I have been working on redesigning Greyson’s playroom since last summer. Yikes! I’m off during the summer, so I have much more time to work on fun little projects like that. Also, as I’ve mentioned in other home decor posts, if I don’t find EXACTLY what I have pictured in my mind, I won’t buy it. I struggled to find the right baskets for Greyson’s playroom for about 6 months and then one day, I magically found the exact baskets I had been searching for at HomeGoods. EDIT: 3/21 There are still a couple of things that I have planned for the playroom, so I’ll be updating this post as I go. Make sure you follow along on Instagram (@homewithgrey), so you don’t miss anything!
Here are some before shots of the playroom. The couch is from our old condo and we only had one set of the foam floor tiles. I will say, that the foam floor was VERY expensive (we used 6 packs and still need more) and I’m not totally happy with it. If you look closely, you’ll see that the shades of white and grey vary throughout the packages. I’m confused because it obviously was the same company that made the tiles, but it is clear their quality control isn’t great and they probably used different manufacturers. All in all, I love the look of the neutral grey/white floor. I made it into a chevron design (obsessed) and it is pretty easy to clean. The dogs got mud all over it one night and I just washed the pieces in the sink and dried them in a towel. We vacuum them, without the brush roller on, and they clean pretty well.
EDIT: 3/21: I love this foam floor despite the color differences. It really doesn’t bother me much now and they have protected our hardwood floors with all of the dump truck diving and dog chasing that happens in the playroom.
I went on Pinterest to get some playroom organization inspiration and saw that people were using Ikea bookshelves. I loved one picture in particular that I saw that had 2, 8 cube shelves with 1, 4 cube shelf. The 4 cube shelf lays on its side and turns into a bench! It’s probably easier to just look at the picture because I don’t know if my description makes sense, ha!
As I mentioned before, I was on a mission to find these particular thick rope baskets. I originally bought one for the baby when I was pregnant and it was the most well-designed, sturdy basket I had ever purchased. Of course, when I went back to get more, there were none left. I Googled, DIYed, Pinterested everything I could, and could find nothing that even closely resembled the basket I wanted. I ended up getting rope baskets from Michael’s, but they were more expensive than the one from HomeGoods I originally purchased and the quality was sub par. Thankfully, one random day this fall, I found the baskets! The style was slightly different, but just as beautiful, and I bought as many as I could to fill his playroom shelves. OBSESSED.
I wanted the wall art in the playroom to be things that were on the neutral/simple side. I did some more Pinteresting and saw some different “Let’s Play” signs. They were SO simple, black and white, and I think I’m pretty techy when it comes to things like that, so I made my own “Let’s Play” sign in PowerPoint, saved it as a PDF, and had it printed as a poster at Staples. I bought a simple gray frame from Michael’s and was done! I have a closer look at the sign saved to my Instagram highlights under “Playroom.”
My most recent project was finding wall art for above the bench. I had my eye on these little critters on Etsy, but they didn’t end up working out. I’m SO HAPPY that they didn’t though because I found these adorable printable dogs on Etsy. (Dog number 1, dog number 2, dog number 3) If you know anything about me (and Greyson) you know how obsessed with dogs we are, so I knew these were the ones! I showed them to him on my laptop and he was excited.
I ordered them, had them printed at Staples on cardstock, and cut to 8×10. I purchased 3, 8×10 frames from Michael’s, but when I picked them up they were too small, so I went to HomeGoods and picked up frames that were 11×14, but could be matted to accommodate an 8×10 picture. Much better! Jeff just hung them this morning and I love how they turned out!
I’m very impressed with own ability to make this sign all by myself, sans the miter saw. Jeff cut it to the size I wanted and then I sanded, stained, and painted it using a template on stencil vinyl I created using a Cricut. We put epoxy on the sign to attach the mini clothespins to and it was all done! It took about three days for the stain to dry (it was summer) and for me to paint the sign using a few coats of white paint. We hang the artwork Greyson creates in his little toddler class on the sign.
Our most recent project was a no sew bench cushion to put in between the two larger bookshelves. We purchased grey jersey cotton fabric from JoAnn Fabric (SO SOFT!), bleached muslin, and a 3″ foam cushion. (I linked a similar jersey cotton fabric from Amazon.) Jeff picked up plywood from Home Depot and they cut it to the size of the bench. Jeff sanded down the plywood and created a little lip on the back edge, so that the cushion won’t fall off when Greyson tries to climb up. I explained more in my Instagram stories that I have saved to my highlights under “playroom.” Once that was done, we wrapped the wood in muslin to create a first layer and smooth things out. We taped and stapled it to the plywood. Then, we wrapped the jersey fabric as tight as it would go and put probably a million staples into it. That fabric isn’t going anywhere!
I am SUPER happy with how his playroom turned out. I didn’t fill up all of the shelves because I don’t want his playroom to be completely overwhelmed with toys right now and we plan on having more kids in the future, so I needed to leave space for them. 😉
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