The Playroom Makeover, FINALLY!

Just to refresh your memory, here are the most recent pictures of our playroom area.  There are two nice size closets in this room and in between the closets there is a built in desk.  The room has carpeting which our dog thinks is also her potty area, pleasant I know.  For some reason I only have a few pictures of this room, I either didn't take anymore or the rest are hiding because even they are embarrassed of the state this room was in.

 

We are hoping to tear down the wall between the kitchen and the playroom next summer but we'll see if I can bear to tear down the cloffice and the now fun and functional playroom.  Our goals for this makeover are to get rid of the carpeting and replace it with flooring that dog pee doesn't ruin, organize the games and toys so that the kids can find them and might actually want to play with them, make it kid friendly, bright and fun all while not spending a lot of cash.  I think we did a decent job in accomplishing our goals.  We used black and white alternating peel and stick tiles because they were cheap, fairly easy to install, if the dog pees on it we can always peel it up and replace it and it was a fun pattern for the playroom.   Two years ago we paid $1200 for carpeting in the playroom and the hallway.  For the tile we spent $135 for the playroom and the hallway. 

 I really wanted my kitchen floor painted like this but I was too chicken to do it.  I love it and so far it's held up really well.  It is cold on the feet but we bought a rug from Wal-mart for $20 to put in the middle of the floor so the bubs can sit somewhere and play cars without freezing his poor little piggies off.
I painted the closets a lime green color, installed shelving and organized their toys in bins.  You can read more about that in this post.  I painted the walls a fun Crayola Collection color called Shy Turquoise, it's kind of bright but I love it with the flooring.  One closet is for the bubs and the three girls all have the other closet. 

 

We did rip out the desk and for now I have my white dresser that used to be in the living room in here.  I have the crayons, coloring book, markers and various other art supplies in the two big drawers.  I like that the drawers aren't easy to open so the bubs can't be digging out the markers and coloring the walls, dolls and floors.  I don't have a window treatment up in this window yet and I don't  know if I will put one up. 

I really wanted a colorful map for the wall and found this one at a local store for $17.  The kids love having a map and they often use it when playing American Girls.  They will pick a state or city that they are going to travel to and then talk about staying overnight in a place along the way.  So fun and a great way for them to learn some geography too!

I was hoping to find a kid size table and chairs for the playroom but when one child is 10 years old and the baby is almost 2, it was hard to find something to fit everyone.  So we traveled to IKEA and ended up coming home with this table and chairs.  The little table and chairs were too little for the bigger kids and I figured everyone is only going to keep growing so we went with the big table and chairs.  I love that they can now use Play-Doh and it isn't stuck in my rug under the kitchen table, they can use markers on here, they play school, restaurant and we have also occasionally used it with company for eating on!  Best investment by far was this set for $100.   I hung the chalkboard I made right near the table so they could play school, the post on how I made the chalkboard is here.  I found that cute little bucket in the dollar section at Target, I thought it would be perfect for holding chalk and the eraser.   I stuck a Command hook on the wall and voila!

I fell in love with the rain gutter bookshelves a few months ago and was hoping to be able to add them to our room.  This past weekend we managed to buy the gutter for $1 but the brackets and end caps were $15 total.  At least the gutter part was cheap!  The bubs has been loving his books in the new bookshelves, he is so cute, he'll just pick out a book and sit and look at it.

I wanted a way to display the 20 million pieces of artwork we receive from our children each day.  I purchased the last three giant wooden clothespins at Hobby Lobby and have been on the lookout for a fourth one but they are sold out every time I go!  I was going to string them up but I thought they would look cute on a picture frame with some cute scrapping paper.  I think I might switch them out to bigger frames but for now it works.  I am also hoping to find giant letters that spell READ and put those above the bookshelves and move the artwork above the chalkboard.  Anyone have any big letters for me?

Finally, in November we decided to make a kitchen for our children, we found some furniture, a dog bowl, a board and various pieces of plumbing and came up with this.  Here is what it looked like originally:

I painted it white, added a cute little skirt made out of some fun material, a fun little rug and garbage can from the dollar section at Target and she looks so much better now! 

I also managed to find some fun striped curtains for this window at Target on clearance for only $7.50 each.  They were originally shower curtains but after folding over the top part of the shower curtain and some curtain clips from IKEA, you would never know they were shower curtains! 
I  also hung those three red mirrors for fun, another Target deal, only $1.24 each!  So there it is, the playroom makeover!  Here are a few before and afters of the playroom just in case you haven't had enough!

 

 

And just to keep it real, here is what it looked like a few days ago when I was painting chairs and my children were making forts on Spring Break:

They were doing what this room was made for, Playing in! 

Feel free to check out our Closet Turned Office or Cloffice and also Our Kitchen Remodel.
 Thanks for stopping by!


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