Playroom Loft Update

This is what our playroom area looked like for the majority of the last few years:

Ok well, actually it looked more like this…

Yeah.

Anyway…

Not a whole lot on the walls, and not that much storage for toys which always seem to be multiplying. 

The couch belonged to my sister, and she took it to her new house (she didn’t have room for it before in their old house).  It is a family heirloom, so the longer in my house it stayed the more worried I got about Sam destroying it.  I already had to scrub pen mark artwork off the back once.)  Once it was gone, it left a lot of raw space to work with, so I decided to redo the entire space!

So now it looks like this:

We moved the toy bin unit to Luke’s room to hold his dinosaurs and a few other toys that were just his.  I got rid of the other two tables and then bought two 2x4 Expedit units from IKEA.  We added legs to the bottom of each of the shelves to add some height and character to the shelves. 

Then the hard part…finding bins for the toys.  You would think that with the popularity of these shelves and people’s ever-growing need for storage and organization there would be tons of options.  Not so.  I didn’t like any of the IKEA options except for the basket-type, but they were kind of pricey at $14.99 each.  That was basically my probably through-out the whole search.  The baskets I liked that were the right size, were either not the right color, or too expensive.  Other baskets that were good prices were usually too small.  I eventually found these bins at WalMart.com, but I really wanted red ones.  After thinking about the design of the room some more I decided to pull in more black, so I went with the black bins.  Turned out to work really well in the space!  I did bite the bullet and spend more than I wanted at 12.97 each, but in the end the bins are huge and hold a ton of toys.  I think they will hold up to the kids wear and tear, too. 

I had Scott install the curtain rod, and I used these curtains that used to hang in my kitchen once upon a time.

Nothing fancy, but the colors worked well in the space and it blocks out light when I want it darker up there. 

Then I made custom 20x30 posters to fit IKEA frames.  

These by themselves were quite the project.  I made them all myself in Photoshop, but getting them to fit in those weirdly sized Ikea Frames from prints that weren’t the same dimensions was a bit more math and measuring than I care to do.  They turned out great, though and I love them! 

Now I just have to refinish or paint the little kids table and find some chairs that I like to go with it.  I think Sam will love having a little table to sit at and color and play.  I also need labels on the bins so that Luke has an easier time putting toys away on his own. 

So what do you think of my new space?