Playroom Progress

I promise that my lack of house pictures isn’t because I’m going all James-Bond Pinterest-worthy & about to WHAM! POW! you through the computer with the awesomeness.  Quite the opposite, actually.  Turns out that unpacking a larger house with a toddler & a full-time job just isn’t that easy.  I’m down to one last box in the main area (don’t even mention the garage of the spare bedroom because those are a hot mess).  No sooner had I finally picked out paint colors for the hall & dining room than Harry got the sickness of the decade, aka pneumonia + hand, foot, mouth disease at the same time.

More on that later.

Without further ado, here is our “playroom,” aka the Family Room right off the kitchen that we designated for toys & general playfulness, mostly so we could be in the kitchen & keep an eye on Harry at the same time.  As I type, he’s recovering from the sicks on the couch & I can keep peek over & I can hear every whisper.  It’s awesome.

paint color:  Sherwin William’s Contented (6191)
couch & chair:  broyhill
ottomans:  zulily
television stand: ikea
toy bins:  baskets are from ikea, colored bins are target
lamps:  home goods
blue side table: hand-me-down, painted Behr’s LimeLight
black side table:  home goods

Spending that $60-ish bucks at Ikea for the Expedit console was the best thing we’ve done in forever.  It’s much better suited for the size of our television & creates the best toy storage without screaming HEY! I AM TOY STORAGE!  The only thing moderately better are the lamps from Home Goods, which look like glass & lighten up the space well, but they’re really acrylic.  Which is amazeballs with a rowdy three-year-old who has already knocked them over four times.

My favorite part of the room is this lovely corner where natural light spills in & I tend to curl up with a book.  I cannot bear to put up drapes in here just because the light is so yummy.

The pillow isn’t too shabby, either.  Snagged that at Target the day we put an offer on the new house, clearance at $6 or something stupid.

Our coat closet is located in this room, which I thought was absolutely ridiculous because that means taking off your coat at the door & walking into this room to hang it.  Really inconvenient for lazy people like me, so we added a shelving system for toys.  It has worked beautifully – I keep the toys that I don’t want Harry to have immediate access to (like art supplies) where he cannot reach & keep everything else low.  He still uses his riding toys, so he can “park” them on the bottom where we can’t trip over them.

 I’m struggling with the mantle big-time.  What you see here (other than the Halloween decorations I tossed up for Hibby’s enjoyment) is what I placed on moving day to get pictures out of the way so they wouldn’t be broken.  True story.  I don’t know whether I should go with a mirror or a piece of art, or maybe move the gallery over the mantle & put a big piece of art over the couch.  I’m quite honestly at a loss & would love any ideas you might have.

So there’s the progress.  Plans for the future include:

• hardwood floors
• resurfacing the fireplace
• installing gas logs
• replacing the ceiling fan (the one up doesn’t even work now) 

More to come as boxes unpack!