I am excited today to reveal to you our new playroom! To introduce the room to you I had a video made by the talented
Christopher Robert Koch.
I hope you like it!
Today I am revealing a room to you that has been such a labor of love for me. Originally we had planned on making our
basement into a t.v. room with a small play area for the kids. You may remember the
great sectional debate where we played with different sectionals to complete our ultimate t.v. room. Right after we finished the basement we had Jane and we didn't have a lot of extra money sitting around for decorating. We moved all of Jett's toys down to this room but for almost a whole year it looked like this:
A huge room filled with a whole bunch of random stuff. Jett actually had a lot of fun playing down here even though all of his toys were in pieces all over the floor. I started realizing how nice it was to have a space just for him. The realization was that Jett might need more than just a tiny corner of this room for his toys. Winters in Utah are ROUGH and this basement became my saving grace in keeping him entertained all winter long. I approached my husband with the idea of turning this entire room into a playroom. Although he was sad his "man cave" was getting taken over by kids I think ultimately he could see that this room would get used way more as a playroom than a t.v. room. The main issue we faced was that we couldn't afford to furnish the room the way we wanted. I dreamed of a fun area that was organized, colorful and imaginative. I decided to approach
Land of Nod to see if they would be willing to donate some items for the room and they agreed! I immediately got to work scheming of ways to turn this blank canvas into something exciting.
I want to thank
Lindsey Orton for taking all these beautiful pictures of the room.
Behold.... the playroom!
I painted the far wall with chalkboard paint and added one of my favorite dr. Suess quotes to the wall. To be honest I am not really going to encourage a lot of chalk writing on this wall by the kids. Since we have carpet I'm worried the chalk dust could become a nightmare. But I did leave a blank space behind the dress up mirror to let the kids draw if they want. When this happens there is a special towel I'm going to lay on the carpet.
This is our dress up corner. I LOVED playing dress up as a kid and I hope my kids inherited that same sense of imagination.
I decided a
Land of Nod coat rack would make an excellent place to store our dress up costumes. If you have bright and beautiful dress up items it's fun to display them and not just store them away in a box. Now these items have become part of the decor!
We have a small hallway in our basement that leads to my office and it also acts as a great place to hang our puppet theater! The fun thing about this theater is that you can take it with you easily for hours of fun wherever you go. It rolls right up and can be taken outside, to a friends house, grandparents house etc.
Our beanbags are one of our favorite things in this room. The kids love to jump all over them. They are super durable so I don't worry about rips or tears. They also make great comfy seats when we are reading books or just chillin for a bit.
When I was little I loved finding small places in my home to have some quite time. Usually I could be found in my closet with my books or dolls. I thought this teepee would be a fun little escape for our kids.
I added this garland to a plain white teepee to dress it up a bit. There are tons of tutorials on making your own
teepee online. All you need is a fun garland or bunting banner and you have your own custom teepee!
I am in love with these cloud corkboards. They come in the shape of clouds but they work just like corkboards. We use these as a place to display Jett's artwork and projects from preschool. If your kids love having their artwork displayed then these corkboards are perfect for you!
I really wanted a play table in the room as well for Jett and his friends to play at or do art projects at. I love the Ansel Teak play table because it's modern and doesn't feel too childish and mixed with some cute chairs it becomes a great focal point in this room.
Jett has so many random little cars and I love how this bin holds them all and also enables his cars to become a decorative accessory!
The kitchen appliances are, by far, the most used toys in the playroom. Jett loves whipping up tasty dishes for us all to try. The kitchen set is extremely sturdy and well made. I like that it's white and will work for boys or girls.
These bookshelves are amazing. The bottom open storage compartment is my favorite thing. It's so nice having a place to stick all the bulky and big toys that don't fit in bins.
I wanted color in this room but I wanted it mainly in accessories so these garlands are the perfect way to inject color into this mostly white space. I grouped them together so that each individual garland becomes part of a bigger decorative feature in the room.
I kept the accessories on the top shelf very minimal and clean.
I also wanted to make sure I had some great floor bins for the bigger groupings of toys like large cars, blocks, balls and stuffed animals. Jett is always playing with these items so I wanted them readily accessible.
This playroom started out as being a room just for our kids but it's definitely turned out to be our favorite room in the house to hang out in as a family. All four of us are constantly down here playing with the kids and all the fun new toys.
Even though the products were donated by
Land of Nod I would 100% endorse their products even if they weren't. They were amazing to work with. Their items came impeccably packaged with very detailed and easy instructions on how to assemble everything. The quality is fantastic, the toys are bright and beautiful and perfectly made for children. This company is one that I would recommend to anyone and everyone. A big thanks to them for making this playroom possible! And a huge thanks to everyone who participated in my
Good Design with Kids in Mind series!
If you are looking for more of an industrial look School Lockers also sells a variety of Metal and Steel Lockers. These are the exact lockers we had in my home growing up. They work well in a home but they also are extremely functional in a garage. My Dad still has these lined up on an entire wall filled with camping gear, boating items, lawn care essentials etc... 
The idea of having gym lockers would be cool in a dining/kitchen space or anywhere you need lots of extra storage! School Lockers has a great selection of Gym Lockers. It might even be fun to use these lockers as a type of library for your children. Each child can have their own row of lockers to store and "check out" their favorite books. The possibilities are endless! 
School Lockers' Kid's Lockers come in a variety of color which is a fun way to inject some creativity and life to a space. You could use them like I did in a closet or even use one of their smaller ones as a nightstand. Grouped together they can substitute for a dresser or on their own for a single storage solution. 
If you are lucky enough to have some sort of mudroom then the Kid's Coat Lockers would be perfect for you. Your kids will no longer have any excuse for throwing their coats and shoes on the floor. Each child would have enough space for their own belongings plus these cubbies allow for extra space for friends! If you have kids coming and going in and out of your house a lot this locker would be a dream! 
