of 3D creations. This worked out perfectly. The wire and clips are handy too. So far we haven’t run out of room because we are ready to part with something old when something new comes in the house.
The great thing about this transformation is that it cost very little and made a big change in how the room feels.
What do you think?
What fun for you and your daughter, Naomi! Thanks so much for sharing with such vivid pictures. It is amazing how much we can gain from letting go a bit, isn’t it? So glad to hear your daughter is treasuring her new space.