The Boys' New Room

It only took about a year before Eli got to have his name up on his bedroom wall.  The perils of being a second-born.  While I like the playroom, I really love the boys bedroom.  What started out as an ocean-themed nursery is now a bright and happy space for both my pre-schooler and my baby to read, listen to music, dress, and sleep in.  I have kept the blue and green color theme, and added red accents as well. 

Like our toy room, most of the furniture is from Ikea and have been re-purposed.  The billy bookcases were originally white in my first studio apartment, and were painted a few years ago for our first nursery.  The crib, shelf, and most of the frames are from Ikea as well.  I had to add the curtains and found those at the Land of Nod.  After the first few months of changing Eli, I pretty much stopped using the changing table so it is no longer in here and is being used as extra storage in our bathroom.  I found all the blue and green baskets years ago at Babies 'R Us.  The fish light was a great shower gift that we still use every night as a night light.

My favorite details include:
-This gallery wall that I threw together using extra frames and a mirror we've collected.  I love the Indiana print, with the heart over our hometown (where all their grandparents and many other family still live).

-This print from "Where the Wild Things Are"

-All the board books at ground level so Eli can get to them (and he leaves the more fragile books alone)

-Our "calendar" of prints.  When I realized we had twelve of these frames (they used to contain scenic photos of our favorite places), I thought I would find a photo that had both boys from each month of they year.  It is cute to see them grow through the pictures, and we can talk about the different months, holidays, seasons, and birthdays with a visual in mind for the boys.

-Theo's duvet cover and bed skirt that were on clearance and matched almost perfectly

I tried hard to limit the toys in here.  All of Eli's fill and spill toys are here, as well as the firetrucks, block-trains, and a basket of baby toys.  The night stand is actually filled with all of our puppets and puzzles.

And the large closet has room for all of the boys current/past/future clothes and all their blankets.  Which is great.

Welcome to our new playroom.

Though it's nothing too fancy, we are pretty excited about our new playroom.  We didn't have any room in our last apartment for a designated play space, so having this area in the basement is really awesome.  We used most of what we already had, added some baskets and a table from Ikea, and an art rail that Brian made for us.  We put up the nerdy alphabet cards we had, labeled the toy bins for organization, and decided to make seating areas using small chairs, cushions and pillows. 

 

This is definitely a boy space, and gets a lot of use.  And is not normally this put together.  But while Theo was off at preschool I could get a few photos of it out of use for once.

Pretty much everything in here used to have another life.  I have issues with getting rid of anything so I am very good at the third "R" reusing.

Below is a storage unit for Ikea that everyone seems to have, and for good reason. It is awesome.  We originally used this in our bedroom to hold Eli's baby things when he was first born.  It was used vertically then in a small corner spot.

I created quick labels to help us with the daily picking-up that goes on in here. They are:  dress-up, busy bags, food, cars, farm and animals, Thomas trains, bits and bobs (manipulatives) and messy toys (bubbles, chalk, etc).  I just took pictures of objects for each bin, added text to the photos and made prints.  Then I ran them through my laminater, and placed Velcro on the bins and photos to keep them on.  Eli likes to pull them off, but they have held up well so far.

 Working around the room next are the big bins we used to use for recycling, which hold all of the duplos and also the big electric train that Theo has.  I threw a big red pillow from my first apartment, and some old chair cushions we used to use down here fore some seating.

Even though Theo has pretty much mastered letter identification (other than W-which can be U or M on any given day) we went ahead and put these up on the wall to add some color.  Being a math teacher married to a scientist, I just couldn't resist how cute these nerd flash cards are.   We also have the number cards too.

 We used to have this chair in our bedroom, but moved it down here to be my seat for reading in the play area.  It was another cheap Ikea find.  And the green wooden board on the wall was hand-painted by Brian to be used as a road with playing with the cars or trains or a background for the farm set. 

We have had this chalkboard long before the recent pinterest-inspired popularity.  It used to be the top of a temporary table Brian built, which he painted with chalkboard paint.  And the small white table with an extra chair was our main addition to this room when we moved in.

My husband also created the art rail for us.  He simply got a piece of trim, painted clothespins (these are actually in the boys room colors, in case we ever relocate it) and attached them before attaching the whole things to the wall.  Theo is very proud to hang things here now (including the moon from his first day of pre-school).

It's not the most fantastic room, but I love how it was done cheaply, keeps everything organized and how how much the boys truly enjoy playing here.

Main Floor; Coffee, Books, and Frames

Our main floor was the easiest to set up, and thus the first one done (well, almost).

When you come into our front door, the kitchen is immediately off the hallway to the right.  It is the largest kitchen we have had yet, and is pretty perfect for us right now other than lacking a few deeper drawers (and a pantry-dreams...).  I am not a fan of this peach color that is in several areas of the house.  Not sure what we should change it to...

This corner is my problem area of the house.  I'm just not sure exactly what to put here (especially on the corner shelf), but I'm considering a tall breakfast table or a kitchen cart with some extra storage.  Suggestions?

I'm also so happy to finally have a window over my sink.  But I haven't figured out a curtain for in here yet either.  Brian wants it to cover the window completely, so a vallance is out. 

Once through the kitchen or the hallway, you come to the living/dining room combo.  I wasn't a fan of this yellow in the original photos Brian sent too, but it's grown on me.  I think we'll leave it.

I decided to free up some of my counter space (for my own gadgets) by moving Brian's coffee maker and accessories out here to the baker's rack that we original bought for extra storage in our first apartment.  I like how it turned out, and decided to flank it with the two black shelves we had and fill them with all of our cookbooks.

Over our beautiful chairs (grandpa's chairs) I decided to put the shelf that Brian made for our last apartment, place frames on it.  I debated with painting them white to match the trim in this room, but I love so many of the frames as is that I just couldn't bear to paint them.  Across the room from them is another shelf/frame arrangement.  And finally, our bookshelves (can you tell we have a problem with having too many books?).

The best thing about this floor is that there is plenty of open room for all the play that goes on in here, and the room is pretty much baby-proof (other than books getting pulled off shelves).