Room Reveal: Our New "Big Kid" Playroom!

Last post, when I showed you my new home office, I promised to show off another of our three new rooms... our Big Kid Playroom!

This room underwent quite a transformation. It used to be our main daycare space. With the closing of our daycare, we were finally able to create a playroom for my kids. We don't have a whole lot of bedroom space in this house. With five kids' beds in two small bedrooms, there isn't much space for toys, so creating a space for them to hang out and play in was a real priority for us.

Now that our kids are a bit older (ages 9 up to teens) our play space needs are a bit different than when they were younger. The kids and I talked a lot about what they would like to have in the room and how they imagined using the room. They asked for things like space to draw and do art, space to display their lego creations, space to play games, and comfortable places to sit and read. They didn't want the room to seem to "babyish" but they still wanted it to be fun. I had some priorities for the room, too. I wanted a space where all the kids could feel comfortable hanging out together, and I wanted it to be easy to keep tidy. I also wanted to spend as little as possible putting the room together. (More on that below!)I'm happy to say that we ended up with a room that met all of this criteria and more.

Here are some shots of the room BEFORE... when it was a daycare room:

And now... here is the room AFTER... Our new Big Kid Playroom!

The sitting area, with an art display wall behind the loveseat. The frames
have cork inside, so the kids can change the art in the frames easily. 

The chalkboard wall, game shelf and table for crafts and games. The built-in
on the right of the chalkboard wall holds Legos. Lots and lots of Legos.

Storage for toys and books.

Our art cabinet. We do keep a ridiculous amount of art
supplies, I know. The baskets store larger items, such as
large bottles of paint and glue, palettes, etc.

Inside the cabinet... more art supplies.

Noodle, drawing at the table. (The other kids ran away when
they saw me coming with my camera.)

Because we're on a tight budget, it was important that we put this room together for as little cash as possible. We were able to recycle lots of stuff from this room's previous life, as well as pulling in some things from other rooms in the house. The rug and furniture used to be in our living room, and the chairs were in our kitchen before we renovated in there. The small corner table was in our basement, and the cork in the frames was leftover from a prior project. The only elements we had to spend money on were paint, the table (second hand, $40) curtains (Overstock.com, $16) lamp (Target, $24) and pillows (Christmas Tree Shops, around $18) The total cost to put together this room was around $150. Not too shabby! 

And have I mentioned how much we love this room? 

Next up... I'll be sharing our third and final "new" room... our living room! (Which, as of this writing, is still a work in progress... )