One of the main things that attracted me to our new house when I first stumbled across the listing, was the fact that it had a huge finished basement/rec room. I instantly envisioned our family spending countless hours in this space, and had big plans to use it as both a family room and playroom.
The fact that I could potentially hide the disaster that results when M&E run wild in their play area, in the basement, rather than where everyone could see it, was a HUGE win in my opinion.
I had dreams of an immaculate, well decorated, main floor that featured a couch where you could no longer find puffs between the cushions, baskets full of beautiful pillows and throws vs. junk, and mess that was out of sight, out of mind.
But… as we all know… plans change.
I quickly realized that spending so much time in the basement wasn’t really convenient for our family, particularly me, being home with 2 (3 come April) kids all day. The main floor of our house is where stuff gets done. It’s where our laundry room is, where I do my cooking, wash the dishes, pay the bills, and sit down to write these blog posts… So the wheels began to turn.
Many of my friends have opted to turn their formal dining rooms into playrooms. They felt that the space could be better utilized that way, and would be a great room for their little ones to play in, while they could tend to the long list of chores around the house and still keep a close eye on them.
I quickly began to realize this was also true for us.
As much as I love a formal dining room, the reality is, we wouldn’t use one very often. We have an eat-in kitchen, and don’t currently live near many of our friends and family, so using the room in this way just makes more sense for us.
Last week, we began the painting portion of this “makeover”, and over time I have been making some small purchases in terms of decor. I’m planning on sharing the “after” photos with you all sometime in the next week or so, but in the meantime, I thought I’d share a little mood board with you all.
The vision for this room includes neutral walls (North Star), black and white, pops of color, and using the kid’s own artwork as decor. A very small section of the room will hold my desk, so I can work on things for my Etsy shop and the blog, while the kids play beside me, and my hope is that in the future I will be able to tend to the new baby while Max and Ella enjoy their toys nearby.
I can’t wait to show you the end result, but for now it’s bye bye burgundy walls, and hello operation modern playroom. Stay Tuned.
Leave a Reply