Play room make-over

This post was created over a month ago but never got posted, hence the Christmas manager, but better late than never :)

Well the play room is finally done. It has pretty much been done for a few months, I just hadn't gotten pictures on the wall and didn't want to post without them. I tend to get projects 95% done, then not post about them because I want the final 5% complete. This room is the immediately on your right when you walk in our home. Most people have it as a formal dining, we always had it as a sitting room. I had resisted a play room, but finally came to the conclusion that we have little children who need room to play and an organized play room works and looks better that chaos all over the house. So here is the transformation of the room in the 3.5 years we have lived here.

When we first moved in with plain walls

After allowing paint to bring life to the room

The last look before the play room took over

The Play Room

The lighting still leaves something to be desired, but I am going to paint lamps once the weather warms and would love to get another overhead light once we actually own the house. 

My goal was organization, hence the wicker ottoman, the baskets and the cube system, all full of toys 

The kid's nativity made it to the top shelf for the holidays after finding it spread all over the house multiple times a day

The "couch" was my old crib that my brothers and I used. It was missing hardware and would cost a lot to be safe to use as a crib so I was ready to get rid of it until I saw an idea to use is as a couch. 

10 cans of spray paint later (it really needed more I had already gone to the store twice during the painting process and was over it, should have primed it first)

The table and chairs were a garage sale find for $20, a little clean-up and white paint, and we were good to go.

Another full view. I have already actually moved the furniture around to a few configurations. I loved having the table and chairs out in the middle of room (so you can use all 4 chairs) and I had the crib in the corner, allowing more access to 4 sides of the kitchen (another cheap garage sale find) but like having the room open for little man to crawl around and daddy to wrestle the kids. If we have more friends over, I just pull the table and chairs out.

Memorial Weekend

We had a very nice relaxing weekend. No where to be, just hanging low. I was going to paint the laundry room, but didn't have the gumption, we just hung around getting other things done, swam, took naps, watched movies, it was great.

Steve took Payton on a daddy/daughter date yesterday to the movies. It was her first time in the big theater. She loved it, I put a few treats in her little pink purse and off then went.

Payton kept trying to take a picture of me on her iphone while I was taking her picture

Steve is always getting kisses from his little girl

Steve wanted to clean out the garage this weekend. He had gotten a new mower last week and wanted to get rid of the box, I asked to keep it, because every little kid needs to have a fort made out of a box sometime in their life.  I wanted to let Payton paint the box, but decided to do a base coat so it was cuter, then she could add her touch.  

I had already cut out the windows

Buster slept for some of it, then he watched and learned as I painted

Just because I am so head over heals for his smile, here is another picture of him

The box painted, these colors were "oops" paint that I had on hand

Sister adding her touch, this was her first time painting and she loved it. She didn't like getting her hands dirty though.

Her finished fort. I ended up opening the lid to give her extra space and we used tulle for a roof. More a castle than fort :)

Inside doing her "work"

Inviting me in, I can't fit in the door. I did add some ribbon for little handles to open and close the door. Yes this door is backwards, I really wasn't planning well when I started cutting the box.

Playing peek-a-boo.

Who knows how long she will enjoy her castle, even if she looses interest, no big deal since it didn't cost us a penny!

Bracelets

I don't consider myself that creative of a person. Once in awhile, I will surprise myself. The other day I bought these earrings from World Market for $1. I thought they would be larger than I desired, but I loved the color, so I thought I would take them home and give them a try. Sure enough, they were a little too large for my liking. Then I thought, "I have small wrists, why don't I try them as bracelets." I went digging for some tools and a couple minutes later, I had new blue bangle bracelets!