As our one year home anniversary approaches I decided it was time to sit down and finally write a post on the room that sold me on our current home. The toy room! This time last year was a blur! Our oldest was finishing kindergarten, we were selling a house, moving to Austin, starting a new job, and searching for a place to live. As you can imagine it was quiet a stressful time in our lives. And our house hunt was anything but exciting. Both my husband and I had dreams of purchasing another old house and redoing a fixer upper. There’s just something about the character and charm you find in an old house, that newer homes seem to be lacking these days. But with our budget, school zone desires, and proximity to my husbands job we quickly realized another old, fixer upper was simply not in the works for us. So we started looking at new builds… But every house we looked at was just a carbon copy of the previous five homes we saw. Beige, Beige, Beige… and I found myself getting depressed and annoyed. Certainly there had to be ONE new home out there I could at least like. Maybe not love but like. It was at this point my husband had to sit me down and remind me of what was important.
He also suggested looking at cheaper homes with great layouts that we could redo as our own. It was at that point a light bulb went off in my head. After our talk I spent hours searching Realtor and Redfin searching for homes that had a layout I liked. It was that very same night I find the house we live in today. An open concept, one story, that had a bonus space right off the living room that sold me. This little bonus space was the perfect place to a create a toy room that could house all of our kids toys, crafts, books, etc. And no matter where I am in the main living spaces like the entryway, kitchen, pantry, or living room I always have a clear line of sight to the kiddos and what they are doing! This is especially nice with our adventurous two year old who always seems to be getting into something new at all times.
Toy Room Reno, Furniture, and Misc. Details:
When we moved in, the original space was painted a pink toned beige color, with a beige carpet that had seen better days, and a flush mount that could only be described as hideous! We quickly ripped up the carpet and painted the room. We kept all the paint in our many living spaces (toy room, living room, kitchen and entryway) the same White Dove for the ceiling and Pale Oak for the walls. Benjamin Moore paint colors.
All of the furniture in the room is from Pottery Barn Kids. The storage unit is called the Cameron Creativity Storage System with Drawer Bases. I know its on the pricey said, but if you can spare the money its a great investment piece. In our storage unit we store toys, art supplies, school supplies, books, you name it!
The table is the Carolina Craft Table. We bought the white table with the grey chairs. In hind sight I probably wouldn’t have bought the white table for a craft. Thankfully crayola comes off pretty easily with a magic eraser. But I will be purchasing a Play Table Mat to protect the top of the table. The table also has two drawers in it and a spot to hold a roll of paper at the end of the table. You could buy the plain white paper rolls from Pottery Barn Kids, but I like to order our rolls from Amazon. The paper is a little cheaper AND you can get plain white rolls or coloring sheet rolls.
*PS. IF your 5’6″ or under like me, you’ll be able to comfortable fit under the table and color with your kiddos.
PBK no longer carries our current rug, but I’m going to do some research online and a link a few similar options :
For the light fixture in the room I wanted something modern and gold. I love gold fixtures, in fact I’m changing all the light fixtures in my house over to gold. The new light fixtures really seem to finish the room and make it stand out a little from the other houses in the neighborhood.
Since writing this post I’ve also completed a DIY Wallpaper, that I made completely on my own. And my husband and I made a dry erase board with a shelf underneath it to hold a lot of our daughters’ book. In the future I plan on sharing a couple different posts including:
- DIY Wallpaper
- DIY Dry Erase Board and Picture Ledge/Shelf
- How I Organize the Kid’s Toys & Art Supplies
Have a wonderful week Friends and I’ll have another post up for you later this week! I bought some new chairs from Anthroplogie that are going in my living room that I can’t wait to share with all of you!
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