We’re making a ton of progress as we revamp our boys’ playroom. Here you’ll get a behind the scenes look as we transform their space into a boys’ industrial farmhouse playroom.
Hey Darlings! Let me start this post off by saying three things:
- Doing a complete overhaul of a kids’ playroom isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s no joke ya’ll, all that toy clutter has been intense!
- Sometimes things look worse before they get better. #truthbomb
- This boys’ industrial farmhouse playroom makeover took place last summer, but as I’m learning to do this whole blogging thing, it’s taken me a while to get everything up on here to share with you.
Alright, now that I’ve gotten those things off my chest, we can proceed onto the details. ?
*Warning!*
Ugly post alert!! This a real behind the scenes look at some the nitty-gritty stuff we have happening around here.
If you missed Part 1 of the playroom series you can check it out {HERE}.
Before
Just to recap a bit, not too long ago we decided to attack our basement and give it some much-needed love and updating. Our basement family room got a fun little refresh {You can see what we did here} and since the family room is open to the boys’ playroom, it just made sense to revamp the boys’ playroom too.
The playroom really isn’t a room, but a little alcove located off the right of the family room. This little space is the perfect size for a playroom and it’s super convenient to have it in the same area as the family room. This setup allows the boys to have their own little space but to still be in plain sight of us.
Below, you can check out a few “before” photos. It was cute, colorful, and it worked out well for the boys when they were toddlers. (Although a bit cluttered!) But sob, they are big kids now!!
It’s totally time for a change!
Playroom Before 1
Playroom Before 2
Playroom Before 3
I was super excited to begin overhauling this space. As you can see, the decor is a bit juvenile for soon to be 7 and 9-year-olds. Their toy collection had grown out of control and the organizational systems that were originally in place just weren’t working anymore.
And let’s just be honest. There was a lot of CRAP.
CRAP.
CRAP.
and
MORE CRAP.
Our kids are insanely blessed, don’t get me wrong. But there were tons of junky happy meal toys, those silly surprise/blind bag type things, broken stuff, and playsets that they had either outgrown of or were missing pieces.
…and Legos. Don’t even get me started about the random microscopic Lego pieces.
Ugh! It was overwhelming to say the least!
Playroom Goals
Before doing anything in the room, I made a little list so I knew exactly what needed to be done in the space. Here’s what we came up with to get started:
- MASSIVE clearing out and decluttering of the space. This also includes taking down the old curtains, blinds, and finding a new home for the old furniture
- CLEAN (dusting walls, molding, and the light fixture. The sliding doors needed a good clean as did the floors)
- Patching drywall holes and new paint
- New furniture & assembly
- Toy storage and organization systems (+ labels)
- Decorative accessories and decor items (curtains, rug, wall decor)
Clearing Out the Space
In order to begin the decluttering process, I cleared out ALL of the toys. As items were being cleared off the shelves, I placed them in separate piles. I had four piles going:
- keep
- trash
- donate
- sell
The “keep” piles were set in the adjoining family room, or in the center of the room. The trash was bagged up and thrown away immediately. Items for donation were placed in boxes and moved out to the van. These boxes were dropped off whenever we were running errands and were close to our local consignment shops.
The toys and books that were still in good shape were listed up and sold on our Facebook local yardsale group.
While typing this out, it seems so simple. But you guys, this part took forever! Days! Yup, several days of going through every last stinkin’ toy, Lego, game, puzzle….
Wall Repairs
Once all of the old furniture was gone, we moved everything else into the middle of the room. You can see that we started painting the room here. Just for reference, I’m standing in the family room as I’m taking this picture.
If you notice on the bottom right of the room, we had some baseboard molding that we also had to repair. This is when we patched all of the drywall holes from the shelves that were previously hanging on the walls.
I took down the old curtains and blinds. I gave everything a good cleaning as I was doing all of this.
Fresh New Paint
You’ll have to excuse the poor quality of these photos. I was just snapping these really quick with my iPhone as we were going along.
Here you can see more progress with the paint. The paint color is Sherwin Williams Repose Gray. I’ve talked about it in my family room posts, where I raved about how much I love this color!
I also painted the molding and baseboards to make everything look super fresh. The trim color is Alabaster by Sherwin Williams.
These were the same two colors used in the family room, so I just continued around through the playroom too. This helps to keep the two rooms looking cohesive.
Toy Organization
Now that the playroom had been cleared out and painted, it was time to start moving things back in a more functional way. Here we took all of the old toys out of the blue and green bins and sorted them into these new gray and white striped bins.
