I think we can all agree that 2020 was a rough year, but it also solidified my belief in the importance of creating a home you love! Having fun and comfortable spaces where you can just relax and enjoy family time is one of the greatest gifts!
All of the extra time at home this past year also shined a light on the spaces in our house that aren’t working as well for us as they could be – especially the kids’ play area in our basement, and Beckett’s former bedroom. Both of these areas were designed to suit our family when our boys were younger, but since they insist on growing up so darn fast (they are now 9 and 7), it was time that their play spaces catch up with them.
During the week leading up to Christmas, Scott and I did a very quick refresh of Beckett’s old bedroom to turn it into a playroom / hangout space for both boys. We revealed the new space to them on Christmas day to rave reviews, but I still have a few more little projects left to finish up before I can call the space officially complete.
I’m excited to be joining seven of my very talented design blogger friends for the New Year New Room Refresh Challenge. Over the next three weeks, I’ll share with you the details of our playroom refresh, starting today with the before photos, an overview of what wasn’t working, and the plans we came up with to update the space. Use the links below to see the plans each of these other bloggers have come up with to refresh their rooms as well!
Casa Watkins Living // Up To Date Interiors // House by Hoff // Our Fifth House // Jeweled Interiors // Blue I Style // Domicile 37 // PMQ for TWO // Delineate your Dwelling
The Before Photos
Back in 2014, baby #2 (Cooper) had recently entered our lives and needed the nursery, so I designed a menswear themed toddler room for Beckett, who was just 2.5 at the time. Painting the argyle wall in this room was a true labor of love, and it remains my proudest DIY accomplishment.
This was Beckett’s bedroom for three years, until he and Cooper began begging for bunkbeds and to share a room. In 2014, we converted the nursery into a shared boys’ bunkbed bedroom with lots of color, and personality.
Meanwhile, down in the basement, we have a shared family room and playroom space. One end of the basement has our couch and tv, and at the opposite end, we have a small play table and a variety of toy storage furniture.
What Was Working and What Wasn’t
When Beckett moved out of his menswear themed bedroom, it stayed exactly as it had been – toddler bed and all. Since it still had a wall of bookshelves with bins for toy storage and a low round table in the middle of the room, the kids still spent a lot of time playing in this space.
Both of our boys LOVE to read, and at one time, those adorable button tufted chairs were the perfect size for them {would you believe they are actually intended as pet loungers?}. The boys have recently outgrown these low chairs, so they were just taking up precious space in the room. The toddler bed, with the rails around the back, also didn’t provide comfortable seating for the kids. Not to mention that there was no where Scott or I to sit when spending time in here with the boys.
Down in the basement, we’ve been using these two bookshelves {one upright and one laid on its side} to store a lot of the kids’ toys. The large openings in the bookshelf were perfect for story bulky toddler toys, and more recently they’ve provided great space for the boys’ oversized Playmobil sets {which aren’t waning in popularity}.
While the boys still spend a lot of time playing with toys, they also now love games and this little table just isn’t cutting it anymore for our family game nights. Not only are Scott and I not comfortable sitting on these little chairs, the table top is too small for a lot of our board games.
We have big plans to add banquette seating and a larger game table to this corner of the basement, and to replace the bookshelves with a new storage solution… but that’s a post for another day.
Bedroom to Playroom Refresh Plans
Our long-term basement plans will provide us with the perfect space for family game nights, but it will also take away some of the existing toy storage and open floor space for play. With all that in mind, we decided it was time to update Beckett’s old toddler room to make it true playroom / hang out room that will grow with the boys.
We didn’t have a big budget for this refresh, and we still loved the menswear elements of the room, so we came up with a plan to updated the space with just a few minor changes…
Update the Seating
First on the list was updating the seating… both the toddler bed and small chairs had to go because the boys had outgrown them. But they still love the DIY play tent in the corner of the room {and it has tons of sentimental value with the ties on the top coming from all the men in our family}, so I started shopping for a small couch that would fit between the tent and the door.
Add Functional Storage
The bookshelves along the far wall of the room stay because they provide tons of the storage for both books and toys, and fit perfectly under the windows. But the dresser wasn’t living up to its potential. I still LOVE the leather belt drawer pulls that we DIY’d, but the drawers were largely empty and weren’t ideal for toys storage.
Meanwhile, we have a great cabinet down in the basement that holds lots of toys – but that we need to move to make room for the new game table banquette we have planned. So we planned to relocate the dresser to my parent’s cabin, and then move the basement toy cabinet up the new playroom.
There you have it – a pretty simple plan, but one that will turn an outdated toddler room into a fabulous playroom, while also helping us turn the basement playroom into a space for the whole family!
Be sure to visit all of the other bloggers participating in the New Year New Room Refresh Challenge to see what they have planned, and then come back next week for an update.