For those of you with children, this is an awfully familiar scenario, is it not? It is often times difficult to know what to do with a playroom that is in the direct line of site from the main living areas of the house. Not only does it need to function as a playroom that your children will actually enjoy, it also has to “appear” adult friendly…at least visually.
As you can see from the pictures below, this amazing playroom has fabulous windows and should function fairly well being within reach of the family room. Theoretically this should be a home run. But…kids are funny, and if a room isn’t something an adult would want to spend time in, chances are you will find your kids migrating away from the room as well.
This is precisely what happens in Allison’s home. Her kiddo’s rarely actually play in this room and most play dates become awkward with the adults ultimately ending up sitting on the floor.
Also as an Update: From the time I created this Mood Board and suggested she rehab Craigslist finds back in May of 2010… Allison has decided she in fact loves it, and now has her own site that focuses on exactly that! Yahoo… You can visit her here: Fab Rehab Creations!
You can see how this playroom is visible from the family room and as this last picture indicates… from the Dining Room as well (though you don’t actually know that is where we are standing until I mention it), what you can’t see is that is also directly visible from the moment you enter the front door.
It’s pretty tough to decide on how to set this room up, I mean it isn’t a typical room in your home and yet it is just as visible as if it were. Special considerations need to be take into account… One thing is certain, we need to make this room more desirable for those kiddo’s…as it stands now, only the dog is enjoying it 🙁
But before I get into the details please know that while it appears this room has a beautiful feminine charm about it, I assure you that once we break it down a bit, you will see it actually does not. My inspiration pictures have some feminine seeming pillows in it, and the version I would like for her is a little less feminine and more focused on nature.
Here are the Deets:
1. This picture from West Elm started my inspiration for this project. What I am most loving about it is the mix of the natural wood with simple graphic printed pillows in white, beige, gray and green. I think this color combo mixed with black furniture will be amazing in this space and not conflict with her family room color scheme. Because this is a playroom it will naturally be filled with toys of various colors so that is important to keep in mind when designing. A color scheme needs to be chosen that will work well with spot of cobalt blue, red and grass green. This will be fine under that assumption. In fact it will thrive as such!
2. I would love to see this room be a light to medium shade of green with some yellow undertones. It should be a nice compliment to the colors in both her family room and dining room and will be calming and natural feeling in the playroom.
Some possibilities for paint are:
Behr – Celery Bunch or Key Lime
Glidden – Celery Sticks, or Spring Cactus (this one is probably my fav for this project)
3. I love this drift wood hanging object, but I am completely convinced that this would be a really fun project to do with the kiddo’s. It doesn’t have to be drift wood either, this would be fabulous with random widths of branches. I imagine they would love to help Allison collect sticks! What boys don’t love sticks…
She could use a teeny tiny drill bit to pierce each stick and stack them on some extra thick fishing line or nylon string. Think jewelry making supplies or hardware supplies for this…It will bring a fabulous natural element to the room. The more they collect the more stick lines they can produce in varying lengths.
To attach to the ceiling she can purchase a small bag of hooks that screw in. See my chandelier hanging escape for the type of hooks I refer to. She should either spray them white to match the ceiling or purchase them in white so they blend in and appear seamless. She can nang them in a line or in a grouping like a crystal hanging chandelier.
4. I think 2 of these pendant lights from West Elm would be amazing on either side of the over sized chair in the window area, or on either side of the daybed. Pendant lights are a much safer option with small children, but of course wrapping a cord is fine as well. A set of 2 is $179 so not cheap, but consider that she doesnt’ have to buy any furniture and only the supplies to build with, this room will come together for next to nothing!
5. She has 2 bookshelves which I have suggest she paint black to tie together and unify the room.
6. She already owns the cutest little wooden table and chairs sized for kids, and she can either paint it black to match the furniture or she can leave it as is ( a honey colored stain) and it will compliment nicely.
7. This is her play table and I suggest she leave it white to bring some brightness to the room, she could also paint it black if she prefers that.
8. I think a collection of chalkboards or cork boards would be fabulous in here to display artwork or to color on for her kiddos. the colors of both chalk boards and cork boards would be perfect in this room. you can purchase cork boards fairly inexpensively, in fact I recently purchased a couple from my local dollar store.
9. This artwork is super cute from West Elm and can absolutely be purchased, but I think it could also be tackled by printing a clip art image made white on gray paper so easily…I mean really easily…I also think that in addition to printing out clip art and framing it, she could find plants and leaves from the yard (or her neighbors) and print using the same technique in this tutorial: Garden Party Printed Pillows She would just need gray and white paper and white white and beige paint. She can use the white paint on the gray paper and the beige paint on the white paper and place them in black frames and it would be quite fab!
10. This represents a chair she already has that I would love for her to move up to this playroom and center in the bay window area. What a fabulous reading chair it would be for herself and a kiddo or 2 (kids love to squish)
11. These prints can either be just that, prints or this is really an interesting idea for the chalkboards. If she simply painted 2 plywood boards after sanding them well, with chalkboard paint and the attached picture hanging apparatuses on the back, it would be simple and yet make a statement. Two of these long and narrow would be amazing on the short wall to the left of the bay window.
12. This rug can be found at West Elm and would really bring the room together if placed under the daybed. It would help draw the eye to something pleasant and amazing from the font door view. Any rug of a decent size and with a natural feeling to it would work well here and the discount stores should definitely be checked along with resources such as Craigslist.
13. This daybed represents any daybed with a wooden frame. I will be posting plans for a simple and graphic daybed this week (can be found here). She can also search places like Craigslist for options that are reasonably priced and simply paint them black.
I would love for her to create similar pillows as are seen here for both the day bed and the chair. By purchasing solid fabrics and creating a pillow cover then printing on the fabric in the same manner as in this tutorial would be fabulous…
14. These window treatments are from West Elm but could be very easily made from fabric with this tutorial or even more easily by purchasing a charcoal gray panel from Target, Walmart if they have one or a discount store such as TJ Maxx or homegoods…
I hope I haven’t forgotten anything…but if you notice I have, let me know..my mind is very busy and tired today..hahah I guess we are all entitled to a bit of crazy now and then, no?