Each bin will house a specific category of toy. For example, all of the boys’ cars would go in the “car” bin and all of their action figures would go together in the “action figures” bin, etc. (Like items with like items)
The boys were such good helpers! Tommy is really good at organizing and loves to sort things by category. This is a boy after his mama’s heart, I tell ya!
Once we got all of the small toys sorted and organized, it was time to get the new furniture for the room. We decided to keep our budget in check and use pieces from Ikea. I shared in my previous post which furniture items I wanted for the room. I was on the hunt for two Billy Bookcases and a 16 cubby Kallax Shelf Unit.
A Trip to Ikea – New Furniture
Going to Ikea is a big deal for us-almost as exciting as going to Disney World. Ha! We have to travel over an hour to get to the closest Ikea store. I might just get a little giddy up in here!
The boys were super excited too because they love to play in the Smaland area. (and I love that we get kid-free shopping time!) I took this picture of Nate going crazy as he’s entering into the play area.
Long story short, let’s just say that this time went a lot better than the last visit. Nate was much younger then and didn’t quite understand how it all worked. Needless to say, he wouldn’t come out when it was time to pick him up.
The poor Ikea employees were chasing him all over and evidently, Ikea doesn’t allow non-employees beyond the gate either-not even parents! Imagine Ian and I leaning over the entry as far as they’d let us, screaming our heads off to try and get Nate to out of there.
It went something like this.
Ian and I leaning and waving our arms around trying to get Nate’s attention: “Nate! Naaaaate! Come on buddy, its time go home! NO! NO! Get out of the ball pit! NO-Listen to the helpers! C’mon, get out! We’re leaving! NATE! NATE, did you hear me?! Get out of there!! No, this way! STOP!! NATE, we’re really leaving! Nate, can you hear mommy?! GET OUT!!!!!!!”
(This went on for over ten minutes)
Yea. It was insane. I’m surprised they let us come back.
Anyway…with the kids all safe and occupied this time, we started with meatballs! ?
After our bellies were full, I knew exactly what I needed, so we got to it! I don’t play when it comes to Ikea.
Game face on, ya’ll!
This Kallax shelving will hold all of the toy bins. This will keep all of the small toys organized by category. I’ll be adding labels to the front of the bins. This will help the boys to stay organized. They will be able to find the toys they want and they will know where the toys go when it’s time to clean up. Emphasis on the last part there! ?
The playroom will also be getting two of these Billy bookcases. These shelves will hold the boys’ board games, puzzles, art supplies, and some of their bigger cars/trucks. I plan on using some inexpensive containers to hold the smaller art supplies like Play-Doh, scissors, glue, stencils, etc.
We were able to get everything that we needed. Here we are, loaded up and ready to head home. It was a successful shopping trip for sure! I couldn’t wait to get home and get the furniture all set up in the boys’ room.
If it were my way, I would have had all of this unboxed and set up the second we got home. Cuz I’m crazy and impatient like that…
But I let Ian wait until the next morning…ha! Love that guy!
And here you can see the Kallax shelving with storage bins included. I placed the galvanized letters along the top just to see how they would look. These will get hung up on the wall eventually.
Wall Decor and Art Display
In Part 1 of this series, I shared on the design board some of the decor items that I planned on using in the playroom. If you missed it, you can check out the boys’ industrial farmhouse playroom design board {HERE}.
One thing that I wasn’t sure on was how to display the boys’ artwork. I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect cork board to hang on the wall.
Below you’ll find two options that I’m considering. The first one is more of a rustic cork board with a galvanized metal frame. I think it would coordinate well with the galvanized letters that will be used in the room. This one I found at Hobby Lobby at 50% off.
And here is the second option. This corkboard was hidden in the clearance section of Marshall’s for less than ten dollars. You know I’m all about finding a bargain!
This corkboard has a black frame with gray linen on the board. I just love the words along the bottom and think it would be so cute in their playroom.
Which one do you like the best?
Time for Finishing Up
Thanks for sticking through this post and reading all about the little odds and ends that were needed to makeover the boys’ playroom. Most of what’s pictured here isn’t pretty, but a real behind the scenes look at our crazy shenanigans as we finish up the playroom.
While it’s true that sometimes things look A LOT worse before they get better, we’re looking forward to wrapping up this space and having an updated big kid space for the boys to hang out.
If you haven’t already, please subscribe below so that you’ll be updated on the boys’ industrial farmhouse playroom makeover. I’d be honored to have you join the Chesapeake Chic community!
Next week, I’ll be back with this room’s grand reveal. You won’t want to miss that!
