My vision for the kid's playroom all started with this picture...

I saw this in a Pottery Barn Kids catalog months ago and I loved the colors and the funky alphabet on the wall. I tried desperately to pull random objects to make letters like the ones in the picture but whenever I laid them out...I didn't like the final product. It was just too much clutter for my Type A personality. So...I decided to mix and match some different wooden letters and paint them different colors. The look is a lot more clean, but just as much fun. I LOVE how they turned out in the end...
Once again, I hired my incredibly talented Daddy-O to make me some custom shelves. I knew I wanted them the length of the wall, but since this room won't always be a playroom, I didn't want anything too permanent. So he made me two separate units that can be moved and used elsewhere. He did such a beautiful job, I almost hate having them in the playroom. Ha!
Choosing the colors for this room was easy. It needed to be gender neutral so you really can't go wrong with reds, blues and greens. Plus, my Land of Nod map (which I do plan to frame one day) made it easy to match just about everything else in the room...
I was working on a pretty small budget for this playroom so I did my best to utilize furniture and other odds and ends I had around the house. As you can see above, I decided to take the beautiful storage bench my dad made for our master bedroom (which wasn't being used for anything other than extra blankets) and use it as another storage piece in the playroom. It is the perfect height for the kids to stand at and it holds a TON of toys. Some day I will use it as a bench again, but for now...it works great for the space :-)
The playroom also has a nice closet with storage already built in. The only problem is that the doors to the closet are big and they swing pretty far out. The kids were having a hard time getting toys in and out of it so I decided to have Eric remove the doors. Now the kids can get to everything and I even had room to put Addie's playdesk in a corner for coloring.
Another magazine cut out idea I just HAD to replicate for the playroom was this tree...
I was going to have my dad cut the tree out of plywood, but I decide to get creative one night and painted it on the wall myself. For free hand...I think it turned out pretty well. Dana got me the wooden apples as an extra touch...
The empty space in front of the window in this picture is reserved for the train table that Santa is bringing. That is also why I had my mom make this cute little scallop window valance, as apposed to long panels. They would just get in the way of the table. Gosh...I just can't wait to fill all these little spots with the kid's Christmas toys. God knows there will be plenty :-)
And finally, I am a sucker for wall art. I HATE empty, bare walls. The problem is...wall art isn't cheap. Target has actually been offering some really great stuff at a reasonable price. But by the time I was done with paint, letters, storage bins, my map, etc...I was out of dough for this project. So I had to go cheap. I was able to score some DIRT cheap pieces of canvas from Hobby Lobby and I used these cute picture from PBK as inspiration...
I thought these pictures were cute, but a little too girly (and too expensive) for the playroom. So I did my best at replicating them. Please remember...I am NO artist. But I guess the whole point is to make them look like a child painted them so there you go...mission accomplished :-)
I made three different paintings so that I could hang this last one over the kid's growth charts. I thought it was a cute way to take up some wall space :-)
I am SO happy with how well the playroom turned out. The kids spend a ton of time playing in there and it's nice to have the majority of our toys in one place. It certainly helps me assess how much we have (and how much we don't need :-). I think I need to start a new playroom rule though. For every new toy we bring in, an old toy needs to go out. Plain and simple. Now if only I could follow this rule for my own closet. Ha!
Well there you have it...our new playroom!!! I can't believe it is finally done (aside from the chalkboard wall that will be another project for another day). I have to give a HUGE THANKS to my Mom and Dad for sharing their amazing talents, to Dana for letting me bounce ideas off of her and to Pottery Barn for being the inspiration for almost every room in my house :-) Man I love home projects!! I am officially out of rooms to decorate though so now I just need to sit back and enjoy :-) That is unless anyone wants to hire me out? Ha!