5 things I have done to create a play room

I am finally finished moving around my kiddos beds and toys to make our space more practical for our needs – well, our kids needs at this time in our lives. I have been working on creating a play room for our kids!

Our house is fairly small and has some impractical and not very livable spaces. We have tried to be creative.  We cut a hole in the kitchen wall and made a bedroom a dining room.  We converted out attic into a master bedroom. As a resulted we converted enclosed, but not insulated porch into well, an attic…. We are still working on that one! We are currently on the FOURTH location on our master bedroom (and hopefully our last).  These creative configurations have not always been so practical.  For example, we had Connor and Amelia sleeping on different floors on the opposite sides of the house.  It worked for a while, but over the summer, Connor became more and more vocal about wanting to sleep upstairs with the rest of us.

Interestingly enough – Connor has rarely come up to our room once we moved him into his own room when he was about six months old.  On a rare occasion, like Christmas Eve or any other time he has learned that a mythical creature will come while he was sleeping and bring goodies.  But when we had a hot summer and we were running air conditioners upstairs, it made sense to have him upstairs either on our floor or Amelia’s where he could be cool – and I could hear him.  I was worried that with the loud a/c in our room that I wouldn’t be able to hear him downstairs.

Anyway…….. the point of this post!  We moved Connor’s whole gosh darn bed upstairs in Amelia’s room and have created a play room in his space.  We are still very clear – each kiddo has a room, but Amelia’s room is for sleeping and Connor’s room is for playing.

ONE: I spent a lot of time getting rid of some toys, organizing other toys and rearranging the furniture! I have been donating a lot of toys to the preschool that Connor goes to or sharing them with the sitter.  But I am also at that point where I realize it is okay to throw out some of the junk.  I also have bought a whole bunch of clear plastic totes and bright colored dish pans to put the “like” toys together.

TWO: I pulled in a bookshelf that was mostly holding shoes, diapers and other random junk into his room, shifted his existing bookshelf around and made a little reading nook! The alphabet was already there and I pulled in his small area rug along with some soft couch cushions.

Reading nook

THREE:I moved around his “train table” and have started playing around with some different ways to use that table.  While he was OBSESSED with trains when he was two, he has moved onto a few other things.  And that table tends to get piled with everything off the floor when “someone” is picking up around the house. Last week it was a dinosaur table!

Dinosaur Table

FOUR: We had just shoved his old bed frame up against the wall at first, but since we moved it upstairs I am working on an art area. I still need to put up some shelves to help make all their arts supplies accessible, but still out of reach for a certain baby girl who still things crayons are more fun to eat that color with!

Before (with the large bed frame)

After: art area!

 

FIVE: Last, but not least, I pulled out some of the flowers from different birthday parties and events and brightened up the windows!

Next week: the many versions of our train table!