When I started this update two weeks ago it was on a long weekend… little did I know just how LONG that weekend would end up being as we entered into a shelter-in-place situation.
Playrooms can be very overwhelming. I get anxiety around holidays and birthdays because I’m unsure what the kids are going to be getting and if I’ll have a spot for it lol! Fortunately our family knows this about me and often ask what they might need/want and if they don’t they have great taste and I haven’t had to make too many adjustments. Thanks fam!
If you’ve seen other elements of my home you’ll know that I lean towards a minimal, shaker/scandinavian aesthetic with lots of neutral colors. Just because this is a room for kids doesn’t mean I treated it any differently. There are definitely nods to whimsy and playful moments I still wanted it to feel like it flows with the rest of the house. I love simple wood toys and things that will stand the test of time while mixing in some of that good ol’ nostalgia of the plastic toys we all grew up with. Archer has been obsessed with batman for three years and that stuff only comes in plastic!
A little backstory… This room is in the middle of the main level of our home, directly off the dining room. It was originally a guest bedroom with a queen bed but as Archer got older and we needed more room for his toys we decided to switch to a twin size bed with trundle. It lived on the right side of the room where the tent and desk are now. (Sorry I didn’t snap before pics on this!) It was functional but with two children, an expanding toy collection and need for more usable space we decided to get rid of the bed. We have overnight guests about 1-2wks out of the year. My solution, so as not to be putting them on a blow up mattress, was to store the trundle and mattress in the closet so we could easily pull them out when we need them.
The room was already painted this color so I left it as is but am considering bringing the white from the ceiling down to the picture molding… too much to take on at the moment. Fortunately I’ve used this color upstair as well and had it in a gloss so I painted the peg rail and shelf in the glass version. I chose not to paint it white like the other molding because there were already so many other thick white molding elements and I didn’t want to break up the room so much. I kept the pegs natural to tie into all of the other natural wood toys in the room and the natural pegs in the dining room.
BENCH: The bench was made from this shelving unit from IKEA. Before this I had it behind the door but thought it would be better used as a window bench and book storage. I cut it down by removing one of the box areas so that it would fit under the window and added simple 2x2 feet. I chose cafe curtains because I didn’t want to lose space by doing traditional curtains that went all the way to the floor on either side of the bench and because I think its a really cute detail in a play room. These are from Target.
SHEEPSKINS: I already had the sheepskins and bird pillow. The gingham lumbar pillows came in a set of 2.
TENT: The tent was super easy to put up and the kids love to cuddle up in it together. I ended up using a canvas drop cloth I had to layer up as a mat for them because floor pillows are expensive! However, I did find that by looking for dog beds it cut the cost in half! I am still considering getting them this one
RUG: If you have kids or are simple afraid of having a rug in a high traffic area or somewhere it could get dirty like a dining room them I highly recommend you use an outdoor rug in that space. If something spills its no big deal since you can literally hose it off! Target has some really great designs right now. You can find the one I used here.
I intentionally kept the larger/heavier things on the inside walls so that they aren’t the first thing you see when you walk in. These shelves can get pretty messy and visually overwhelming and it is nice to tuck the clutter back in the corner. You can see from the photo that we added a second box shelving unit on top of the one we had to get twice as much storage on that wall. You can buy the same size unit without having to double up here. The Kidcraft kitchen was a gift from Grandma and Papa last Christmas and all of the food and accessories are from Melissa & Doug except for the pans from Ikea.
I was so excited when I recently found the little vintage picnic basket with the matching lining for the kitchen! Iris loves to put her ice cream cones in it and carry it around :)
Other vintage items are displayed on top or the large shelving. Both of the globes were found at Goodwill and the chair we borrowed from Grandma’s schoolhouse. Baskets are a must for all the stuff you don’t want to see. I also have this shelving unit behind the door for all of Archer’s legos and building materials. I like to breakdown the lego boxes and ziplock all of the pieces and the instructions into their own bags to keep them together. We will see how long that lasts lol!
DIY PAPER ROLL HOLDER
With some leftover materials I created a way to mount the paper roll over their desk. I used cutoff from the peg rail for the flat pieces, old dirty 2x2’s I sanded clean and used the same paddle bit I used for the pegs to drill holes for the pipe I had in the basement. Archer helped me :)
Its important for me in my home and every design I do to mix modern and vintage elements. I love the way the vintage kids chairs look with the simple modern desk and how the original artwork makes the room feel curated. I originally had the lamp on the table and ended up taking it apart and adding a different shade in order to hang it from the peg above the desk.
PEGRAIL WITH SHELF
If you like to change things up a lot like me then installing a peg rail with shelf is a great way to go! It only cost me $27! I knew that I wanted to find a way to bring more storage and display potential to the room and am still in love with the peg rail I did in my dining room so I decided to install a similar one in their room across two walls and add a shelf above it. I went with basic 1x4s from home depot and these pegs that come in a pack of 25. The installation is ridiculously easy. I like mine to be just over head height around 70”. Installed the flat board first then screwed the shelf on top of that and used a paddle bit to make the holes for the tenons of the pegs. I have also seen people install the pegs before putting the rail up so that they can add a screw from the back but I knew that I wasn’t going to be hanging anything super heavy of of them so I opted for a snug fit with some wood glue and let them dry overnight before hanging anything from them. In the dining room I used these pegs that screw in and they worked out great but are twice as expensive.
How is your playroom looking/functioning? Are there things you think you could try differently in there? I’d love to hear your comments and questions below!