Toddler Playroom I Before and After

Slowly but surely, we are tackling each room in this house. From the day we moved in (back in January of 2020) Eastyn’s playroom has been the one space constantly changing. I know kids don’t need much, but when we moved in when she was just a year old I laughed because we had this giant space with a play mat, a pile of books, and a bin full of toys she’d outgrown. I still don’t believe she needs a lot of toys and we try not to buy too many – but even with that as a goal you can see how much things have multiplied!

In this post, I’m going to share a few before and after photos and provide the details of this space and what we did to make it feel a bit more cozy and fun. We did not do these things in this order, but it helps set the groundwork.

BEFORE/AFTER:

New Paint and Carpet:

Gold galore! As a house that was build in the 90’s where apparently gold was “in”, we have successfully rid it of every gold wall and piece of carpet… including this entire basement. The carpet, aside from the color was in need of replacing. Especially to house little kids that like to roll around on it :)

Wall Colors: 

Comfort Gray: Sherwin Williams 6025

Accessible Beige: SW 7036

For both colors, the finish is flat which I highly recommend, that is always our go-to finish. The only downside is that flat paint doesn’t “wipe” off like a more shiny finish does.

Carpet:

In each of our homes, we’ve use an independent/contract carpet installer and pick out the carpet at a contractor  warehouse. These are not usually super accommodating to the average consumer and you need to have an installer that they work with lined up. The benefit here is you typically save a lot of money – but your experience might be a bit more clunky than going through a big box store.

If you are located in MN, I have used Cheney Carpet and Vroomans.

This is the color and style we went with for the entire basement. I is a solid medium gray (not salt and pepper) and has a slight sheen to it.

Saying Goodbye to the fireplace: 

This pictures give you some sort of an idea of what it was like “before”, but there was a room divider fireplace. We had a bid to get it fixed and it was north of 1k – it was already a bit of an outdated eye sore and I am so glad we decided to remove it! This space is so much bigger and having it open into the living rooms helps the areas feel cohesive.

Before: 

Design / Functional Details:

Before we dive into toys and furniture – let’s talk about the few features of this space that make it cozy yet still functional. Such as the “PLAY” wall feature, the hanging mobile, source of music & hanging play tent.

PLAY wall feature: 
You can purchase the wall decal here from Urban Walls.
I decided to use this as inso and actually drew it out and painted it myself. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out!

Hanging Mobile:
This hanging mobile used to be in EJ’s nursery, but we felt it got more attention out here. You can get your own custom colored one on Etsy here, which is where I got it!

Hanging Tent: 

Music Source (Amazon Alexa – kids edition): 
We love our panda kids edition Amazon Alexa.

used alongside the Alexa Glow —

Area Rug:

Furniture/Large Featured toys: 

These couches are still greg and I’s favorite – they were purchased at HOM furniture 4-5 years ago. They are so cozy and deep-seated!

The other furniture is IKEA and you just can’t go wrong with cubby storage and a play kitchen

.

This play gym also has been a good purchase, Eastyn wasn’t into it at first but it serves as a fort, or hiding area often now that she is a little older. She occasionally decides she likes to slide, too :)

We used this picnic table outside this summer, but it has gotta so much use inside here that we might be getting another one to have one inside and outside. It makes for a great coloring/play station or fort, too.

Lastly, and most notably is this trampoline which we absolutely love and I’d buy 10x over!

Here are some other things pictured:

 

I’m sure I missed some things and am happy to share more! Drop me a comment below :)

xoxo

Emily