IKEA Playroom Makeover

The playroom has been a project we kept putting off. Mainly because there is just so much crap stuff in there. In it, there were 2 canvas toy boxes filled with stuffed animals, a stair step IKEA shelving system and an old garage cabinet without the doors on it for storage.  The rest of the toys were either in laundry baskets or placed around the perimeter of the room.

Here are a few pictures of what it looked like before.

Here are the elements we wanted in this room:

• Lots of storage off the ground so they could have some space to play
• Desks for the girls to do projects and homework
• Space on a wall to draw and be creative
• Area to display their artwork

I looked for months on Craigslist for matching wooden desks and some large storage unit.  Never found what I was looking for.  We were planning a trip up to Northern Virginia one weekend to see SteveSongs with the girls so I asked Hubs if we could just pop in to IKEA.  He knew there was just no "popping" in, but being the awesome husband that he is, he agreed.  As luck would have it, we found everything we were looking for!  We picked up 2 bookshelves, 2 sets of hanging wall buckets, a picture hanging kit with clips and several other goodies that were not play room related.  ;)  We had to make another trip up there to pick up the desks and chairs.  

Hubs built the bookshelves and secured them to the wall side by side.  I had some canvas cubes that used to hold baby items on the changing table so I dusted those off and arranged them on the bookshelf.  I had tons and tons of unorganized toys so I went to Michaels to pick up some more canvas cubes. That still wasn't enough storage for all the little sets of toys so I went to Walmart and picked up 32 Sterilite clear storage boxes. I organized, and organized, and organized until all the toys had a home.  I have separate bins for tiaras, jewelry, magnetic dolls, cars, Play Doh accessories, balls, wands, figures, etc.  The canvas cubes hold the larger toys like Barbies, My Little Ponies, Play Doh, stuffed animals, etc.  Now the girls can take one bin out, play with it, put it back in and store it away before getting more stuff out.  I left the top and bottom shelves for the toys and games that would not fit into the bins. The IKEA storage shelf next to the 2 bookcases acts as a mini divider to the desks and additional toy storage.

We mounted a mirror along the bookcase so they could look at themselves when they got dressed up. Their dress-up clothes are neatly tucked away in the walk-in closet.



We moved the book sling next to the closet.  I need to move the growth chart but haven't gotten around to that yet!

We put the desks side by side along one wall and mounted a wire system to hang their artwork. Using the Silhouette, we cut out vinyl stickers to say "Masterpieces!  by Avery and Riley".  We also cut out princess crowns and the girls' names to put on the back of their chairs. Mounted below the wires are pink and purple cup holders which contain crayons, colored pencils, markers, pens, pencils, glue sticks and scissors.

Along the other side wall is where we created a dry erase crown board.  You can see how we did it in the Princess Crown Dry Erase Board post. 

 

The girls are totally loving their new playroom. Things actually stay organized and I am LOVING that!   

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