Slow progress is better than no progress, right?
At the beginning of this year we started making over our hybrid playroom family room. It’s the space we spend the most time as a family — where Jack’s toys live and where our TV hangs. So, coming into 2022, I knew I wanted to focus a lot of my design energy and home updates budget on making this room feel cozy, comfortable, and functional for our little fam.
I had lofty goals that included having this room completely done by the end of March and big dreams of what this space would look like finished. But, y’all. After buttoning up half of our DIY built-in cabinets, I lost steam.
While the space isn’t done yet, it’s a lot better than it was three months ago. And when I say better, I really just mean we have a great toy storage solution now thanks to our built-in cabinets and the light fixture we hung is pretty to look at.
If you’re invested in this room makeover, though, here’s everything we’ve tackled in the first three months of 2022:
DIY Built-in Lower Cabinets
I am working on a blog post that walks you through this DIY, but that post is coming together about as slowly as these cabinets did. It never occurred to me that we have zero wood working experience until, well, we started running 2x4s through a table saw. We learned a lot from this project, and we still have the upper shelves to install. But I love what we created with our own hands, and I am obsessed with the amount of toy storage the cabinets provide.
Toy organization
With toy storage comes toy organization. I didn’t want to just throw all of Jack’s toys into the cabinets for pieces to get lost, so I bought these lidded storage containers. They’re perfect for keeping all the pieces of games and toys together, and for storing crayons, markers, pencils, etc. I can easily fit two rows onto each shelf in the cabinets and stack them two to three high (depending on shelf placement). I need a few more to store the remaining loose items in the cabinets, but I’m in no rush.
I also store larger toys in tall decorative baskets that I tuck behind a chair.
New rug
A new rug in here was warranted after an incident with cheese dip one night. I’ll say no more.
New light fixture
One of the easiest ways to make your builder-grade home look more custom is by switching out the boob lights when you can. I had my eye on this brass and white ceramic flush mount light and stalked it until it came back in stock.
chairs
The final thing I did to show this room some love was bring up these chairs from our downstairs living room. I snagged these at nearly 50% off last year, and have adored them since. I wanted us to be able to enjoy them more, so I heaved them up the stairs one rainy afternoon while Justin worked. I am woman hear me roar!
I will continue to finish out this space over the next few months. For now, though, I am really happy with how comfy and cozy it is for us.
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