We’ve been in TX for 4.5 weeks, and one of the first rooms we unpacked and finished was the boys’ playroom. This should be no surprise– I’ve talked about how I teach online one hour a day and need plenty of places for the boys to entertain themselves. (For a refresher, you can check out our Montessori Playroom from CA that was featured on Apartment Therapy, or the boys’ CA bedroom)
You might also wonder why I called it their “playroom”, seeing as we only have 2 bedrooms in our town home. We actually have a giant closet in our master bedroom– big enough to fit 2 small kids’ beds and perhaps more. I wanted a large room just for the kids to play in, without any additional furniture getting in the way. So we put their toddler beds in the closet/room in the back of the house with us, and left this room for just toys, games and clothes. There’s a large closet in this room as well, which is where Jesse and I are keeping our clothes and shoes.
To the left of the door are the boys’ dressers. I used the Ikea Rast dressers and used chalkboard paint on the drawers so that I could draw pictures for Gregory. In between, I hung a suspension rod for their dress shirts. In keeping with the Montessori way of things, we want Gregory to start picking out his own clothes and dressing himself.
Originally these Rast dressers were going to be a different color, but Gregory came up to me while I was working and said, very sincerely, “Momma, I REALLY want you to paint them green! PULEEASE???” So I went and got a $4 paint tester of green, and here they are 🙂
In the corner of the room next to the dressers, I set up a reading/nap corner for the boys. I’m actually pretty proud of this little reading chair. I searched at a few stores for some sort of big pillow or cushion, but everything was too expensive, and I really didn’t want to spend any kind of serious money on it.
And then I had this brilliant idea! We had two large feather pillows that came with one of our new couches in the living room. I don’t like couch cushions that match the couch, since they just blend in and one loses the opportunity for color accessorizing, so these pillows had been sitting in a closet. I grabbed on of our extra crib sheets, stuffed both pillows inside, and voila! A super comfortable reading spot for $0!
In the middle of the room under the window is an Ikea Lack coffee table to be used as their train/play table (later on, I’m going to add a lego station as well, since they’re just starting to get into them). We weren’t able to bring our huge train table over from CA with us, but at least we know that the boys will be able to use it whenever we go home for vacation! I love that this table is much smaller and a lot less deep. There was always a lot of wasted space at the back of our train table that never got played with, since the boys are too short to reach and I never wanted to put the table in the center of the room and take away valuable “running” space 🙂
To the right of the train table, I hung a few pictures using cheap Ikea frames and cute (and free!) printouts from Pinterest (you can follow my “Boys Shared Room“).
On the right wall of the room are the boys’ bookshelves with their magnet/alphabet station in between. You will notice there are not many toys out– back when we had 2 foster boys in addition to our 2, I learned that I could only keep out as many toys as I could clean up in 20 minutes, otherwise I’d go crazy. I have a large bin in the closet with all of their other toys, and I’ve been rotating them out.
In the right back corner of the room (near the closet) I have their laundry basket and growth chart. I am also picking up a cheap wooden play kitchen for them later this week! Stay tuned!
And then, swinging back towards the door, I have their coat hooks, along with 2 owl paintings. These paintings are very special to us, as they were made by our foster boys as farewell gifts when we moved to TX. I wanted them in the playroom with our boys to remind us of all the fun they used to have with many of these toys (along with all the giant messes they made!).
And, don’t get jealous, but I got that Skip Hop backpack for Gregory at an AWESOME thrift store we have down the road…for only 50 cents. Seriously, don’t hate me.
(And, lest you think our house is pretty and well kept, that IS, in fact, a potty you see there in the hallway. Potty training is going…well, it’s going).
Source List:
Dressers: Ikea Rast, $39 each, painted by me
Rug: Anthropologie on sale
Owl Print: The Handmade Home
Chalkboard Print: Hymnsandverses.com
Boys Are Superheroes Print: Rockinboys.com
Retro Alphabet cards: The Handmade Home
Giant Magnet Board: Ikea
Alphabet Magnets: The Dollar Store (3 packs)
Chevron Bedsheet: Target
Owl pillows: Sewn by me with fabric from fabric.com
Wall Book Holders: Ikea Spice Racks
Train Table: Ikea Lack
Gray baskets: Ikea
Wooden Chalkboard labels: Etsy
Book Basket: Home Goods
White Toy Shelves: Walmart
Elephant Laundry Hamper: Home Decorators
Lamb Growth Chart: Thrift Store find
Related posts
 House Tour– The Boys’ Room |
 House Tour: The Nursery |
 Our Townhouse Living Room |
 House Tour: Our Living Room |
The whole room is very peaceful… terrific color scheme! I’m a fan of rotating toys as well, as it leaves some ‘breathing room’ to play in. The growth chart is adorable:)
Thanks! I’m glad the “organizer” agrees with me about rotating toys 🙂